The Barn
7:30 PM
BTN
Penn St
The Gophers are in the midst of a rough stretch of the season having lost 5 in a row and 9 or their last 10. Can they get back into the win column tonight hosting Penn State?
Penn State
Mascot: Nittany Lions
Record: 9-11
KenPom Rank: 84
This might be the most winable game remaining on the Gopher schedule. Can they get it done after getting embarrassed at Nebraska earlier this week?
KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN
Play with some energy! - The Gophers were flat and never really snapped out of it until arguably when Jamison Battle started lighting it up. This squad has to show up with some purpose tonight or Penn State will beat them by double-digits.
Balance the scoring - This team is really hard to beat when both Battle and Payton Willis are contributing to the total score. Willis was AWOL in Lincoln, Battle was for the first 20 minutes. Then guys like Eric Curry, Luke Loewe and EJ Stephens can be ideal complimentary players. But we need more balance. Which really may come down to better offensive execution.
Play some defense - This team really isn’t doing a very good job of making things difficult on the opposing offenses. This strongly relates to the first point, playing with some passion.
PREDICTION
So a week ago Nebraska was ripped by Northwestern, they followed up that embarrassing loss by embarrassing Minnesota at home on Wednesday. This feels like a similar situation for Minnesota.
After playing flat in Lincoln, will they come out with some energy tonight and beat Penn State? I think so. I really don’t plan on predicting a Gopher win much more this year, but tonight is going to be a Gopher win.
Minnesota - 73
Penn State - 68