Gophers top Creighton in “secret” scrimmage

Minnesota pounded the Creighton Blue Jays to the tune of 91-79 in this year’s secret scrimmage, which pitted the two teams in a Sunday afternoon matchup at Williams Arena. “Secret” in the sense that no fans or media are allowed to attend, the scrimmages are a nice, if not semi-accurate, barometer of where a team is at extremely early in the year.

The Gophers got big-time performances from Jordan Murphy, Reggie Lynch and Nate Mason, while Isaiah Washington made his debut. A few notes from the game:

• Murphy led all scorers with 24 points. He also grabbed 8 rebounds in 28 minutes. He was the game’s top performer and the story of the game. I get goosebumps thinking about him doing this all year.
• Lynch filled the stat sheet with 18 points, 9 boards and 4 blocks.
• Mason scored 19, while Washington racked up 11 points and dished out 4 assists.
• Amir Coffey was quiet from a scoring perspective, but led the team with 8 assists.
• Bakary Konate fouled out in only 11 minutes of play and scored two points.
• Davonte Fitzgerald got on the court after two years away. While he didn’t score, he did pull down 6 rebounds.
• The defense was spectacular, scoring 19 points off 13 turnovers.

If you’re unfamiliar with Creighton, they’re no slouches. They’re picked to finish in the middle of the Big East, and garnered six votes in the first Coaches Poll of the year. SO, a 12-point win should raise some eyebrows.

The Gophers have played secret scrimmages before. Most recently they beat DePaul last year by 19 points, but also fell to a good Iowa State in 2014. So, while they’re certainly an exhibition in the strictest sense, it’s hard not to get a little excited when you see the team dominate where you’d expect them to and have them walk off the court with a convincing win.

Here’s the box score for reference.