Tonight's game vs. Seattle tips at 7 p.m. Watch on Big Ten Network (finally!) or listen live on 1500-a.m.

Five things to watch:

Gas sighting. Get familiar -- everyone calls international recruit Gaston Diedhiou "Gas." For the past month and a half, we've grown used to seeing him in the bleachers watching Minnesota play from afar. On Friday, the freshman – who officially joined the team yesterday after a new English proficiency test was approved by admissions – will be on the bench and could get a few minutes of action if this game ends up being a blowout. He hasn't been able to practice with the team and no one has seen him play, so it will be quite interesting to see how he looks and whether he might be able to impact the team at all this year. My guess is he will be akin to Bakary Konate – talented but quite raw. Still, both will play big roles next year and so whatever minutes they get will be valuable.

Watch out for the Redhawks' size. Seattle has some legitimate size on the team and is not at all shabby on the boards – the Redhawks rank 47th in the nation in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentages per KenPom and have four players size 6-foot-9 or taller who play at least 10 minutes a game. The 6-foot-11 Jack Crook is the starting center and he's backed up by another 6-11 guy, Theo Turner. They don't have the skill that Mo Walker does, but right now as a group they are definitely rebounding better. Whether they can turn all those chances into buckets is another question.

Any rust? Minnesota is coming back from an eight-day layoff from games in which the players have had to all study for and go through finals. The holidays – and a couple days at home for most Gophers – are approaching. Will they be able to shake off the off-week, put aside the upcoming break and come out hard? We'll see.

Buggs' development. The Big Ten slate, now, is just around the corner and Charles Buggs, like it or not, is going to be a huge part of it. The redshirt sophomore is in a bit of a tough situation, backing up both Carlos Morris at small forward and Joey King at power forward, and learning on the fly as he averaged just 6.7 minutes a game in his first year last year. He's already shown he can hit some shots – he has a quick release both on the perimeter and under the basket. But in the other areas – defense, rebounding and overall focus – he can be a liability. The Gophers would like to see a little bit of improvement, every night.

Another big night for Andre? Senior guard Andre Hollins has been stroking it so far this year and has already collected three 20-plus point games, but if you'll recall, that was the case last year as well. Hollins had three 20-plus games in the first ten and eight games scoring in double digits – one more than this year. The difference, so far, has been his hot touch from three-point range. Always a good shooter, Hollins hit 21 threes through ten games last year but has 28 already this season. But the Memphis native has been known for being inconsistent throughout his previous three years. If Hollins now wants not only to prove he's the player he was before he got hurt but also take the next step, he's got to bring it every night.