TV schedule: Saturday, January 16, 2:00 pm ET. ESPN2
Arena: Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota
The 11-0 Michigan Wolverines travel to The Barn on Saturday to take on the 10-4 Minnesota Golden Gophers. This will be the second time in a ten-day stretch where the two teams will square off, Michigan taking game one by a score of 82-57.
Michigan’s last two games were both against ranked teams. They took care of Minnesota and Wisconsin by a combined 48 point differential. However, the Gophers are yet to lose at The Barn this season and intend to keep it that way.
This is the seventh straight game against a ranked opponent for the Golden Gophers, the longest stretch in Division I since 2011 when St. John’s faced eight straight ranked teams. They’ll have their hands full against Michigan, who has looked quite impressive of late.
When scouting Michigan, Hunter Dickinson jumps right off the page. He leads the team in points (17.5) and rebounds (7.9) and blocks (1.5). Dickinson has elite size at 7’2 and leads the Big Ten in shooting percentage. After that, senior forward Isaiah Livers is also a handful. Livers is the leader and emotion of the team and gets just about 14 ppg. He, along with Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown will shoot the 3 at a very high level.
Columbia graduate-transfer Mike Smith has been a very important cog, as his steady hands and high passing ability has led to a lot of quality possessions. He and Eli Brooks have made a terrific backcourt tandem so far, and are primary reasons for why Michigan will be playing far into March.
For Minnesota, Marcus Carr has played every bit of what Minnesota could have asked of him. He is averaging over 20 points and 5.5 assists per contest. He and center Liam Robbins (13.2 ppg) make a quality tandem that’ll give Michigan some trouble of pick and roll’s.
But, much of the Gophers’ success against quality teams this year has been due to the secondary options finding some success. Carr and Robbins will get theirs, but some of the other pieces need to produce to be competitive in this one. Perhaps this is the game that Gabe Kalscheur gets going. Kalscheur is shooting just 22.7 percent from deep, while his freshman year he shot 42%, and sophomore year 37%. Having him climb back up to be a reliable shot from deep would pay major dividends for the gophers.
Both Gach (10.5 ppg) has seen some success in his first year as a Gopher. It’ll take someone like him or Brandon Johnson to jump into a starring role tonight for the Gophers to pull off an upset.
The Call: Minnesota keeps it close through the first half, but the Wolverines pull away in the final few minutes. Michigan by 8.