The final regular season game, can Minnesota win at Rutgers?
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Piscataway
12:00 PM Sunday
BTN
Rutgers
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Record: 0-0 (0-0)
KenPom Rank:
Imagine having a team with two super-freshmen who are both going to be drafted in the top 3 picks of this summer’s NBA Draft and needing to win the final regular season game to ensure they don’t miss the Big Ten Tournament.
Rutgers surprisingly landed two of the top incoming freshmen last year and had a top 5 recruiting class. However, the Scarlet Knights are not going to make the NCAA Tournament, and with a loss to Minnesota, they are in danger of missing the Big Ten Tournament.
It has been a disappointing season in New Jersey, but all that really matters to us is if Minnesota can get another road win and improve their Big Ten Tournament seed.
KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN
Hold their big two down – Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are going to score, they are going to be the focal point of the offense, but they cannot combine for a big chunk of points. I think the magic number is 32, can Minnesota hold these two to 32 or less?
Find another scoring option – We know that Garcia has to stir the drink, but the Gophers are winning games when someone else steps up. Sometimes it is Lu’Cye Patterson, lately it has been Brennan Rigsby and it could be Mike Mitchell Jr. Someone needs to make some shots.
Rebound – Rutgers is very good at offensive rebounding and real bad at defensive rebounding. Box out on defense and crash the glass on offense. I’m looking at Frank Mitchell to be a key on the defensive rebounding side.
PREDICTION
This is kind of a big game. For a team that started 0-6 in the Big Ten, a win today would mean they finished 8-4 with a 5-game, road winning streak. Frankly, that would be incredible.
Can they beat a high-powered, albeit sputtering, Rutgers team?
Steve Pikiell’s teams at Rutgers have been known to be excellent defensively. This team has not adopted that identity. Four off the last five seasons they have been 16th or higher in defensive efficiency. This year they rank 134th.
My hearts wants to predict a Gopher win, but my head says that we will struggle to defend well enough to win again on the road. I’m taking Rutgers and the Baily/Harper combination will have 40+.
Minnesota – 70
Rutgers – 79