On Wednesday, the Minnesota Golden Gophers will look to extend their winning streak to start the season to three games when they host the North Texas Mean Green at Williams Arena with a 7:00 p.m. local time tip-off.
The Mean Green are 2-0 to start the season and will be an early quality resume potential boosting win for the Golden Gophers. According to Kenpom, the Mean Green are the No. 72 team in the country, just five spots behind the Golden Gophers who are currently ranked No. 67.
The Mean Green started their season off with an 80-63 win over Evansville before defeating NAIA opponent Wayland Baptist 80-38.
Here's a closer look at Wednesday's matchup.
How to Watch - Minnesota vs North Texas:
WHEN: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
WHERE: Williams Arena
TELEVISION: B1G+
STREAMING: B1G+
RADIO: KFAN AM/100.3 FM (Mike Grimm, Al Nolen)
SIRIUS: 384
SPREAD: No official spread is available; based on KenPom projections the Gophers would be a 3-point favorite and the over/under would be approximately 135.
Series History
This will be the first-ever matchup between the Golden Gophers and Mean Green.
RANKINGS COMPARISON
STAT COMPARISON
What to Know - North Texas:
The Mean Green has become a consistently strong program over the last seven years, etching seven straight seasons of playing .500 basketball or better including back-to-back seasons in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 of 25-7 and 31-7 seasons.
Last season, their first in the AAC, the Mean Green took a bit of a step back going 19-15 and 10-8 in conference play. In the preseason poll for the American Athletic Conference, the Mean Green was picked to finish seventh in the conference, behind; UAB, Memphis, South Florida, Wichita State, FAU, and Temple.
That being said from a KenPom point of view, the Mean Green are the No. 2 team in the American Athletic Conference to start the season only behind Memphis.
This offseason was a tough one for the Mean Green as their top six scorers from a year ago all departed the program with five of six doing so via the transfer portal. Their best scorer from a year ago that returned for this season was center Moulaye Sissoko who averaged just 3.0 points and 4.6 rebounds last season.
That being said, North Texas head coach Roiss Hodge was also active in the transfer portal in hopes of fulfilling the holes on his team. Out of the portal, the Mean Green would land the likes of Jasper Floyd (Fairfield), Jonathan Massie (Longwood), Latrell Jossell (Stephen F. Austin), and Atin Wright (Drake).
Through two games, all four transfers have had considerable impacts on the court for North Texas.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
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