No. 14 Minnesota looks to continue unbeaten start (Nov 24, 2017)
No. 14 Minnesota takes a step up in competition this weekend when it plays Massachusetts and No. 25 Alabama in the Barclays Center Classic in New York.
The Golden Gophers (5-0) will first play UMass (3-1) on Friday at the Steinberg Wellness Center at LIU Brooklyn. They face No. 25 Alabama on Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Minnesota has an impressive 86-74 win at Providence, but it has also beaten at home overmatched opponents USC Upstate, Niagara, Western Carolina and Alabama A&M.
Tuesday's 100-57 win over Alabama A&M allowed coach Richard Pitino to go 10 players deep with his rotation and still rest his starters. The bench scored a season-high 42 points.
Jordan Murphy had a team-high 20 points, 10 rebounds and four steals in 22 minutes. Murphy was the only starter to play in the last 10 minutes of the game.
The Gophers shot 61 percent from the field and forced 19 turnovers.
"I wanted our starters playing crisp minutes together," Pitino said. "I saw that, and I thought they were really good. And then obviously, I wanted to get the bench guys some minutes."
UMass tried to stay crisp as well in an 85-76 win over Western Carolina on Tuesday at its Mullins Center that was without a pep band, cheerleaders and its usual student crowd because of Thanksgiving break. The Minutemen overcame the lack of spark by pulling away in the waning minutes.
"I'm happy we won. Take nothing away from a victory, but I think we're going to be able to take a lot from this game," UMass coach Matt McCall said. "We'll break it down and really, really learn a lot of different things. I was not happy with our effort at shoot-around, much less our effort to start the game. ... We were too loose and it completely showed to start the game."
Luwane Pipkins led UMass with 21 points and a career-high 10 assists. Carl Pierre had 15 points. Malik Hines added 11 points and nine rebounds.
McCall, in his first season with UMass after coaching two years at Chattanooga, has only eight scholarship players on his roster.
Seven players transferred after his hire in March. Four incoming transfers are not eligible this season. The biggest blow was fifth-year point guard Jaylen Brantley diagnosed with a heart condition that ended his career.
"You can never prepare for that as a coach," McCall told the Boston Herald. "The guys haven't flinched. They're like, 'All right coach, what's next? Let's get better.' For me as a coach, that's all you can ask for."
UMass will face an experienced Minnesota lineup led by senior point guard Nate Mason, who started against Alabama A&M and made his first five shots and scored all of his 12 points in the first half. He earned All-Big Ten first-team honors last season.
While McCall is short on scholarship players, Pitino was able to dig deep into his bench Tuesday, giving freshmen Isaiah Washington and Jamir Harris and junior Davonte Fitzgerald more opportunities.
Washington finished with six points on 2-for-8 shooting, but he had eight assists with only two turnovers in 21 minutes. Harris scored 11 points in 18 minutes. Fitzgerald had 13 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes.
"These next five games will be pretty big," Fitzgerald said. "The bench, we're going to have to step up a lot. The starting five really has a good flow going out there. So our job is to come in and not have any downfalls."
