The Gophers men’s basketball team might face its toughest opponent of the season at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Williams Arena when third-ranked Ohio State (9-0, 1-0 Big Ten) come to The Barn to play Minnesota (4-5, 0-1).
While the U is coming off a blowout road loss to unranked Iowa on Monday, the Buckeyes have impressive blowout wins over No. 10 Villanova at home and No. 7 North Carolina on the road this season.
“We’ve got our hands full,” Gophers coach Richard Pitino said Saturday. “Very well coached, very physical. … Ohio State is as physical of any team we are going to play against. They are tough. They shoot the ball well.”
The challenge starts with 6-foot-9, 260-pound forward Kaleb Wesson, who is averaging 14.1 points and 9.3 rebounds this season.
This task likely will fall on U center Daniel Oturu, who has been averaging a double-double — 22 points and 12 rebounds. But Pitino wants him to be more physical and smarter with the ball after he had a career-high eight turnovers against the Hawkeyes.
“He’s just got to continue to work on the physical part of it,” Pitino said. “Continue to put pressure on those guys to guard him or put them on the bench. Jordan Murphy was one of the best in getting your bigs in foul trouble. We have to continue to do that. “
After the loss to the Hawkeyes, Pitino said his team had “a lot of work to do.” With the better part of a week of practice, that included transition defense, which Iowa exploited early, as well as trying to get into a rhythm on offense and finding ways to get to the free-throw line.
Minnesota is 311th out of 350 in the nation with only 132 free-throw attempts.
“That has been such a strength of ours with our last two tournament teams is getting to the foul line, and we are not getting enough easy points there,” Pitino said.
Minnesota only had eight foul shots against the Hawkeyes, which compounded the cold shooting from guards Marcus Carr, Gabe Kalscheur and Payton Willis. They combined to go 3 of 29 from the field.
Willis tweaked an existing ankle injury during the loss to Iowa and was held out of practice Friday, but Pitino is hopeful he can play Sunday.
“He is fighting through it,” Pitino said. “He was not healthy against Iowa and he kind of reinjured it. Hopefully, he can get some good reps in practice (Saturday) and be ready to go.”
