Minnesota Basketball loses to Texas Tech 81-68

Minnesota lost to Texas Tech in the 5th place game of the Puerto Rico Tip Off. With the loss, Minnesota falls to 3-2 on the season. Texas Tech used a strong second half run to take control of a game that the Gophers never seemed to want to play. Tubby Smith is now 1-0 against his old team.

Minnesota could not stop fouling throughout the game. For a bad team, games like this are an opportunity to practice sets and themes, but woof maybe zone at some point. Texas Tech was 6-14 from deep, but most of those shots were the result of the Gophers getting lost on screens. Foul trouble hurt Minnesota, but there were plenty of unforced defensive mistakes.

On offense, Minnesota could not get out of its own way. The Gophers finished 4-20 from deep, with most of those threes being early in the shot clock. A fair number of them were open, but Minnesota would have had other, potentially better, opportunities to get a shot later in the possession. After a previous 6-7 showing from behind the arc, Joey King missed four of the five threes today. It's no secret that the Gophers will live and die by the three, and based on the early season the Gophers are going to die most games.

In addition to poor shot-making, the Gophers could not manage to figure out what was a foul and not do it again. Only two players who saw minutes had less than three fouls. The foul trouble not only affected Minnesota's ability to contest on defense, it also hurt the Gophers on offense. Nate Mason was forced to sit for extended periods in the second half after picking up his fourth foul.