Elliott Eliason stroked his meager beard with one hand, devilishly glancing at Mo Walker.
"I had to beat him," Eliason said, nodding toward his teammate and fellow big man.
Apparently, that's the running dynamic.
The two Gophers centers have developed a friendly but intense competitiveness this season in just about everything they do — from trying to get the better of each other in practice, to Eliason sprouting some facial hair to try to out-beard Walker, or so he jokes.
In the process, the duo is essentially executing a 1-on-1 clinic on improving each other's shortcomings.
Eliason is better defensively, with rebounding and blocking shots, but he has more trouble on the offensive end. Walker has more post moves and is better in the Gophers' pick-and-roll, but he lacks the same presence defensively and on the glass. Going at each other in practice only helps shore up the corresponding weaknesses for each, while the two are able to witness what works and what doesn't in real time.
"It's amazing what Elliott is really good at, Mo's not as good at, but Elliott's weaknesses are Mo's strengths," coach Richard Pitino said. "If you could just put Elliott and Mo together, they'd be a phenomenal player. What we've got to do now is they've got to push each other to get better."
Roles expand
Perhaps the Gophers are starting to see the results. This season, each player has been asked to play a much greater role than a year ago, and more will be expected as the team gets deeper into the Big Ten schedule. Heading into Sunday's game against Purdue and 7-footer A.J. Hammons, Eliason has gone from 2.2 points an 3.5 rebounds in 13.7 minutes a game to 5.8 points and 8.2 rebounds in 24.7 minutes this year. In three of the past four games, he has scored in double digits and has totaled 37 rebounds in that stretch. Walker has gone from relative irrelevance last year to contributing 5.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 15.1 minutes a game.