The Gophers men’s basketball team’s woeful first-half offense drew attention over the past week.
Fourteen points in the opening 20 minutes of a loss to North Texas and 19 before halftime in a win over Yale will cause passers-by to rubber-neck at the sight of roadside crashes.
While the absence of starting guard Mike Mitchell — the Gophers’ No. 2 scorer behind Dawson Garcia — has certainly caused problems and the need for others to step up on the offensive end, the Gophers’ scoring defense has been one of the best in the nation through the opening few games this season.
Minnesota (3-1) is allowing 57.7 points per game to rank 18th in the nation and second in the Big Ten going into the nonconference game against Cleveland State (3-2) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Williams Arena.
“I think we are physical defensively; we are not physical offensively, and I’m trying to figure that out,” head coach Ben Johnson said Monday. “How can you be so physical and have a presence defensively and then offensively — for lack of a better word — be soft?
“We are trying to get that balance right, but I think the guys have understood that defense can carry you. Whether it’s nonconference, in-conference or hopefully some form of postseason. We used a couple of teams in our league last year as an example.”
Name and numbers
The 54-51 loss to North Texas last week might seem worse than it is because the opponent doesn’t come with name recognition. But the Mean Green are 68th in the KenPom standings as of Monday afternoon.
Minnesota, which is 75th, ranks higher than the three teams it has beaten: Yale (103), Oral Roberts (260) and Omaha (273).
Cleveland State is 191st in KenPom, with a 48-point loss to Michigan to open the season, but Johnson said Cleveland State is much better defensively after the first game and is coming off two wins over Valparaiso and Eastern Michigan.
Injury updates
Mitchell, who sprained his ankle in the Omaha win Nov. 9, still needs to have swelling dissipate before he can take the next step to returning to the court.
Tyler Cochran (foot surgery) will be out through the first two Big Ten games — at home against Michigan State on Dec. 4 and at Indiana on Dec. 9.
“Until he can do cutting, (and) that isn’t going to be until December, I won’t know anything probably until at least a month on where he is at,” Johnson said.
Cochran has been meeting his benchmarks, but if he can’t come back until January or later, the U will need to have conversations with him about potentially redshirting this season. The sixth-year guard was the Mid-American Conference co-defensive player of the year at Toledo last season.
Caleb Williams (mononucleosis) will remain out Tuesday.
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