The Gopher men opened their season, unofficially, with an exhibition vs. D3 Macalester last night at Williams Arena. Takeaway #1 is that, yes, the Gophers won 97-73, but that the 1st impression was not great, especially in light of the fact that the Gophers trailed their D3 opponent through much of the 1st half, including 17-9 and 20-13. They finally took the lead for good at 26-25 on a pair of FT by Joshua Ola-Joseph at 6:18. There was a time when one would have expected, and probably would have seen a 50-point blowout by the old Minnesota Gophers of Jim Dutcher or Clem Haskins against a D3 opponent, but the fact is that D3 talent is vastly improved over that of the olden days. Exhibit A is Macalester guard Caleb Williams, an unimposing 6-2 white guy from Wild Rose, WI. But he was unimposing only until the opening tip-off, after which he proved himself to be the best player on the floor, finishing with 41 points on 14-of-31 shooting.
And, so, Takeaway #2 is that the Gophers chief weakness of a year ago–the inability to guard quick perimeter opponents–remains a problem. But it must also be pointed out that the Gophers were without highly regarded freshman guard Cam Christie whom, it is hoped, will be the solution to that particular problem.Gopher center Pharrell Payne also did not play, though the Gophers were able to dominate inside nevertheless with 32 points in the paint to just 4 for Macalester. Who’s to say? With Christie and Payne, maybe there is a 50-point blowout. Probably not. But we’ll never know.
Takeaway #3 is that the 2 new transfer guards–Elijah Howard from Howard and Mike Mitchell from Pepperdine–can play. They scored 30 points between them on 11-of-21 shooting. But more notably, each had 9 assists and they had just one turnover between them. On the other hand the starting guards–Braeden Carrington and Isaiah Ihnen–struggled. Carrington, a true sophomore and former Mr. Basketball from Park Center, remains tentative on offense, scoring just 5 points on 2-of-5 shooting. Ihnen, the German import who missed 2 full seasons with injury, did the same (5 points on 2-of-5 shooting) and played just 12 minutes. He was replaced by Mitchell early in the proceedings and Mitchell was vastly more effective. Still, there’s guard depth here, especially when Christie, who is expected to be the best of the lot, returns to action.
Takeaway #4 is that Parker Fox, the D2 transfer who like Ihnen has missed 2 full seasons with injury, can also play. He played 19 minutes and scored 11 points with 5 boards, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots. Redshirt freshman forward Kaedyn Betts, regarded as the #2 player in Colorado 2 years ago, struggled, however, scoring just 3 points on 1-of-4 shooting in 13 minutes. Still, the Gophers all in all appear marginally more athletic than a year ago, specifically with the additions of Howard and Mitchell and the upside potential of Fox.
Takeaway #5 is that due to the caliber of the opposition and the fact that Christie and Payne, who along with Garcia are expected to be the top 3 contributors, did not play, well, all of the other takeaways must be regarded as tentative, subject to further discovery. In other words, it’s entirely possible that we didn’t really learn much of anything last night. Still, a first stab at a depth chart would look like this:
Center–Payne and Garcia. I don’t see newcomer Jack Wilson getting a lot of minutes.
Power Forward–Garcia and Fox. Not sure that Betts will be in the rotation.
Small Forward–Ola-Joseph, Fox. Not sure that Ihnen will see a lot of minutes though he might have to. The front court depth is not great.
Point Guard–Hawkins and Mitchell
Shooting Guard–Christie and Carrington. Backcourt depth is not bad.
The pre-season poll as you probably know has the Gophers ranked #14 out of 14 in the Big 10. There’s nothing yet to suggest that that’s not justified. Still, with Payne, Garcia and Ola-Joseph up front and decent guard depth, the Gophers should be improved. Still, it’s not obvious after last night that their #1 need for improvement, which is to defend quick guards, is necessarily gonna happen and in the Big 10 that is going to be pretty fatal.
