Minnesota Basketball: Up Next for Gophers is Western Carolina - OPEN THREAD

Where

Western Carolina

When

3:30

How

FS1

Who would have guess that there are two Catamounts in NCAA basketball? But we get the Western Carolina version, not Vermont. But this Catamount squad is 1-2 on the year having faced a really tough early schedule with Clemson, Cincinnati and now Minnesota to go along with their win against D2 Hiwassee.

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

• Force Turnovers - The Catamounts are one of the worst teams in the country in terms of turnover percentage. Forcing some turnovers leads to easy baskets and keeps things heading the right way for the Gophers.
• Run Your Stuff - Both ends of the floor you just need to run your offense and execute your defense. I think it can be easy to get in your head that this is a bad team so we can have some fun and dominate. But you dominate by executing your offense and defense. I don’t care about dominating, I care about getting better every game.
• Stay Healthy - Western Carolina is one of the three worse teams we’ll face this year. This is NOT a resume building win. Just stay healthy and

PREDICTION

As mentioned, the Catamounts are one of the worst teams we will see all year. The outcome of this game really shouldn’t be in question. Execute, get better, stay healthy and get the win.

Minnesota - 101
Western Carolina - 78