Gophers felt 'force and physicality' in first taste of Big Ten action

Most of the Gophers men's basketball team was getting its first true taste of the Big Ten during Wednesday night's game against Michigan State at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. That couldn't have been further from the truth for the Spartans.

The result Wednesday night was a 90-72 loss for the Gophers, but it provided needed experience for the group. Aside from Dawson Garcia, Mike Mitchell Jr. and Parker Fox, the rest of the roster has played just a handful of Big Ten games.

Returner Kadyn Betts saw action against Penn State last year. Brennan Rigsby faced a couple Big Ten teams while at Oregon the past two years. Trey Edmonds and Femi Odukale both played against the U previously in their college careers. Lu'Cye Patterson and Frank Mitchell — both starting — didn't face any Big Ten opponents in their previous stops.

The lack of Big Ten experience overall showed against a Spartans team returning four players who played all 35 of the team's games last season, and two more that played at least 20. They were accustomed to the conference's physicality.

The Gophers weren't, and it showed when they were outrebounded 24-8 in the first half.

"That's a big learning step for this team is now that they've seen it, they've seen what force and physicality looks like," Gophers coach Ben Johnson said after the game. "I just told them, there's 19, 20 of these left, and it's all the same. And if you don't bring that certain type of edge and physicality, it's going to be tough."

The encouraging sign for the Gophers is they made strides Wednesday night. While they were still outrebounded 39-27 on the night, they won the battle on the glass 19-15 in the second half. Garcia led by example, pulling down a game-high-matching 11 rebounds. After being outscored by 12 in the first half, the Gophers lost the second half just 48-42.

Minnesota still wasn't all the way there, but the team did take steps in the right direction.

"I think it just goes back to transition. ... I noticed a couple times there were just guys coming back late on shots in transition," Garcia said. "They didn't have good position to box out, and it was a big-time emphasis for us at halftime, so I'll say that would be the reason why we kind of flipped that around."

Transition defense was the most glaring issue. Getting out in transition is something the Spartans excel at, and they put up 27 fast-break points Wednesday to the U's two. The Gophers won't make excuses, but Michigan State was clearly the fresher team. The Spartans had been off for a week, last playing when they upset then-No. 12 North Carolina on Nov. 27.

The Gophers, meanwhile, were coming off a pair of losses in Orlando on Nov. 28-29, came back on Sunday and beat Bethune-Cookman before lacing up against the Spartans Wednesday. They clearly didn't have their legs.

The Spartans also went deep into their bench, playing 12 players, 10 of which played at least 14 minutes.

“They got tremendous depth on their team. I mean, tremendous depth," Johnson said of the Spartans. "... They legitimately can play 10 guys and it does not drop off when they go five in, five out. There’s not a drop off. And I think that’s quality balance that I don’t think many teams have had in a while, and that makes it tough. When they can flow fresh bodies out there all the time and there’s not that drop off, that’s when you got a chance to be a special team.”

It wasn't pretty for the Gophers Wednesday night, but getting a taste of the Big Ten early provides expectations for all the new faces on the roster of what's to come when conference play truly gets going in January. Mitchell Jr. noted how the team is excited to get another crack at it Monday when they visit Indiana. He knows the Hoosiers are "not going to show us any mercy, so we'll be ready." They'll need to bring the physicality and edge they felt against Michigan State.

“It’s a message to the guys who haven’t been in the Big Ten before: Nobody cares. It’s going to continue to spiral if you let it spiral. It’s a lot of parallels with life, too, you got to get up," Garcia said. "You got to give your best effort the next day. You got to show up and expect to win every single day, whether it’s practice and drill, game, and all those things will translate if you do those over and over.”