Gopher Basketball
| Game Info | |
| Opponent: | Long Island Blackbirds |
| When: | 7 pm, November 17th, 2006 |
| Where: | Williams Arena ““ Minneapolis, MN |
| Television: | none |
The Gophers get their last chance for a tune-up Friday night before Iowa State visits The Barn next Tuesday. The Long Island Blackbirds don’t figure to be a pushover, but they are still a team Minnesota should be able to control on its homecourt. It’s time to get a winning streak going.
Here are my Gopher Keys of the Game:
1. Keep It Comin’. The Gophers did a very good job of playing defense and playing hard Monday night, and they need to maintain that against the Blackbirds. A few more games and that attitude will hopefully be engrained in them for the season.
2. Gimme an “˜O’. The “˜D’ was nice to see last game, but the offense was often not pretty. That’s not unexpected with so many newcomers seeing significant playing time, but it’s going to have to change with a tough stretch of games starting next week. I’d like to see Minnesota establish an inside game early (hopefully a couple of guys in addition to Spencer Tollackson), and then hopefully an inside-out game and some transition success will follow.
3. Mix It Up. This might be the last chance for a while (with the possible exception of Marist on turkey day) for the Gophers to be able to play their full roster without risk of losing the game. But of course for that to happen, there can’t be the risk of losing the game. So the starters need to come up sharp and put the outcome beyond doubt, so the coaches can then experiment with more combinations and players.
It’s a little known fact, but I base all of my predictions on how the opposing mascots would fare in a cage match to the death. As a young child, I once saw a rabid gopher leap into the air and bite a blackbird in mid-flight. That’s good enough for me. My prediction: Minnesota 79 Long Island 66.
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