Read my story from today's Star Tribune, on Ellliott Eliason and his role only getting more challenging now that he had a one-game explosion.
Tonight's Gophers game vs. Montana tips off at 7 p.m. It is not on TV, but you can watch here for a price.
As the Gophers well know, not every team is going to be OK with running with Minnesota, and some are going to actively try to stymy that pace.
The home town squad may get their first glimpse of that on Tuesday night, with Montana coming to town.
The Grizzlies, who return three starters from last year, including the Big Sky POY, are expected to play some zone in the half-court to try to slow the speedy Gophers down.
It's something the Gophers have been preparing for in practice with 15-second offensive drills against the zone. It's still a work in progress.
"That drill, sometimes it gets out of hand when guys just start shooting it as soon as they get a chance, any open look we get," guard Deandre Mathieu said. "But that's really how we're trying to play, just uptempo, get the shot up as quickly as possible. Against the man it's pretty easy, but against the zone it's kind of tough because nobody is moving, so you really have to kind of get a mismatch off the rebound and just pitch it up and get somebody to attack the rim."
To avoid that, the Gophers are emphasizing defensive rebounding –what's new – to have a better chance to get the ball in the open court and score in transition before the defense is able to get set on the other end.