Minnesota Basketball: Three Keys to beating Rutgers in New Jersey

Where

Piscataway

When

8:00 PM

How

FS1

Who

Rutgers

After the loss at Purdue on Saturday, the Gophers have dropped to 0-5 on the road this season.

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

Paging Marcus Carr, can someone please find Mr. Carr? - Marcus Carr has not been the Carr we saw earlier in the season, and he’s even less himself on the road. Will the real Marcus Carr, please stand up?

Find offense after Rutgers adjusts - Too many times his year the offense starts out producing points, the opponent adjusts and then our offense is unwatchable. We need to counter-punch. When things go poorly, still continue to execute the plan and don’t panic. Rutgers has the 11th ranked defense in terms of efficiency, this might be an ugly game.

Turn this game into a free throw contest - It would most certainly not be pleasing to the eye, but this is a pretty distinct advantage for Minnesota. Rutgers shoots under 60% from the line as a team! That’s 345th in the country. That’s really bad. The Gophers rank 50th in actual percentage and 7th in terms of how often we get to the line. A game with a lot of free throws would heavily favor the Gophers.

PREDICTION

I have just seen this team play poorly on the road too much to every pick them until they show me otherwise. If Carr is playing well, if we make some shots...we absolutely can beat Rutgers. But their elite defense seems like it will be kryptonite for the road Gophers.

Minnesota - 67
Rutgers - 79