Minnesota Basketball: Three Keys to beating Purdue Fort Wayne

The Barn

6:00 PM

B1G+

Purdue Ft Wayne

The Mastadons of Purdue-Fort Wayne are coming to the Barn! We are hosting IPFW, not to be confused with IUPUI.

Purdue Fort Wayne

Mascot: Mastadons
Conference: Horizon
Record: 2-0
KenPom Rank: #246

What will it take for Ben Johnson’s Gophers to get their 4th win of the season?

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

Offensive Rebounding - This is NOT a strength of this year’s squad. But on the flip side, IPFW is very bad at defensive rebounding. I see an opening here.

Keep the Balance - Balanced scoring has been important for this team this year. Two guys who are scoring 20 points per game and a third who is in double-figures really helps keep the offense efficient. It isn’t statistically an efficient offense, but keeping the balance is helpful.

Work the Bench - This is not as much about this particular game but the Gophers have been riding a 7-man rotation so far this year and that is a very thin bench. Whether that is because other guys just aren’t talented enough to compete at this level yet or they are struggling to do what is asked within the systems in place, I don’t know. But this game, and a few more before January, are opportunities to get these guys some minutes to hopefully better prepare them for the teeth of the schedule.

PREDICTION

This team is really interesting to watch and I remain convinced that they are going to get beat soundly when they face a good team. But they are undefeated, facing a pretty weak team and should win this game at home.

Minnesota - 73
Purdue Fort Wayne - 61