With coach Lindsay Whalen home recovering from an emergency appendectomy performed Tuesday, the Gophers women's basketball team will play its first game in two weeks Thursday night at Rutgers.
Even in a season in which Rutgers has struggled, this will be a difficult test for the Gophers (7-7), who will have to battle the rust of a layoff extended with the loss of their New Year's eve game with Northwestern, which was canceled because of COVID-19 cases within the Wildcats program.
Gophers associate head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis will lead the team in Whalen's absence. Whalen had been feeling unwell since early in the week and was unavailable to the media Tuesday, while seeing a doctor.
In a news release, the Gophers said Whalen is recovering and that her "status will be updated prior to Minnesota's home game against Maryland on Sunday."
Rutgers (7-8) is playing this season with Tim Eatman filling in as coach for C. Vivian Stringer, who took a season-long leave because of concerns over the pandemic. The Scarlet Knights have struggled against teams from power conferences and have opened their Big Ten season 0-3.
But they still utilize a pressing, harassing defense that can give teams problems. In last year's 83-56 loss at Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights turned 22 Gophers turnovers into 35 points.
"We have struggled in the past, just with the press in general," Gophers point guard Jasmine Powell said. "Getting the ball up the court, that has been an emphasis for us."
As have quick starts. The Gophers are 7-1 this season when leading after the first quarter, 0-5 when trailing and 0-1 when tied entering the second quarter.
"We've had some games when we're down 10 [early] and then we have to claw our way back,'' senior guard Gadiva Hubbard said. "That's when we get ourselves into binds. And, once you've come back, you've used so much energy just trying to get back in it."
It's been an up-and-down season for the .500 Gophers, who have worked extensively on ball movement and movement without the ball as well as fast starts.
The Scarlet Knights will now face a team coached by Thibault-DuDonis, who has been a member of Whalen's staff from the start. Hired as an assistant in 2018, she was promoted to associate head coach in May of 2020.
The daughter of Mike Thibault, the coach of the WNBA's Washington Mystics, Thibault-DuDonis' duties include working with the team's guards. Prior to her time with the Gophers, she spent two seasons at Mississippi State, where she helped the Bulldogs to the Final Four and the NCAA championship game.
She will be assisted by fellow assistant coaches Kelly Curry and Shimmy Gray-Miller.
The Gophers have had to stew about a 77-63 loss to Drake in Des Moines on Dec. 23.
Of the seven Gophers losses, four have come against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press top 25 in Michigan (eighth), Connecticut (11th), North Carolina (19th) and Oklahoma (23rd). A fifth loss came to 13-1 Nebraska.
