5 things we learned from Minnesota's overtime win over Green Bay

The Gophers entered Saturday night's game against Green Bay as 27.5-point betting favorites, but they needed overtime to escape with a 72-65 win. Here's what we learned

First slow start

Minnesota opened with a 23-1 run in the season opener, a 17-0 run against Alcorn State, and a 17-8 start on the road at Missouri. The Gophers trailed 27-23 at halftime against Green Bay, which only had four wins against Division I programs since the start of 2024-25 heading into Friday night's game.

After out-rebounding every opponent this season, the Gophers were out-rebounded 22-14 in the first half. They shot 8 of 27 (29.6%) as a team, and they even had only four turnovers compared to eight from the Phoenix. Minnesota looked broken after its second-half debacle against Missouri on Wednesday night.

Rotation

G: Isaac Asuma
G: Chansey Willis Jr.
F: Cade Tyson
F: Jaylen Crocker-Johnson
C: Robert Vaihola
6th: Grayson Grove
7th: Langston Reynolds
8th: Bobby Durkin

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Grove was the first player off the bench on Saturday night, but that seemed more of a coincidence than anything. It was an eight-man rotation for the first time this season, as Kai Shinholster did not see the floor. BJ Omot remained out for the fourth straight game, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues.

Cade Tyson

Tyson led Minnesota with 22.7 points per game in its first three contests before Saturday night. He was almost exclusively the only offense the Gophers had against Green Bay. He led the way with 27 points on 7 of 14 shooting from the field, and Minnesota didn't even have a second player score in double figures, despite going to overtime.

It's going to be a long rebuild

The Gophers began the season with five great halves of basketball, but they've looked almost unrecognizable since Missouri's eight-point possession on Wednesday. Green Bay is rated outside of the top 300 teams in Division I according to most analytical rankings. It was just one game, but Medved's Gophers are going to need to prove that Saturday night was just an anomaly and not the trend of something much worse.

Every head coach cannot turn a program around overnight. Legendary college football head coach Nick Saban lost to UL Monroe in 2007 when he was with Alabama. Medved fortunately did not lose this game, and will have plenty of opportunities to prove himself, but Saturday night was a concerning performance from his team.

Free throw shooting

Anyone who watched the Gophers under Ben Johnson knows that free-throw shooting was a serious issue. There continue to be some concerning trends under Medved. Minnesota shot 20 of 39 (51.3%) from the line as a team. There is seemingly a curse in Williams Arena for the home team's free-throw shooting.