Minnesota began its Acrisure Invitational journey with some great energy against Stanford, but an injury to starting point guard Chansey Willis Jr. was too much to overcome in a hard-fought 72-68 loss. Here’s what we learned.

Minnesota has been without North Dakota transfer BJ Omot and Maryland transfer Chance Stephens in every regular-season game, while starting big man Robert Vaihola missed his second straight game on Thursday with a knee injury. Things got even more scarce after two early fouls sent Willis to the bench, and he came out of the locker room with a boot on his right ankle.

The Gophers were already not a very deep team, so taking away four rotational players is a massive issue for Niko Medved and a rebuilding program.

Subscribe: Sign up to receive the free Gophers On SI newsletter

With Vaihola out for the second straight game due to a knee injury, Minnesota slid Grove into the starting lineup for the first time in his college career. Nehemiah Turner did not see the floor after starting last week’s loss to San Francisco, and it was an eight-man rotation.

The Gophers coughed up 14 turnovers on Thursday night, compared to only eight for Stanford. The biggest difference was that Minnesota’s turnovers resulted in 27 Cardinal points. It’s hard to point to any other stat as the largest factor in Thursday’s result.

Reynolds was the first player off the bench for Minnesota, and he provided some serious energy to begin Thursday night’s game. He had a career-high 16 points in last week’s loss to San Francisco, and it looked like he would remain at that level against Stanford, but he struggled in the second half with six points, six rebounds, four assists and six turnovers on the night.

Asuma generated all the headlines when he opted to stay with the Gophers through the coaching change, but Grove also returned after redshirting last season. The 6-foot-9 big man from Alexandria, Minnesota, got the biggest opportunity of his college career against Stanford. He finished with five points and one rebound in 19 minutes. Medved opted to roll with Durkin in the closing lineup.

The Gophers will face Santa Clara on Friday night in the consolation game of the Acrisure Invitational.