This one was ugly. The Gophers committed 24 turnovers and17 total fouls against Central Michigan in a 77-59 win Saturday at Williams Arena. For awhile in the first half, Central Michigan looked like a team that had figured out how to beat the Gophers by slowing the pace of the game, playing tough defense whenever Minnesota drove to the lane and doing all of the dirty work necessary to win close games.

But the Gophers kept up with their trend this season and played much better in the second half than they did in the first half. The Gophers hit 52.2 percent of their shot attempts in the second half.They also grabbed 35 rebounds in the game compared toCentral Michigan’s 21.Spencer Tollackson said the team can play aggressively in the second half because they’re in great shape. He said he’s lost 22 pounds since the first day of school.

That may be the case, but a team like Florida State can jump out to a big lead early, and a second-half effort may not be enough to win in the end. Lawrence McKenzie acknowledged the team’s second-half tendencies and said the team does have to work on getting out to a better start.

Tubby Smith said he’s concerned about the team’s assist-to-turnover ratio (16 to 24 against Central Michigan). Turnovers kill would-be-winners in close games. Florida State will be a great test for the Gophers because of the team’s senior backcourt leadership. They’re deep and talented (see Friday victory over No. 24 Florida). Last season, they beat Duke at Duke and the two-time national champion Florida Gators. When they’re on, they’re on.

But the Gophers are 3-0, a mark they never achieved last season. And they’re confident, especially with Tubby Smith on the sidelines.I think they’re proving that they will be a feisty team against any opponent. But they also have to stay away from costly mistakes that will cause to them lose close games against tougher opponents. And I expect the Gophers to play in a lot of close games this season.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 24th, 2007 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Gophers men's basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.