Gopher basketball fans don’t have high expectations, and that goes for the men and it goes for the women. Still, things have been looking up for the women under coach P, now in her 3rd season. To a large degree, any optimism for the Gopher program rested and still rests on Lindsay Whalen’s famous class of 2022–Amaya Battle, Mara Braun, Niamaya Holloway and, well, Natalie Heyer, along with faith in Coach P’s abilities. Well, then, wouldn’t you know it. The Gophers added power forward Taylor Woodson, like Battle a graduate of the great Hopkins program, to the roster last year. That’s a good thing, right? But, then Woodson suffered a knee injury and was lost to the team for most of the 2024-2025 season.
Then, in the run up to the current season, it became obvious that as Woodson recovered from her knee injury, she would be taking minutes and perhaps even the starting forward spot away from the veteran Heyer. Heyer promptly announced that she would be leaving the Gopher program for “personal reasons.” Well, yeah. It doesn’t get any more personal than losing minutes. She quickly turned up on the Oregon roster. And, then, 2-and-a-half weeks later, Woodson went down with her 2nd knee injury in less than a year. Suddenly the Gophers were back in an all-too familiar position–lacking depth. A primary rotation that was expected to encompass Battle, Braun, Grace Grocholski, Sophie Hart, Heyer, Tori McKinney and Woodson was suddenly short by 2 players. If it weren’t for bad luck, the Gopher women would have no luck at all.
Thank goodness for the incoming talent–transfers Brylee Glenn and Finau Tonga, and freshman Makena Christian, who together are playing almost 50 minutes per game; and of course Holloway continues to come off the bench for 10 additional minutes per game. That’s a total of 9 women playing 10 minutes or more, and far be it for the Gophers to complain about playing 9 deep. Still, the primary rotation now is just 6 deep, and 5 of them are guards.
So, then, 2 nights ago, it was announced that Tori McKinney, the Gophers leading scorer with 13 ppg and perhaps already their best player as a sophomore, would miss the first game in the Bahamas against the South Florida Bulls, due to a concussion, or rather due to being in the concussion protocol, which is not the same as having been diagnosed with a concussion. Her status for Alabama tommorow remains unknown at this time.
Minnesota 57 South Florida 45
So, the Gophers hiked up their shorts and did what had to be done against a South Florida team that had just beaten what is described as “a good” Duke team, 85-72. Well, who knows about Duke. But the Gophers ran it up to the tune of 30-15 at the half against South Florida and coasted. The Gophers shot poorly, almost as poorly as in their loss to Kansas last week–34% from the field, 32% on 3-pointers (vs. 34% and 22% at Kansas). But the Bulls shot 33% and 11%. ‘Nuf sed. Grocholski scored 14 points and Glenn 10. Meanwhile, Braun scored 11 but made just 3-of-13 shots. She is now shooting just 38% from the field as she strives to regain her form after 2 years of foot troubles.
So, next up is more of a challenge–the Alabama Crimson Tide–though perhaps not quite as tough as the Kansas challenge. Both Alabama and Kansas are unbeaten, but Kansas at least got 2 votes in the latest rankings, while Alabama got none. And, of course, this game will be played on a neutral court. And, according to the Knosville News Sentinel, Alabama rates just #10 in the SEC power rankings. Still, they have accomplished something “quite significant.” They’ve played the weakest schedule in the SEC. Still, they did what they had to do, winning 6 games by an average of 78-51. (The Gophers 1st 4 wins are by an average of 92-42.) No matter. The Gophers are going to have to shoot better in order to win this game, especially if McKinney is unavailable.
Gophers vs. Alabama
Bigs 6-5 Sophie Hart 11 ppg-5 reb-58% vs. Alabama’s 6-4 Essence Cody 15 ppg-6 reb-63%
Forward 6-1 Tori McKinney 13 ppg-2 reb-56% or 5-10 Grace Grocholski 12 ppg-5 reb-3 ast-44% vs. 5-11 Karly Weathers 8 ppg-7 reb-3 ast-43%
Point Guard 5-10 Amaya Battle 6 ppg-8 reb-4 ast-27% vs. 5-8 Jessica Timmons 14 ppg-4 reb-3 ast-45%
Shooting Guard 6-0 Mara Braun 11 ppg-4 reb-3 ast-35% vs. 6-0 Ta’mia Scott 8 ppg-3 reb-46%
Shooting Guard 5-10 Brylee Glenn 10 ppg-3 reb-2 ast-48% or Grocholski vs. 5-9 Diana Collins 7 ppg-3 reb-2 ast-47%
Team Stats Alabama shoots 50% from the field, the Gophers 44%. The Gophers are outrebounding their opponents by 11, Alabama by 10. The Gophers are turning their opponents over 21 times per game while committing only 10, for a +11 edge. Alabama is at 15 and 18, and is +3.
Analysis Alabama has been a better shooting team, but the Gophers could get a few extra possesions by turning ‘Bama over. Prediction Minnesota 65 Alabama 62.