As the Indiana Hoosiers prepare to host the Minnesota Golden Gophers tonight at 7:30 in Bloomington, we thought we’d take a look at what the Minnesota media has to say about the contest:
MINNESOTA’S ROSTER IS DEPLETED
Any time that you have a problem, you can always take some degree of solace in the realization that somewhere out there someone has it worse. Indiana’s roster was hit hard with injuries in the 2016-17 season, and IU has lost De’Ron Davis this year. You have to say though that Minnesota probably has had it worse this year.
As the Minneapolis Star Tribune profiles, the Gophers’ roster has been decimated. Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino had this to say about the situation:
“I’ve never seen a team get hit with this many things in the middle of the season. But we’re going out to win.”
Here is a quick rundown of the players that will not play or appear unlikely to play tonight against IU:
- Amir Coffey – Day to day. He has missed 8 of the last 10 games including the first meeting with IU. He averages 14 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
- Dupree McBrayer – Day to day. Averages 9.5 points per game and scored 18 against IU in the first meeting.
- Reggie Lynch – Suspended. He was averaging 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks per game. His block average led the country.
- Eric Curry – Top reserve big man was lost in August.
Without Coffey and McBrayer, the Gophers would be down to seven scholarship players. Minnesota came into the conference season as a near consensus top four team in the Big Ten. After losing six in a row and nine of ten, they appear destined for the bottom four.
NO RESPECT FOR HOOSIERS, HOOSIERS WILL WIN
The Daily Gopher (no relation) also understandably laments the Minnesota roster situation and has effectively waived the white flag for the remainder of the season, even including a “Days Until Next Season” counter. It’s 273 if you are interested.
So it may come as no surprise that the Daily Gopher predicts a Hoosier victory tonight. But it didn’t come without a dig at the Hoosiers:
The task doesn’t get any easier as they take to the road against Indiana, who originally set the Gophers off on this terrible streak. Make no mistake about it, the Hoosiers are not good. But these days Minnesota just doesn’t have the firepower to hang with anyone from the Big Ten.
Things have gotten so ridiculous in Gopher country that the media have apparently been reduced to writing game Haikus:
#GopherHaiku for the game:
Just five weeks ago
The death spiral had started.
Now just five games left.
RICHARD PITINO PREVIEWS INDIANA
Take a listen to Pitino’s preview of the game with the Hoosiers. Is it just us, or does it sound like he has somewhat thrown up his hands on this season?
Also, reading between the lines, it sounds to us like Coffey won’t play on Friday but McBrayer sounds much more likely to see the floor.
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Photo credit – Gophersports.com