Minnesota Basketball: 3 keys to the Gophers winning at Northwestern

Evanston

6:30 PM

BTN

Northwestern

Two weeks ago, Northwestern visited the Barn and left with a 17-point loss to the Gophers. Luke Loewe blew up for 24 and Jamison Battle chipped in 21 for the Minnesota win while Payton Willis as unavailable to play.

Northwestern

Mascot: Wildcats
Record: 13-15
KenPom Rank: 77

Can the Gophers get their first road win since December?

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

Limit their other options - Pete Nance and Boo Bouie are the leading scorers for the Wildcats. And in the first matchup, they both scored above their season averages. What worked great was that nobody else really was able to score for Northwestern.

Move the ball offensively - The games preceding this past matchup saw a stagnant Gopher offense that really struggled. Then in the NW game, the offense was moving the ball, getting open shots and making them.

REBOUND - I know, I know, this REALLY isn’t our strength. But this is a game we can keep up on the boards, at least defensively. I just can’t see us giving Northwestern extra possessions and coming away with a win.

PREDICTION

This is a perfect example of wanting to be “right” with my prediction vs. wanting to tell you a legitimate reason why the Gophers are going to win. In my head we are better than Northwestern, but based on the numbers and current standings...we are not.

I feel like we’ve been playing better lately on offense and I know that we kind of destroyed them last month. This game will be different, I am going to call a Northwestern win on Sunday before they play each other again next week in the BTT and the Gophers get that one.

Minnesota - 68
Northwestern - 70