Takeaways from Minnesota's 54-51 loss to North Texas

The Minnesota Golden Gophers on Wednesday night found themselves on the losing end for the first time this season, falling to North Texas 54-51.

It was an ugly loss for Minnesota, one in which they scored just 14 points in the first half before putting together a better but far-from-good second half. Ultimately the sluggish start was too much to overcome in the loss.

You can read more about the loss, here.

With that, Gophers Nation offers four thoughts on the Golden Gophers loss on Wednesday.

If the Golden Gophers wanted to make the NCAA Tournament this season, they needed to maximize their opportunities within their non-conference schedule. In the grand scheme of things, it’s one of the weaker non-conference schedules in the country. Oral Roberts, Nebraska Omaha, Bethune Cookman, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Morgan State are all opponents rated by KenPom at 250 or higher.

The only respectable opponents on the Minnesota non-conference schedule were North Texas (65), Yale (104), Wichita State (83), and Florida (21) /Wake Forest (74).

Now, the Gophers are off to a 0-1 start in those four games, and little over the last two games will inspire much confidence that the Gophers will be able to win out the remainder of those three games. Even if the Gophers rebound to have a respectable non-conference record once Big Ten play begins, a quad-three loss could be a deciding factor in the discussions for the NCAA Tournament come March.

That being said, making the NCAA Tournament should be the last thing on the Gophers’ mind currently. Their play over their last two games has been highly concerning even when considering the health of key players.

To start the game 1-for-17 from the field in a game is simply inexcusable and baffling. The Golden Gophers on Wednesday were kept to an embarrassing 14 points in the first 20 minutes of play. Miraculously, they only found themselves trailing 23-14 as Noth Texas seemingly couldn’t get out of their way in the first half as well.

The sloppiness went beyond being unable to buy a basket as well as the Gophers had eight first-half turnovers which resulted in nine points for North Texas on the other side of the court including seven coming off the fast break.

The overwhelming theme of the first-half shooting woes was the Gophers settling for shots. Their first layup attempt of the game didn’t come until the 6:45 mark. Going forward, the Gophers need to do a much better job in their shot selection.

Notably, the Gophers did appear to miss Mike Mitchell’s ability to distribute the ball quite a bit. They had just nine assists in the loss while Mitchell had 12 alone through the first two games. With Mitchell out at least two weeks, the Gophers offense may continue to look sluggish until his return.

If the Golden Gophers are going to have any sort of chance of building momentum this season, someone will have to emerge as an offensive threat beyond Dawson Garcia. Through three games, Garcia has 40% of all the Gophers points scored with 78 of 199 total points.

The next closest Gopher? Lu’Cye Patterson with 27 points and Trey Edmonds is the only other Gopher to total over 20 points so far this season.

Garcia is shooting 66.7% from the field this season making 26-of-39 total shots. No other Gopher this season has made more than nine shots.

If the Gophers’ only true scoring option this season is Dawson Garcia, it’s going to be a very long season for Ben Johnson’s program.

As alluded to above, the Golden Gophers’ guards as a whole struggled without Mike Mitchell. In the loss, Femi Odukale, Brennan Rigsby, Lu’Cye Patterson, and Isaac Asuma went a combined 7-for-35 from the field. They also combined for seven of 13 Minnesota turnovers in the game.

Patterson was especially rough for the Gophers, going 3-for-14 from the field in the loss including 1-for-7 from three-point range. After going 3-for-6 in the season opener against Oral Roberts, Patterson is just 6-for-22 over the last two games, a 27.7% shooting percentage.

Odukale’s struggles are notable as well as he is off to a 3-for-14 start for the season from the field, he’s also missed his only two free throw attempts. The Gophers will need the former Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, and New Mexico State guard to step up his play going forward. There should be hope as well that he can do so as he’s averaged 8.7 points for his career and is a 42% shooter lifetime as well.

The same could be said about Brennan Rigsby who three games is just 5-for-21 including 3-for-12 from three-point range.

For Asuma, freshman struggles are to be expected including Wednesday’s performance which was especially tough as he was 1-for-6 from the field including 1-for-5 from three-point range while turning the ball over three times. The key for the Minnesota native will be to use Wednesday’s game as a learning experience which can sometimes be easier said than done.

With Mike Mitchell Jr likely out for at least another week, the Gophers will need their guards to find their groove quickly starting on Saturday against Yale.

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