The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball program started their 2024-25 season on Wednesday night with an 80-57 win over Oral Roberts. Gophers Nation provides three takeaways from the win below.
1. Dawson Garcia picks up where he left off last season
Dawson Garcia quickly showed once again why he's one of the best players in the Big Ten. The senior forward scored 30 points in just 23 minutes. Garcia made 11-of-14 attempts from the floor including 4-of-5 from three-point range. He was also 4-for-4 from the free-throw line while also collecting eight rebounds in the game.
The 30-point performance is the fourth of Garcia's career with the Gophers. Each of his three previous 30+ point performances came last season including a 36-point game against Ohio State last December. Notably, it is the first time that Garcia scored 30 points and the Gophers came out on top in the game.
Last season, Garca averaged 17.6 points and 6.7 rebounds in 31 minutes while averaging 32 minutes on the floor.
2. Gophers shoot well from three-point range but struggle at the free throw line
Overall, it was a strong shooting night for the Golden Gophers. They shot 57.7% from the floor in the win, making 30-of-52 attempts. A major part of that success included a 61.1% shooting percentage (11-of-18) from three-point range Their success from deep is their second-best performance since the start of last season. Last season, the Gophers had just one game in which they shot over 50% from three-point range.
Dawson Garica was 4-for-5 as previously mentioned while Lu'Cye Patterson and Isaac Asuma were both 2-for-2 on Wednesday evening.
However, it was not a good night for Minnesota from the free-throw line. After struggling each of the last two seasons at the charity stripe, the Gophers got off to a bad start on Wednesday, making just 9-of-17 free throw attempts. Dawson Garcia, Mike Mitchell Jr, and Lu'Cye Patterson were a combined 8-for-8 in the game while the rest of the Gophers were 1-for-9.
3. A strong night for the Gophers defense
It was a good start for the Gophers defensively, keeping Oral Roberts to just 34% shooting from the field including just 7-of-23 from three-point range. In the win, Minnesota had a hand in 15 Oral Roberts turnovers including eight steals. Minnesota also recorded five blocks in the win. One area that will need to improve on the defensive side of the court for Minnesota will be their rebounding. The Gophers allowed 12 offensive rebounds in Wednesday's win and were outrebounded by Oral Roberts in the game 33-32. While it was an overall good night for the Gophers defensively, the rebounding will have to imprvoe as the season progresses but in these early season matchups, it shouldn't be to much of an issue for Minnesota.
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