Franklin Pierce is a Division II team -- and not a very good one at that --so assume Minnesota was playing the equivalent of a bunch of pretty good high schoolers.
It certainly looked like it.
But there were two basic tasks the Gophers needed to check off tonight:
a) Make it through 40 minutes without any injuries
b) Dominate
Minnesota managed both of those quite well (scoring the most points the program has since 1990 in the 109-57 win) and now the biggest chore will be carrying the intensity through to Saturday's matchup vs. UMBC -- the Gophers' third game in five days.
You can read my observations about this team, three games in, here, and it will be in tomorrow's Star Tribune.
A few others:
*Meaningful minutes for the bench. For the first two games, freshmen Bakary Konate and Josh Martin have combined for just 22 minutes total. Thursday, they got 37 minutes between them. That at least gives the pair a foundation of some experience (and positive experience) to draw back on if the Gophers get into a bind and need to use them more than hoped. "Huge," coach Richard Pitino said. "It's important for those guys because we're going to need them."
