25 College Basketball Teams in 25 Days: No. 14 Minnesota Gophers

BleedGopher

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per FanSided:

The Minnesota Golden Gophers’ basketball history books aren’t exactly littered with success stories. The Gophers have only made the Sweet Sixteen four times since the inception of the NCAA Tournament, their last trip coming during a now vacated run to the Final Four back in 1997. Over 20 years later, though, the program is experiencing an emergence that has them positioned as one of the likely candidates to play on the second weekend come next March.

Last season, Minnesota won 24 games, the second highest total for the school during this millennium, and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament before getting bounced by the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, arguably the top double-digit seed in the field.

Head coach Richard Pitino gets nearly every significant piece from that squad back for 2017-18 save for Akeem Springs who is out of eligibility after a graduate transfer year and sophomore Eric Curry who suffered a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus during a pickup game in August. Having experienced pieces like Nate Mason, Amir Coffey, Jordan Murphy and Reggie Lynch back will be vital for the Gophers.

Lynch is the *ahem* linchpin of a defense that ranked in the top 25 nationally last season, according to KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric. The 6-foot-10 center transferred to Minnesota, his home-state school, after playing a pair of seasons at Illinois State. Any questions about his ability to influence high major basketball were answered immediately.

The Gophers’ defense jumped from 162nd in the country in 2015-16 in large part because of Lynch’s ability to patrol the painted area. The rising senior averaged 6.0 blocks per 40 minutes and posted a 14.5 percent block rate as the full roster logged the second highest team block rate in the country at 15.9 percent, per KenPom.

https://fansided.com/2017/10/17/college-basketball-preview-minnesota-gophers/

Go Gophers!!
 

per FanSided:

The Minnesota Golden Gophers’ basketball history books aren’t exactly littered with success stories. The Gophers have only made the Sweet Sixteen four times since the inception of the NCAA Tournament, their last trip coming during a now vacated^ soon to be reinstated ^ run to the Final Four back in 1997. Over 20 years later, though, the program is experiencing an emergence that has them positioned as one of the likely candidates to play on the second weekend come next March.

https://fansided.com/2017/10/17/college-basketball-preview-minnesota-gophers/

Go Gophers!!

FIFY
 




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