After a short December break, the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team returns to action on Saturday afternoon at Williams Arena for a non-conference matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson of the Northeast Conference.

Fairleigh Dickinson enters the game with a 4-9 record and has just one victory over a Division I team this season with wins over Purchase, Manhattan, VTSU Randolph, and Lehman. In their last two games, they played Philadelphia schools Villanova and La Salle both in rather solid fashion, falling to Villanova 86-72 and La Salle 77-72.

Despite the 4-9 record, this is a Fairleigh Dickinson team that is scrappy. If the Gophers continue to struggle on Saturday, it's a game they still should come out victorious but the final margin of victory could be much closer than expected.

Minnesota will enter Saturday after a 12-day layoff, having to stew on an 82-67 loss to Indiana, dropping to 0-2 in Big Ten play. The Gophers are losers of four of their last five overall dating back to a Thanksgiving week trip to Orlando, dropping games to Wichita State and Wake Forest.

WHEN: Saturday, December 21, 2024 - 1:00 p.m. CT

WHERE: Williams Arena (Minneapolis, FL)

TELEVISION: Big Ten Network (Cory Provus (play-by-play) and Jordan Taylor (analyst)

RADIO: KFAN 100.3 FM (Mike Grimm, Al Nolen)

This will be the second time the two programs have met but the first in over 20 years. Their last meeting came in 202, a 104-66 win for the Gophers. All-time, Minnesota holds a 9-0 record against Northeast Conference opponents.

We're not expecting Saturday's game to necessarily be a pretty one but both these teams have gone through their fair share of struggles over recent weeks. Add in a long layoff and it wouldn't be surprising to see a slow start in this one. The one saving grace for the Golden Gophers is that FDU is one of the worst defensive teams in the nation, so even if Minnesota has a sluggish day, they should be able to get into the 70s, if not the 80s in this matchup. That being said, Fairleigh Dickinson has been solid offensively this season including against quality opponents, they should find some of their own success as well in this one. That being said, talent usually wins out and while the Gophers have been shaky at best for most of this season thus far, they're by far a more talented team than Fairleigh Dickinson.

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