OPEN THREAD - Minnesota Gophers and DePaul Blue Demons on Black Friday

Where

Williams Arena

When

7:00 PM

How

BTN+

Who

Cleveland St

Black Friday games apparently mean the Gophers wear all black jerseys.

Believe it or not, DePaul is rather good. This team beat Iowa by 15 at Carver Hawkeye. Can the Gophers take care of the Blue Demons at home and move above .500? This one is not going to be easy, like most of our non-conference schedule.

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

Force Turnovers - DePaul has struggled with turnovers, currently they rank north of 250th nationally in turnover percentage. We are not particularly good at forcing turnovers, but we have forced turnovers at a higher rate on a couple of occasions. This game would be a good one to take advantage of an opponent’s weakness.

Control Tempo - This is a game of contrasting styles. Minnesota is top 10 in the country in terms of % of total points that come from three. DePaul ranks highly in % of points that come from inside the three point line.

Rebound - To my surprise, the Gophers have been pretty good at defensive rebounding this year. Now we hit DePaul who actually hits the offensive glass rather well. Defensive rebounding and not allowing second chance points is going to be huge.

PREDICTION

Another tough opponent, but this one is at least at home. I’m feeling good in the Gophers getting a close win.

Minnesota - 71
DePaul - 68