Tonight's game vs. North Dakota tips at 8 p.m. Watch on ESPNU and listen live on 1500-a.m.
Read my story on Carlos Morris -- confident, if not yet polished -- in today's Star Tribune. Preview here.
So far, Minnesota has looked somewhat better defensively than a year ago, and have made modest in-season adjustments to issues with shot selection and free-throw shooting (we think). In most other areas, the Gophers are still waiting for notable growth: fouling, rebounding and sloppy ball handling have been concerns all year.
Tonight, when the Gophers face North Dakota -- a team that will be excited to play because of six players from Minnesota but should be dramatically inferior -- they get another opportunity to work on those pesky basics.
Five things to watch tonight:
1. Blocking out. Rebounding -- or the lack of it -- might be the most concerning thing with this team because it's not entirely clear Minnesota has the personnel to be much better. Currently, the Gophers are tied with Rutgers for last in the Big Ten in defensive rebounding at sit at 13th in the league in defensive margin. In Minnesota's last time out, Western Carolina managed to grab a bloated 45.2 percent of its misses and convert the effort into 16 second-chance points. Minnesota has Charles Buggs -- not much of a rebounder -- backing up Joey King at power forward and Carlos Morris -- also not great at blocking out -- at small forward. "It's got to be a willingness to do it," coach Richard Pitino said about his team's rebounding effort. "But there is no reason why we can't [be a good rebounding team]. It's not like we're too small. We can do it, certainly."
2. Peskiness. There aren't many things North Dakota does well, but the mascot-less team does do a decent job handling the ball. Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation in steals -- one really notable positive this year. The Gophers shouldn't have a problem keeping up the defensive harassment vs. North Dakota, but they can't get lazy either.
3. No pep talks. On Friday, Minnesota needed Pitino to light them up in the locker room at halftime. The Gophers shouldn't need their coach to yell so loudly to find the motivation to get past another inferior opponent. For the past five games, the Gophers have struggled to put together two solid halves. Can they do so tonight?
