In what ended up being a closer game than many anticipated, Minnesota held on to their lead throughout the second half to defeat Jacksonville 55-44. The Gophers moved to 5-0 with the win, and these are three takeaways that I came away with after watching the game.
Defending In The Paint
Even when facing low/mid-major competition this year, Minnesota will rarely be the biggest or most athletic team on the floor. What do they bring though? An energy and toughness on the defensive end that makes things difficult for opposing post players. Minnesota's forwards are tough and competitive, and fight to keep guys from getting low post position on the blocks, leading to a limited amount of low post attempts. Even when guards like Luke Loewe or Payton Willis end up getting switched onto bigger players, we saw a scrappiness to front their man to eliminate the chance of an entry pass, or force a pass over the top where a help-side defender was waiting to pick it off. This type of defense helped hold Jacksonville to just 31.7% from the field.
Making Up For Poor Shooting
Minnesota, to put it simply, was poor from beyond the arc last night. They shot just 21% from beyond the arc, and even that number was boosted with a quick hot streak late in the game. Minnesota is a team that won't necessarily live or die by the three, but they are a team that will shoot it a lot this year. The positives about them shooting poorly last night? For one, they hopefully won't shoot that poorly again over the next few games. The other positive is that they showed they can still win games without shooting well. In know that Jacksonville isn't a Big 10 level team, but the effort and team basketball to make up for the shooting was encouraging to see.
Jamison Battle In The High Post
We don't get to see it a lot, but Jamison Battle seems to be so effective catching in the high post or facing up just outside of the paint. He has so much mismatch potential because no many guys his size have the type of quickness, skill level, and versatile scoring ability to hurt you in a number of ways. We saw it right away in the first half as Jamison hit a fadeaway jumper from about 10 feet, and again early in the second half as Jamison faced up in the high post and created an easy jumper with a couple of dribbles. If Minnesota can continue to find ways to get Jamison the ball in a variety of different spots, he'll be able to excel as a scorer over the length of the season.
Key Players For Minnesota
Payton Willis- 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists
Jamison Battle- 14 points, 7 rebounds
Sean Sutherlin- 10 points
Key Players For Jacksonville
Tommy Bruner- 11 points, 2 assists, 2 steals
Rod Brown- 8 points, 9 rebounds
What's Next?
Minnesota travels to Pennsylvania to take on Pittsburgh as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The game will air on ESPNU at 6:00pm CST. Pittsburgh sits at 2-3 currently and will play UMBC on Saturday before hosting the Gophers. They are led by 6-foot-9, 280-pound sophomore forward John Hugley who averages 13 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
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