U men's gameday
7 p.m. VS. Southern • williams arena • streaming on espn3, 1500-AM
Gophers at a glance: Minnesota (7-2) heads into its last game before an eight-day break for final exams on a four-game winning streak after crushing North Dakota 92-56 on Monday. In that contest, coming two hours after the university announced that little-used freshman forward Josh Martin would transfer, senior center Mo Walker set a career high in points (22) and DeAndre Mathieu set a career high in assists (10). The Gophers, who had six players score in double digits, held their opponent to under 40 percent shooting for the fifth time and managed a 2.1-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. But they were outrebounded for the second consecutive game, 33-29. Mathieu is averaging 12.3 points and eight assists in his past three games.
Southern at a glance: Coach Roman Banks, wooed for an assistant job at Texas A&M in the offseason, has a squad that looks nothing like the one that claimed the Southwestern Athletic title last year. Five seniors, plus the Jaguars' leading scorer, Calvin Godfrey (transferred to Memphis), are gone — and the impact is obvious. Southern (2-6) has lost all five of its games away from home and the offense has been one of the worst in the nation. The Jags are shooting only 24 percent from three-point range and 39 percent from the field. The good news for Southern? Its strengths happen to correlate with Minnesota's weaknesses: The Jags force turnovers, are good on the defensive boards and get to the line. Banks' son, 6-1 sophomore Trelun Banks, is the reigning SWAC freshman of the year and leads the team with 10.6 points and 2.3 rebounds a game.
AMELIA RAYNO
