State College, Pa. - This afternoon’s Penn State-Minnesota matchup is a big game for both squads. Only a few games into theconference season, the best teams in the conference are beginning to establish themselves, and the pretenders are showing their true colors.

I don’t know what’s going on at Illinois, but they don’t look like the same the team that played well against Arizona in a Dec. 8 loss. And Purdue has also slipped since their upset win over Louisville.

The fifth and final at-large NCAAtourney bid for the Big Ten could come down to Minnesota and Penn State. This game will mean a lot more in March.

On another note, Damian Johnson will start tonight over Jamal Abu-Shamala, according toa key source connected to the program. Although Tubby will apparently start Johnson because Abu-Shamala hurt his hip against Northwestern, my guess is that the coach has finally decided to reward Johnson’s productivity and address Abu-Shamala’s lack thereof.

I expect Al Nolen to play a lot of minutes, too. This is also a big game for Blake Hoffarber. Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said he’s focused on stopping Minnesota from kicking out to Hoffarber on the wing. Easier said than done, but the Nittany Lions will try to neutralize the freshman guard.

My prediction: The Gophers will pull out a close win over a tough Nittany Lions squad. 67-62, Minnesota wins.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 12:08 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.