Gophers discover size matters in Big Ten basketball

IOWA CITY – A month ago, Iowa was in Minneapolis, and the basketball game had once again come down to a last-second play. The Hawkeyes' Jarrod Uthoff charged to the top of the key, grabbed the pass and let a shot fly. Andre Hollins, the Gophers' best defender, was closing in on Uthoff like snow on a windshield, but when he stretched out to contest the shot, his reach fell several inches short.

Hollins stands 6-2. Uthoff, like a growing number of Big Ten wings, is both agile and oversized — at 6-9, his long two-point rainbow with 3.5 seconds left took flight unhindered, making Hollins' attempt to block it appear nearly laughable.

Swish. The final was 77-75, giving Minnesota its fifth consecutive loss.

"If I would have jumped with him, I would have fouled him," Hollins said afterward. "Because I was literally right on him."

In Thursday's rematch, Gophers coach Richard Pitino will be reminded, once again, of the importance of having size in this conference — and that Minnesota doesn't it in its top rotation of players.

"I didn't feel that way last year, playing them twice, that their size killed us," Pitino said of Iowa (15-8, 6-4 Big Ten). "But it did [that] game, there is no question."

The Gophers (15-9, 4-7) are one of the smallest teams in the conference. The team's average height ranks 11th of 14 teams, despite having three players 6-10 or taller. Iowa will line up the nation's fifth-tallest team.

In the frontcourt, Pitino is pleased with the look of his team: three big centers and some options at power forward, although the development of big-bodied freshmen Bakary Konate (6-11) and Gaston Diedhiou (6-9) is coming along slowly. But at point guard, shooting guard and small forward, the Gophers are relatively tiny.

Perhaps the small-forward spot — where 6-5 Carlos Morris starts — is the most concerning. Including Iowa, six Big Ten teams sport at least one player at the position who is 6-7 or taller. But the mismatches often end up worse than that. With Morris' defense still coming along, Pitino is forced to choose between size and a proven defender on occasions. At times he chooses the latter, such as putting Hollins on Uthoff for that last possession against the Hawkeyes.

"Our bigger guys, quite frankly, I don't trust defensively," Pitino said. "Carlos has gotten better. I think [forward Charles] Buggs is getting better. But I just don't think they're there."

Matchups at point and shooting guard aren't much better, despite Hollins and 5-9 DeAndre Mathieu comprising the team's best defending duo. Peter Jok mans the shooting guard spot for Iowa at 6-6. Purdue's Dakota Mathias and Kendall Stephens are 6-4 and 6-6, respectively. Ohio State shooting guard D'Angelo Russell is 6-5. So is Maryland's Dez Wells. Wisconsin has a pair of 6-4 guards in Bronson Koenig and Josh Gasser. Even bottom feeders Penn State, Northwestern and Rutgers have better size than the Gophers in the backcourt.

Pitino has called size a priority moving forward. But Minnesota's recruiting class — the 2015 signees coming in the fall — contains two more undersized guards: 6-1 Jarvis Johnson and 5-11 Kevin Dorsey. Dupree McBrayer, the third guard in the class, is a 6-4 shooting guard. The Gophers do have three more scholarships available to use, if they choose, following Josh Martin's transfer, Daquein McNeil's legal troubles and Zach Lofton's dismissal.

Playing in a league with some bulk, Pitino isn't taking his team's size deficiency lightly.

"In this league, you've got to get big," he said. "And we need to get bigger with everything."