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Where
Evanston, Il
When
8:00 PM
How
BTN
| Pos. | Minnesota Golden Gophers | Pnt/Gm | Pnt/Gm | Northwestern Wildcats | Pos. | |
| PG | Nate Mason | 13.7 | 14.6 | Bryant McIntosh | PG | |
| G | Kevin Dorsey | 6.5 | 14.4 | Tre Demps | G | |
| F | Dupree McBrayer | 5.0 | 4.4 | Sanjay Lumpkin | F | |
| F | Jordan Murphy | 10.6 | 8.9 | Aaron Falzon | F | |
| C | Bakary Konate | 4.9 | 10.8 | Alex Olah | C | |
| Bench | Joey King | 11.7 | 6.5 | Scottie Lindsey | Bench | |
| Bench | Charles Buggs | 6.4 | 9.5 | Dererk Pardon | Bench | |
| Bench | Carlos Morris | 10.4 | 3.0 | Gavin Skelly | Bench |
Will this be the Gopher's starting lineup? It should be.
Keys to a Gopher Win (yes, I realize the futile-ness of this exercise)
Defend the Three - I said this last time and they chose not to listen to me. We let them hit 11 threes, shoot and eFG% of 67%, our worst defensive performance on the year. And we lost by 25 points in the process. The good news for us that the Northwestern has been crappy from deep lately as they have lost 5 of their last 6 games (albeit to good teams, sans Penn State). We are playing better, with more confidence...will that show up with a good defensive effort tonight?
Jordan Murphy, Stay Out of Foul Trouble - Really, just once can you play more than like 4 minutes in the first half? You kind of make a big difference when you are in there. Northwestern is more active on the perimeter and not as much of an attacking team so maybe Murphy can stay out of harms way long enough to play 10-12 first half minutes. Maybe. ?
Prediction
Gophers get their first Big Ten win of the season. Why? Two reasons really...
1 - I'm making this prediction for every game because eventually I'll be right and then I'll brag.
2 - I love that Northwestern has never made the NCAA Tournament. Someone else's futility makes me feel better about my team's mediocrity. Northwestern's NCAA Tournament life is hanging on by a thread. Really their chances are very slim...a home loss to the Gophers would be the nail in the coffin. I say,