Controlling tempo crucial for Ben Johnson's Gophers to limit turnovers vs. Penn State

FULLER'S FOUR THINGS TO WATCH:

Controlling tempo

The Gophers committed 18 turnovers in Wednesday's 78-65 loss at Nebraska, the second most this season after 28 turnovers in a Dec. 14 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Gophers coach Ben Johnson and his players chalked up the biggest turnover game for the program since 2007 as an aberration against Corpus Christi, but it's become an issue lately.

Nebraska and Iowa combined to score 45 points off 30 combined turnovers in the last two games, including 25 points on Wednesday in Lincoln.

That had been pretty uncharacteristic of the Gophers, who entered last Sunday's 71-59 loss at Iowa averaging just 9.2 turnovers per game. They Hawkeyes scored 21 points off 12 turnovers last weekend. The Huskers scored 15 points off 12 turnovers in the first half on Wednesday, which included forcing four turnovers in the first four minutes.

"We got to be more deliberate," Johnson said Wednesday night. "You can't play casual. The hardest piece for guys to learn is a mentality thing. You can't play casual. That's with everything. When you do teams feed off that."

Five senior guards combined for 12 turnovers against Nebraska, including senior Luke Loewe's season-high five turnovers and zero assists in 32 minutes.

Loewe had been playing his best basketball offensively with four of the previous five games in double figures scoring, including 19 points at Iowa. The William & Mary transfer had just four turnovers combined in six games before Nebraska, so it likely was just an off night for him.

The Nittany Lions rank last in the Big Ten in turnover margin (minus-3.35) because they only force 9.1 turnovers per game this season. The Gophers still only average 9.8 turnovers overall.

Defensive consistency

It's pretty clear that the Gophers are close to the bottom of the Big Ten standings entering Saturday mainly because of their struggles defensively in league play.

In Wednesday's loss, the Huskers shot 57.7 percent in the second half, including 61% (11-for-18) inside the arc. They outscored Minnesota 40-22 in points in the paint and scored 21 fastbreak points.

In last Sunday's loss at Iowa, the Gophers allowed the Hawkeyes to shoot 51.6% in the second half – and the lack of toughness was what frustrated Johnson.

During the Gophers' 10-1 start this season they held opponents to 63.1 points per game, 24.8% shooting from three-point range, and 41% shooting from the field. Obviously, the competition wasn't outstanding as a whole, but they did have wins against Western Kentucky, Princeton, Pittsburgh, Michigan, and Mississippi State.

Since then, the Gophers are 1-9 with opponents scoring 74 points per game, shooting 37.3% (79-for-212) from three-point range and 47.7% from the field (285-for-598).

Not surprisingly, Minnesota ranks 11th in scoring defense, 11th in three-point defense, and 14th in field goal percentage defense in 12 Big Ten games.

The Nittany Lions haven't been an offensive juggernaut ranking last in Big Ten games in scoring offense (63.0), last in field goal percentage (40.7) and 13th in three-point percentage (31.8).

Rebounding margin

The Gophers ranked last in the Big Ten in rebounding margin (minus-3.6) last season under Richard Pitino – and they're even worse in Johnson's first year.

The Gophers are 13th in the Big Ten in rebounding margin (minus-5.7) overall and 353th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage (19.3), per Kenpom.

Johnson's philosophy is to give up crashing the offensive boards to hustle back for transition defense, so that can skew the offensive rebounding numbers (league-worst 6.5 per game).

In Big Ten play, the rebounding margin between the Gophers and their opponents has been significant at minus-8.3, second-to-last in the conference. Only Nebraska is worse at minus-9.5. But the Huskers still outscored the Gophers in second chance points 12-7 on Wednesday.

In a loss to the Buckeyes last month, the Gophers were outrebounded 48-22, which included 27 second-chance points on 20 offensive rebounds. That was the most offensive rebounds allowed since Iowa had 27 in a double overtime at Minnesota on Christmas Day 2020.

Eric Curry's return from an ankle injury recently has helped the Gophers compete better on the glass by barely getting beat overall in rebounding in losses at Wisconsin (33-32) and at Iowa (40-38). They also outrebounded Nebraska overall 37-34.

Three-point threat

Last season, the Gophers shot a program-low 28.4% from three, but they've made a jump to 36.2% this season, ranked fifth in the Big Ten overall.

The Gophers, who went from zero to seven threes after halftime at Nebraska, are shooting a little different at 34.8% from beyond the arc in Big Ten games, but that still is good for seventh in the league. Their best game was 13-for-24 from long distance against Rutgers.

Senior guard Payton Willis, who had 32 points and tied a school-record with eight threes against the Scarlet Knights on Jan. 22, leads the Big Ten in three-point accuracy overall at 42.5%. Jamison Battle, the U's leading scorer at 17.2 points, ranks fifth in the conference at 37.1% from three overall.

E.J. Stephens, who had a season-high 22 points in a home Jan. 16 home loss to Iowa, is shooting 36.1% from deep this season.

GAME INFO

Time: 7:30 p.m. CT, Saturday. Where: Williams Arena. Line: Minnesota 1-point favorite. Series: Minnesota leads the series 29-12 but dropped the last game 84-65 in State College on March 3, 2021. TV: BTN. Online/Live video: BTN-plus. Radio: 100.3 KFAN

PROJECTED STARTERS

MINNESOTA GOPHERS (11-10, 2-10 in conference)

Pos.-Player Ht. Yr. PPG

G – Payton Willis 6-4 195 Sr. 16.5

G – E.J. Stephens 6-3 190 Sr. 10.9

G – Luke Loewe 6-4 190 Sr. 8.0

F – Jamison Battle 6-7 225 So. 17.2

F – Eric Curry 6-9 245 Sr. 8.2

Key reserves– Sean Sutherlin, G/F, 6-5, Sr., 6.8 ppg; Charlie Daniels, F, 6-9, Sr., 2.1 ppg; Treyton Thompson, F, 6-11, Fr., 2.2 ppg.

Coach: Ben Johnson 11-10 (1st season)

Notable: Nine of Minnesota's 10 losses have been against teams in the NET's top 40, including six games against currently ranked opponents. … Junior forwards Parker Fox (Northern State transfer) and Isaiah Ihnen are sidelined indefinitely after offseason knee surgery. Fox, who tore his ACL and MCL in late March, is nine months recovered and could be cleared to practice soon. But it still appears that both Fox and Ihnen will sit out this season.

PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS (9-11, 4-8)

Pos.-Player Ht. Yr. PPG

G – Dallion Johnson 6-3 So. 2.6

G – Jalen Pickett 6-4 Sr. 12.9

F – Myles Dread 6-4 Sr. 6.3

F – Seth Lundy 6-6 Jr. 12.7

F – John Harrar 6-9 Sr. 10.2

Reserves – Sam Sessoms, G, 6-0, Sr., 11.5 ppg; Jameam Cornwall, G, 6-0, Sr., 2.7 ppg; Jalanni White, F, 6-8, Sr., 2.9 ppg.

Coach: Micah Shrewsberry 9-11 (1st season)

Notable: The Nittany Lions have dropped six of their past seven games, but the past two losses were in nail-biting fashion, 51-49 at Wisconsin and 58-57 against Michigan. Penn State has the past two victories in the series. But the Nittany Lions haven't won at Minnesota since a 79-76 victory on a D.J. Newbill buzzer-beating three-pointer March 8, 2015. ... Senior forward Greg Lee, who was averaging 7.8 points, is sidelined with a foot injury. Lee, a Western Michigan transfer, was recruited by the Gophers.

Fuller's score prediction (Picks record: 15-6): Gophers 69, Penn State 67.