Preview: Gophers vs. St. Francis

First things first: make sure you note the early start time for this game (the Gopher Men’s Hockey team plays at Mariucci at 8 pm). Fresh off of final exams, and with Christmas looming on the horizon, Minnesota will try to focus on the task at hand against another mid-major opponent. As many of you know, St. Francis (this is the one in Pennsylvania, not New York, although they’re conference rivals) is where Brent Lawson played his freshman season before transferring home to Minnesota. Brent averaged a solid 5 points and 23 minutes per game there.

Three years have passed though, and now the only familiar Red Flash face for Brent is head coach Bobby Jones. If that name sounds familiar (and no, I’m not talking about golf), it’s because Jones was a Gopher assistant under Clem Haskins for two years. St. Francis has been a solid program under Jones, having finished fourth in the Northeast Conference the past two seasons. They’re predicted to do about the same this year, and there’s a chance they could finish even higher.

Having arguably the conference’s best player (and definitely its best scorer) certainly doesn’t hurt. 6’5″ junior guard Darshan Luckey averaged 18 points per game last season and is up to 20.4 ppg so far this year. He’s not necessarily a guy who makes his teammates better (he’s averaging just 1.3 assists per game), but he certainly can score (both inside and out), and he’s also second on the team in rebounds at just under 5 per game.

The Red Flash are also helped by having two big bodies on the front line. 6’8″, 260-lb senior Jason Osbourne leads the way. He averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds last year and is duplicating those numbers this year. Osbourne is shooting 62% from the field, and he gets half of his rebounds on the offensive glass. The other physical presence is 6’9″, 250-lb sophomore J.R. Enright. The transfer from Nebraska is averaging just 5 points and 3 rebounds so far, but he has the potential to do more.

The rest of St. Francis’ lineup is small but balanced. 5’11” junior Rahsaan Benton is just getting back up to speed after a foot injury that caused him to miss three games, but he’s a double-digit scorer when healthy. 5’10” point guard Garett Farha has made an immediate mark as a junior college transfer and is averaging 9 points and 7 assists (and shooting 42% from 3-point range) while playing 34 minutes per game. 6’3″ senior Joey Goodson averages 7 points and 3 assists per game and is 4th on the team in minutes. And 6’5″ senior Rodney Gibson chips in a solid 6 points per game off the bench.

St. Francis is off to a 5-3 start this season and is 1-0 in conference play. Their most impressive victory came two weeks ago, when they defeated Ohio 83-74. George Washington beat them 79-65 though (they were without Benton), and Pittsburgh dominated them 65-41 (the game Benton got hurt in after playing just 8 minutes). The Red Flash’s one road victory was 70-65 at Bucknell on November 22.

Here are my Gopher Keys of the Game:

1. Stick with It. Gopher center Jeff Hagen has scored 20-plus points the past two games. He’ll have a noticeable height advantage against St. Francis, so I don’t see any reason to not run the halfcourt offense through him again. Chances are good that Jeff will either be able to score a lot of points, get Osbourne and Enright in foul trouble, or make double teams pay with his passing skills. Maybe he’ll even do all three.

2. Feelin’ Luckey?. If the game’s key match-up goes Minnesota’s way, Darshan Luckey won’t be feeling lucky; he’ll be feeling Grier. Vincent Grier figures to draw the assignment of defending the talented scorer (Brent Lawson will also get some chances), and he needs to do his best to frustrate him. Judging by the stats, Luckey isn’t a guy who’s going to beat you with his passing. So if VG can stick with him, he’s probably going to force up some bad shots. Hopefully they won’t fall early on, which could increase the frustration of being Griered.

3. Be Ready. After last week’s game against Chicago State, several Gophers commented that they didn’t come out 100% ready to play. Fortunately, they snapped out of it and got a comfortable win. If there’s ever a game when you would worry about them not being able to snap out of it, it would be one like this. They’re right in between finals and Christmas, and they’re facing an explosive scorer (Luckey has a high of 35 this season). Minnesota needs to come out focussed and aggressive.

While St. Francis appears to be a decent team by cupcake standards, this is yet another game the Gophers should win and win comfortably. Which team’s shots are falling will be the difference between a blowout and a nail-biter, but I don’t see this Gopher team not coming out on top. Hopefully they’ll even show some improvement from recent games, despite finals and Christmas, because Big 10 season is fast approaching. My prediction: Minnesota 75 St. Francis 59.

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