This will serve as a preview and the OPEN THREAD.
Let's welcome the Stephen F. Austin Armadillos Lumberjacks into town tonight as the Gophers look to improve to 2-0 on the season. Once again this game has very little to do with SFA and everything to do with the Gophers continuing to work out kinks and get themselves ready for Butler and the rest of the 76 Classic field.
If we look back at Friday night's Tenn Tech game the Gophers pretty much took care of business. Hard to complain about an 87 point performance and a 37 point win. Tempo was controlled, rebounding was handled properly but the three-point shooting was pretty bad. That better be an aberration or my high hopes for the season may be doomed to poor shooting and low scoring against better competition.
SFA is coming off a very good 2008-09 season where they were the Southland Conference regular season and tournament champs with a 24-8 record. But their top scorers graduated and while this may be one of the best programs in the Southland Conference, it shouldn't be great test for the Gophers.
Starting lineup should be the same and I'm looking forward to watching the young kids play a lot. Williams, by default, is the new guy we will be most relying upon to help give us the boost we were missing last year. Seeing him notch a very good game against mediocre competition is good to see and hopefully is getting him prepared for Big Ten play.
Gophers should cruise, but don't expect a 37 point win this time around.
PS - having SFA on the schedule is very dangerous. The last time we played the Lumberjacks was the 1996-97 season. The 101-55 win was of course vacated. Let's hope SFA isn't the curse they were. OR maybe they are the catalyst to a Final Four season!