Big Ten Friday Recap: Minnesota Golden Gophers Beat Seattle Redhawks

The Big Ten had just one game on Friday night and it wasn't necessarily a huge one as Minnesota faced off against Seattle at home.  Minnesota entered the game at 8-2 and was heavily favored.  On the other side, Seattle entered the game at 5-5 with no wins against teams in the Top 200 of KenPom.  Still, Minnesota was looking to avoid an upset on Friday night against an inferior opponent.

Game of the Day: Seattle at Minnesota

The Golden Gophers raced out to a 12-2 lead in this one and never really looked back.  Seattle would make brief runs, but it was 43-21 at halftime and the Redhawks really just didn't have a chance.  Minnesota ended up winning by a final score of 92-57.  The big players in this one were Carlos Morris who had 19 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists and Andre Hollins who had 15 points, 4 assists, and 2 rebounds.  In fact, Minnesota had a total of 11 players see time and 9 players had 10+ minutes.  This was a classic blowout.

For Minnesota, this was a typical trap game and they met the challenge.  The Gophers came in with a 5 game winning streak and were heavy favorites.  Throw in that this is all happening at the end of the semester and near break and there is a lot of potential for the team to come out unfocused.  However, they came out, stayed focused, and moved on to their next game against Furman at home.  They will need to bring the same focus to their next 2 games where they are substantial favorites.

Saturday will likely be a more exciting day for the conference with a boatload of games on the slate.