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Where
williams Arena
When
2:00 PM
How
BTN
| Pos. | Minnesota Golden Gophers | Pnt/Gm | Pnt/Gm | Purdue Boilermakers | Pos. | |
| PG | Deandre Mathieu | 8.3 | 9.0 | Jon Octeus | PG | |
| G | Andre Hollins | 14.5 | 3.9 | Dakota Mathias | G | |
| G | Carlos Morris | 12.1 | 11.2 | Rapheal Davis | F | |
| F | Joey King | 8.9 | 9.3 | Vince Edwards | F | |
| F | Maurice Walker | 12.2 | 10.8 | AJ Hammons | C | |
| Bench | Nate Mason | 9.6 | 8.9 | Isaac Haas | Bench | |
| Bench | Elliott Eliason | 3.8 | 9.6 | Kendall Stephens | Bench | |
| Bench | Charles Buggs | 3.4 | 2.5 | Basil Smotherman | Bench |
The Boilermakers are surging and putting themselves back in the NCAA Tournament conversation with a 4-game win streak including wins over Iowa, Indiana and Ohio State. Our Golden Gophers have won two out of three but not the same caliber of wins and today's game is rather important with a couple tough road games coming up next week.
Efficiency Stats (national rank in parenthesis if significant)
| Minnesota | Purdue | |
| Off PPP | 1.076 | 1.081 |
| Def PPP | 0.954 | 0.973 |
| Off TO% | 19.1% | 19.1% |
| Def TO% | 25.6% (4) | 19.0% |
| Off Reb % | 31.4% | 36.7% (25) |
| Def Reb % | 66.5% | 68.5% |
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Keys to a Gopher Win
Play for 40 Minutes - You may recall that the Gophers controlled the game at Purdue to start the Big Ten season for the first 30 minutes. Then Purdue appeared to want it more as the Gophers squandered possessions, missed free throws and gave the game away. Today they need to play for a full 40 and play with some passion.
Make Free Throws - Another chronic problem for this year's Gopher squad and it really bit them in the Purdue loss back on New Year's Eve. Purdue hit 22/27 from the charity stripe while Minnesota missed key free-throws down the stretch. We currently rank 13th in the conference in FT%, needs to be better today.
Good Offensive Possessions - Purdue has been playing better defense lately and the Gophers need to make good decisions on the offensive end to not make things easier on the Boilermakers. No stupid turnovers (Deandre) and no terrible shots early in the shot-clock (Carlos).