Gophers change tipoff time for exhibition against North Dakota

We'll be monitoring the starting five and rotation players carefully during the final tuneup before the regular season begins.

Gophers forward Cade Tyson (10) drives against NDSU during an exhibition game at Williams Arena. | Photo by Brad Rempel, University of Minnesot

Saturday's second Minnesota Gophers exhibition basketball game against North Dakota will start at 12 p.m. instead of the originally scheduled 2 p.m. tip time.

Why the change? Nobody knew what time the Gophers football game, which is in Iowa City against the Hawkeyes, started on Saturday until the Big Ten finally revealed a 2:30 p.m. kickoff this past Sunday. So, to avoid a conflict of interest between fans interested in both football and basketball, the Gophers and North Dakota agreed to change the start time to noon.

That allows diehard Gophers fans to catch the noon basketball game, either in person at Williams Arena or on B1G+, and then go directly to watching the 2:30 p.m. Big Ten battle between Minnesota and Iowa.

It's a smart move because the Gophers football team is commanding significant attention after a big win over No. 25 Nebraska. Their game Saturday at Kinnick Stadium pits them against an Iowa team that, like them, is 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten. The winner will improve to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the conference, setting the stage for an opportunity to stay hot and threaten 8 or 9, or dare we say, 10 wins.

As for the basketball team, Saturday's game is the final exhibition before the regular season begins Nov. 3 when Gardner-Webb visits The Barn. Minnesota beat North Dakota State 80-54 in an exhibition game last weekend, with Cade Tyson leading the way with 28 points. Tyson, who led the nation in three-point shooting two years ago at Belmont, hit six threes and looked like legitimate scorer for the Gophers.

It'll be interesting to see how head coach Niko Medved approaches Saturday's starting lineup. While Isaac Asuma, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Robert Vaihola (14 rebounds against NDSU), and Tyson seem to be surefire starters, there might be a competition at point guard between Chansey Willis Jr. and Langston Reynolds.

Willis started against NDSU, but Reynolds played more minutes (28 to 23) and finished with four points, four rebounds, six assists, and three steals, compared to seven points, three rebounds, and five assists for Willis.

The only other bench player to get significant minutes against NDSU was Bobby Durkin, who was on the floor for 26 minutes. BJ Omot (13 minutes) and Grayson Grove (7 minutes) were the only two other bench players to play more than two minutes.