Gopher Basketball
| Game Info | |
| Opponent: | Oral Roberts Golden Eagles |
| When: | 1 pm, December 31st, 2005 |
| Where: | Williams Arena ““ Minneapolis, MN |
| Television: | None |
It’s been 8 days since we’ve seen our Gophers in action, and it will be another 7 before we see them again. That game is the Big Ten opener, which means this is the final warm-up. And outside of the road game at Maryland, the Golden Eagles may be Minnesota’s toughest test so far.
Oral Roberts is just 5-6 on the season, but they have several talented players and a lot of size. They also have a couple of impressive close losses to Marquette and Oklahoma (just a few days ago). Their starting point guard, senior Jonathan Bluitt was missing for a couple of losses, but he’s now back. With him alongside star juniors Caleb Green (19 ppg, 9 rpg) and Ken Tutt (16 ppg) and seniors Larry Owens (11 ppg, 8 rpg) and Mickey Michalec (6’11″, 280 lbs), Oral Roberts has a Big Ten-caliber starting lineup that should give Minnesota a good test.
Here are my Gopher Keys of the Game:
1. Back to the Boards. Minnesota had been rebounding pretty well much of the season, but they dropped off a bit in recent games. The Golden Eagles are an excellent rebounding team with very good size, so they’ll give the Gophers problems on the glass ““ especially with J’son Stamper expected to miss one more game with a sprained knee. I’d like to see every Gopher crash the boards hard in this game.
2. Defensive Pressure. With Moe Hargrow and Vincent Grier finally both healthy and Rico Tucker getting up to speed, we finally have a chance to see Minnesota’s promising backcourt defense in action. Oral Roberts has a very experience backcourt that won’t be easy to rattle, but I’d like to see the Gophers be able to really make life difficult on them and limit their perimeter scoring.
3. Transition. Another thing we haven’t been able to see much of yet due to injuries/absences is Minnesota’s transition game. Grier and Hargrow can run with anybody in the country, Tucker has a lot of potential, and Boone and others are solid in transition as well. I’d like to se the Gophers push the ball whenever they have a chance in this game. And they also need to make sure they get back defensively and limit the Eagles’ opportunities to run.
Stamper is going to be missed in this one, but Minnesota should still have a slight talent edge plus the homecourt advantage. My prediction: Minnesota 77 Oral Roberts 67.
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