Minnesota Falls To Ohio State 64-75
Coming off of an emotional win against Rutgers over the weekend, Minnesota was unable to keep the momentum going against top-20 ranked Ohio State at home. Here are three takeaways from the 64-75 loss last night.
Eric Curry's Absence Hurts
Without Eric Curry, the Gophers have close to no high major experience in the frontcourt. And for a team that already struggles in rebounding, his absence showed in a big way last night. Minnesota failed to keep the Buckeye size off the offensive glass, leading to 27 second chance points for OSU. Minnesota also lost the overall rebounding battle by a staggering 48-22. Minnesota needs to do a better job of getting a body on a man after every shot to limit those costly second chance points. I know Treyton Thompson still has to add weight to compete against some of these Big 10 bigs, but he had 4 rebounds early and ended up finishing with just those 4 rebounds. Charlie Daniels and Danny Ogele combined for just 2 rebounds in 17 minutes of play. Need more production from down low in that aspect.
No Scorers Step Up
After a monster game from Payton Willis over the weekend, no Gophers seemed to be feeling their shot last night. Jamison Battle scored 15, which isn't necessarily a bad game, but he shot just 5-18 overall. Minnesota's three starting guards (Willis, Loewe, and Stephens) combined for 3-12 shooting beyond the arc. Typically Minnesota will have one or two players step up with a strong scoring night, but last night no one seemed to be able to get into a rhythm. That's bound to happen a few times over the course of the year, especially when you consider the level of difficulty in a Big 10 schedule.
Perimeter Defense A Plus
Despite giving up so many second chance buckets and high percentage looks down low, Minnesota did a great job of limiting the Ohio State guards. It starts with the defensive efforts of their three starting guards, as well as Sean Sutherlin off the bench. All of these guys have good positional size, experience, and the grit to sit in a stance and move their feet to make things difficult on the ball. When you look at the Ohio State box score, you'll see Meechie Johnson Jr. shot 1-7, Malaki Branham shot 5-14, Cedric Russell shot 3-7, and as a whole Ohio State shot just 25.9% from beyond the arc. Minnesota does a great job of limiting teams' guard scoring, particularly from three, and that's a reason why they're able to keep so close with teams that outmatch them in the talent department.
Key Players For Minnesota
Jamison Battle- 15 points, 6 rebounds
Payton Willis- 12 points, 7 assists
Sean Sutherlin- 12 points, 4 rebounds
Key Players For Ohio State
EJ Liddell- 23 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists
Zed Key- 12 points, 8 rebounds
Kyle Young- 14 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
What's Next For Minnesota?
This Sunday Minnesota travels east to take on Wisconsin in Madison at 12pm central time. The rivalry game matchup will be aired on ESPN, and features the 11-5 Gophers taking on the 16-3 Badgers.
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