Five things to watch in Minnesota's exhibition vs. Minn Duluth

Tonight's starting five:

G DeAndre Mathieu
G Andre Hollins
G Carlos Morris
F Josh Martin
C Bakary Konate

Those last two -- both freshmen -- are a bit of a surprise, but not entirely unexpected as an exhibition game provides the perfect opportunity to experiment.

Watch tonight's game online on BTN Plus (subscription only).
Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
Students get in free.
Read my story on the four Minnesota newcomers in today's Star Tribune here.

Basketball lovers rejoice: Gophers hoops have returned to Williams Arena. Tonight's final tuneup before the season opener against Louisville in Puerto Rico doesn't count of course -- it's only an exhibition against Div. II Minnesota Duluth. But it's something more than intrasquad games and secret scrimmages, and considering it comes just over a week before the team faces off against No. 8 Louisville in Puerto Rico, it's as important as an exhibition has been for this program for some time, I suppose.

Expect coach Richard Pitino to leave some things in the bag, however. With his dad scouting the tape, the young second-year coach hopes to leave some things to unveil on Nov. 14. So don't expect a lot of offensive plays or a lot of mixing up defenses. We'll be able to see players' aggressiveness and talent, but the game plan itself should be pretty vanilla. His dad, he's sure, is doing the same thing.

"I've watched a couple of [Louisville's] scrimmages, but I know what he's doing -- he's not running all of his plays. I know what he's doing, I've seen him do it a million times. He'll play all man-to-man. They play Saturday. They won't play zone. But I know he'll play zone vs. me. So it's just, to me, you've got to throw away that tape, because I know what he's doing. And he knows what I'm doing. Like, I'm not going to show him anything tomorrow."

1. No Nate Mason or Mo Walker: The freshman guard (knee) and senior center (hamstring) both won't be available, Pitino said yesterday. Mason is playing with a brace, but could be close. Walker's hamstring injury, a week and a half ago, has been sticky.

2. Can Carlos Morris keep it up? First, the JUCO transfer looked great in the open maroon-on-gold scrimmage, then he reportedly scored 22 in a closed scrimmage against the No. 14 team in the nation (psst. it's Iowa State). That's all well and fine, but can he keep it up in a real competition? Tonight will be the first step toward seeing whether "Squirrel" can find the kind of consistency that would really lift Minnesota this season.

3. Calling all Dres: Seniors Andre Hollins (1-for-9 shooting) and DeAndre Mathieu (seven turnovers) didn't look like the centerpieces we've expected them to be in the intrasquad scrimmage last month. With the Cardinals looming, Minnesota can't afford for these two to get off to a sluggish start. Can they rebound on Thursday?

4. Turnover improvement? OK so we've said this several times: tonight doesn't really mean anything and neither did that maroon-on-gold scrimmage. But old (bad) habits die hard and Gophers fans watching the intrasquad showing -- which featured 30 turnovers overall; 15 on each team -- might have been biting their nails a little bit. Sloppiness was a real problem this year, and Minnesota hasn't showed any signal of fixing the problem just yet.