The Gophers travel to Penn State hoping to ride the wave of confidence after a huge win at Indiana.
Game Time: 3:00
TV: BTN
| Pos | Minnesota (13-5) | Pnt/Gm | | Pnt/Gm | Penn State (9-9) | Pos |
| PG | Julian Welch | 10.2 | 18.1 | Tim Frazier | G | |
| G | Joe Coleman | 4.5 | 9.9 | Jermaine Marshall | G | |
| F | Austin Hollins | 8.6 | 3.4 | Matt Glover | F | |
| F | Rodney Williams | 10.4 | 7.7 | Billy Oliver | F | |
| C | Ralph Sampson III | 8.5 | 3.6 | Jonathan Graham | F | |
| Bench | Maverick Ahanmisi | 4.8 | 4.6 | Ross Travis | Bench | |
| Bench | Andre Hollins | 5.6 | 5.4 | Sasa Borovnjak | Bench | |
| Bench | Eliott Eliason | 2.4 | 7.5 | Cammeron Woodyard | Bench |
Tim Frazier scares me and after watching Michigan's Trey Burke destroy us off the dribble, I fear that Frazier may beat us single-highhandedly. The other noteworthy guy on the roster for Minnesota fans is Ross Travis. A freshman from Chaska who is averaging 17 min off the bench and about 4.5 points and rebounds per game. Taking on local kids who didn't get a scholarship offer from Tubby is always dangerous. I don't expect he will go off for 16 points and a dozen rebounds or anything crazy but he may make a handful of backbreaking plays that inspire the Nittany Lions.
| KenPom Efficiency Stats | Minnesota (53) | Penn State (133) |
| Record | 13-5 | 9-9 |
| Pnt / Poss | 1.093 (45) | 1.000 |
| Def Pnt / Poss | 0.955 | 0.960 |
| Off eFG% | 51.8% | 45.4% (280) |
| Def eFG% | 48.3% | 50.7% |
| Off Reb % | 37.5% (32) | 36.7% (46) |
| Def Reb % | 66.9% | 74.7% (11) |
| TO % | 21.4% | 20.3% |
So Penn State is a great rebounding team. They crash the offensive glass and they box out defensively. The rest of their numbers are not very pretty. By more traditional statistics they rank at or near the bottom of the Big Ten in scoring offense, FG%, 3-pnt FG%, defensive 3-pnt FG%, blocked shots and assists. Their efficiency stats echo the same story. But they do rebound quite well. So today I'm going to give you 2 keys to the game?
1 - BOX OUT - We are pretty good at crashing the offensive glass but we also give up our share of offensive boards. Box out and do not give them very many second chance points.
2 - Contain Frazier - He is the one guy who can take over the game and beat us. I am fearing a lot of pick-n-rolls, we better be ready for it.
Those are two things that we can do. Assuming we can handle those simple tasks I think our offense will be fine against a farily weak defensive team. Is a winning streak too much to ask? We are looking for not just back-to-back wins but back-to-back ROAD wins. Get this done and then we can really start gaining some confidence this year again.