The Minnesota Golden Gophers have lost just once this season -- a surprising statistic considering Trevor Mbakwe's injury left them short-handed too early in the season -- and the team has been rolling as of late. Tubby Smith's squad will look to continue their winning streak on Thursday night when the Gophers host the North Dakota State Bison.
NDSU and Minnesota have had some pretty solid football battles in the past and, according to the experts over at The Daily Gopher, that could be the case on the basketball court in the future as well.
You may notice that I put the class of each of the Bison. Notice that their top 8 minutes guys are all sophomores or freshmen. This is a very solid nucleus that should be a pretty good mid-major in the next couple years.
In a nutshell, this is a good defensive team that struggles offensively. Assuming we are focused and not looking ahead to Illinois, we should be able to pull out what will probably be a close win. But it is easy to get caught up in the 11-1 record and I do have a fear that we are looking ahead a bit here.
The Gophers will be off until Tuesday following the NDSU game with a Big Ten match-up against Illinois next on tap.