The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team will look for a big early season victory over Missouri on Thursday night at Williams Arena.
This will be a strong early season test for the Golden Gophers, who are among the least experienced teams in the country while Missouri, on the other hand, is extremely experienced and coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Last season, the Tigers were 25-10 including 11-7 in SEC play, making the NCAA Tournament as a No. 7 seed in the South region, defeating Utah State in the first round before falling to Cinderella team, Princeton in the Round of 32. The Tigers were 5-5 away from the friendly confines of Mizzou arena which included losses to Arkansas, Texas A&M, Florida, Mississippi State, and Auburn.
Missouri enters the game with a 2-1 record with wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (101-79) and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (68-50). In between those two games, they fell to Memphis last Friday 70-55. They're led by second-year head coach Dennis Gates who before his time with Missouri was the head coach at Cleveland State where he led the Vikings to their second NCAA tournament appearance all-time in 2020-2021.
Thursday night's matchup will be the first between the two programs in over 60 years, their last meeting coming in the 1960-1961 seasons. The Gophers won that matchup 60-56 while also defeating the Tigers 80-62 in 1959-1960.
WHERE, WHEN, HOW TO WATCH, SPREAD
Missouri Tigers (2-1) at Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-0)
WHEN: Thursday at 8:00 p.m. CT
WHERE: Williams Arena (15,261) -- Minneapolis, Minnesota
TV/STREAM: Big Ten Network
Radio: KTLK (1130 AM/103.5 FM)
SPREAD: Missouri -1.5 / O/U 149.5
What are the four factors? Read Ken Pomeroy's breakdown of the Four Factors here.
MISSOURI PLAYERS TO WATCH
PROJECTED STARTERS
Dawson Garcia has been fantastic this season for the Golden Gophers scoring 23 and 22 points in the Gophers' first two games of the season while shooting 45.8% from the floor.
Isaiah Ihnen has taken a strong step forward thus far as well including a 20-point effort against UTSA last week. He's 6-for-7 on his three-point attempts this season which will be a key for the Gophers on Thursday if they hope to pull out the victory.
As mentioned above, Missouri is a very experienced team coming into this season with all five of their starters graduate players. All in all, the Tigers have eight seniors on the roster as well as three juniors. They do have a quality group of young budding players as well including sophomore forward Aidan Shaw who is averaging 5.3 points and 5.7 rebounds this season.
KEYS TO VICTORY
1. Continue to shoot well from deep
We saw the Golden Gophers start off similarly last season when it came to their three-point shooting before it tailed off as the season progressed. So far through two games this season, the Gophers have made 41.3% of their shots from deep, best for 28th in the country. That success will need to continue going forward for the Gophers. So far this season, Missouri has guarded the three-ball well with opponents shooting just 29.7% from beyond the arc. Missouri is one of the slowest-tempo teams in the country so possession will be limited in this one, making every attempt from inside and outside the arc all the more important.
2. Find a way to slow down Sean East
Senior guard Sean East has been incredible for Missouri this season, averaging 18.3 points per game this season while shooting 74.1% (20-of-27) from the floor and 60.0% (6-of-10) from three-point range. Last time out for Missouri, East was 8-for-11 from the field as he put up his second 20-point effort on Monday.
3. Dominate the boards
So far this season, Missouri has not been the best rebounding team, they averaging just 8.3 offensive rebounds per game while only bringing down 28.3 rebounds per game defensively. Opponents have nearly matched the Tigers rebound-for-rebound with 36.3 total rebounds per game to the Tigers' 36.7. With limited possessions expected, bringing down second-chance opportunities on the offensive side of the court while limiting those second-chance opportunities for the Tigers becomes all the more important.
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