Gopher Basketball opens the season - OPEN THREAD

Where

Williams Arena

When

7:00 PM

How

BTN+

Who

Cleveland St

The season gets going tonight and the Gophers face the Cleveland State Vikings. Sadly this game is only available on BTN+ and most of us will not be able to watch it.

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

Make Threes - The Gophers are expected to be a very different kind of offense and one that takes a lot of threes. If they are going to take a lot, I certainly hope they make a fair percentage of them. Especially in game one, against a weaker opponent. Make threes, build confidence.

Rebound - To be honest, this isn’t really a key to winning tonight’s game, but this is a major concern of mine for this team. I’d like to see someone (other than Daniel Oturu) show some ability to rebound the ball.

Just Execute - Cleveland State is not very good this year. Ken Pom has them ranked at 312th, they had a couple guys transfer out and they are working with a brand new head coach. This game should not be in doubt, even with the Gophers inexperienced roster. Just execute and get better, the schedule gets tougher rather quickly.

PREDICTION

This game really shouldn’t be in doubt. Daniel Oturu is going to absolutely dominate this game and the Gophers will make about 13 threes.

Minnesota - 71
Cleveland State - 54