University of Minnesota Athletics
Thursday, March 2
Williams Arena
6:00 PM
University of Minnesota
vs
Rutgers
Players Mentioned
Forward
/ Men's Basketball
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
Forward
/ Men's Basketball
Guard/Forward
/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
Forward
/ Men's Basketball
Guard
/ Men's Basketball
Gophers Close Out Regular Season at Home
2/28/2023 3:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV: BTN (Jason Ross Jr. - play by play, Devin Harris - color)
Tip Time: 6:01 p.m. CT
Radio: Learfield IMG: KFAN 100.3 FM
Mike Grimm (Play-by-Play)
Sirius XM: 384 App: 974
SERIES INFORMATION
17th Meeting (9-7 all time)
Minnesota Home vs Rutgers: 6-1
Gophers All-Time vs. Big Ten: 785-899*
* - excludes vacated games
STARTING FIVE
• The University of Minnesota men's basketball team closes out the 2022-23 regular season with a pair of home games this week when Rutgers and Wisconsin come to town Thursday and Sunday. Minnesota is 9-7 all-time against the Scarlet Knights, including a 6-1 mark at Williams Arena. Since Rutgers joined the league in 2014, Minnesota is 7-7 against Rutgers. Minnesota then plays Wisconsin on Sunday to close out the regular season.
• Minnesota and Rutgers last met on Feb. 1 in Piscataway, N.J., where the Scarlet Knights walked away with a 90-55 win over the Gophers. Joshua Ola-Joseph led Minnesota with a career-high 17 points and added a career-high eight rebounds, and Ta'Lon Cooper added 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Minnesota was limited to eight players in the game, as the Gophers were without leading scorer and rebounder Dawson Garcia and guard Braeden Carrington.
• Minnesota dropped a road contest to Nebraska in its last competition Saturday. Five Minnesota players scored in double-figures, led by 12 points each from Jamison Battle and Ta'Lon Cooper. Dawson Garcia had a double-double with 11 points and a team-high 14 rebounds, while Jaden Henley finished with 11 points, and Pharrel Payne had 10 points and nine rebounds to just miss a double-double. It was Minnesota's third road game in five days.
• With Minnesota having five individuals garner double-figure scoring, it marked the second time this season the Gophers had accomplished that feat this season. Minnesota's last game in which five athletes scored double figures was against Michigan on Dec. 8, 2022. In that game, Minnesota had scoring from Cooper (16 points), Payne (15), Garcia (13) Ola-Joseph (11) and Battle (11).
• Some notables from the last Gopher contest at Nebraska: Joshua Ola-Joseph and Pharrel Payne both reached 200 career points in their young Gopher tenure. Ola-Joseph has 205 points, while Payne has 204. Dawson Garcia had a career-high three blocked shots and 14 rebounds at Nebraska, one shy of his career-high of 15, also against Nebraska on Jan. 7. Jaden Henley reached double-figures for the second straight game and for the third time in the past five games.
ABOUT RUTGERS
• Rutgers enters the Minnesota game with an 18-11 overall record and 10-8 in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 59-56 win at Penn State Sunday. After dropping three-straight at Indiana, at Illinois and home vs. Nebraska, Rutgers has now won its past two of three at Wisconsin, home against Michigan and at PSU. Rutgers also lost starter Mawot Mag to a season-ending injury since the last time the Gophers faced them.
• Clifford Omoruyi leads the Scarlet Knights in points (13.2 per game), rebounds (9.9 rbg), field goals (150), field goal percentage (.503) and blocks (59). His rebounding and blocking numbers ranks third in the Big Ten. Cam Spencer averages 12.6 points, while Caleb McConnell rounds out the top three at 9.7. McConnell, Spencer and Paul Mulcahy have a combined 160 steals, which ranks first, third and fourth in the league. McConnell is also a Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist.
• As a team, Rutgers averages 68.5 points, while stifling its opponents to just 59.7 points a game. That ranks first in the league in scoring defense. The Scarlet Knights are shooting 43 percent from the field and 32.4 from three. They average 37.4 rebounds and shoot 71 percent from the free throw line.
LAST TIME AT WILLIAMS
• Minnesota defeated Rutgers the last time the Scarlet Knights visited Williams Arena on Jan. 22, 2022. Payton Willis scored a career-high 32 points, matching a program record with eight 3-pointers. Missing three starters, short-handed Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak. Willis was later named Big Ten Player of the Week after that performance.
BATTLE RECEIVES ACADEMIC RECOGNITION
• Jamison Battle has been named to the 2022-23 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Men's Basketball Team. Recognizing the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at their current institution in order to be nominated.
• Battle is a sports management major and holds a 3.5 cumulative grade point average academically as a senior.
POSTPONEMENT/CANCELED GAMES
• The Minnesota men's basketball game originally scheduled for Feb. 7 at Illinois, was played on Monday, Feb. 20 in Champaign, Ill. The game was postponed due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Golden Gopher program.
• Michigan State announced on Monday, Feb. 13 that the men's basketball game between Minnesota and Michigan State, which was to be contested on Wednesday, Feb 15 at Michigan State, was postponed because of the tragic shootings that took place on the Michigan State campus on Monday. On Monday, Feb. 27, the Big Ten announced that the game would not be rescheduled and declared a no contest. Minnesota and MSU will play 19 games during league action.
ON THE DOCKET
• Minnesota is back in action Sunday when the Golden Gophers close the regular season at home against border rival Wisconsin. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m., and will be broadcast on FS1.
• Mike Grimm and Spencer Tollackson will also be on the radio call on KFAN 100.3 FM.
TV: BTN (Jason Ross Jr. - play by play, Devin Harris - color)
Tip Time: 6:01 p.m. CT
Radio: Learfield IMG: KFAN 100.3 FM
Mike Grimm (Play-by-Play)
Sirius XM: 384 App: 974
SERIES INFORMATION
17th Meeting (9-7 all time)
Minnesota Home vs Rutgers: 6-1
Gophers All-Time vs. Big Ten: 785-899*
* - excludes vacated games
STARTING FIVE
• The University of Minnesota men's basketball team closes out the 2022-23 regular season with a pair of home games this week when Rutgers and Wisconsin come to town Thursday and Sunday. Minnesota is 9-7 all-time against the Scarlet Knights, including a 6-1 mark at Williams Arena. Since Rutgers joined the league in 2014, Minnesota is 7-7 against Rutgers. Minnesota then plays Wisconsin on Sunday to close out the regular season.
• Minnesota and Rutgers last met on Feb. 1 in Piscataway, N.J., where the Scarlet Knights walked away with a 90-55 win over the Gophers. Joshua Ola-Joseph led Minnesota with a career-high 17 points and added a career-high eight rebounds, and Ta'Lon Cooper added 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Minnesota was limited to eight players in the game, as the Gophers were without leading scorer and rebounder Dawson Garcia and guard Braeden Carrington.
• Minnesota dropped a road contest to Nebraska in its last competition Saturday. Five Minnesota players scored in double-figures, led by 12 points each from Jamison Battle and Ta'Lon Cooper. Dawson Garcia had a double-double with 11 points and a team-high 14 rebounds, while Jaden Henley finished with 11 points, and Pharrel Payne had 10 points and nine rebounds to just miss a double-double. It was Minnesota's third road game in five days.
• With Minnesota having five individuals garner double-figure scoring, it marked the second time this season the Gophers had accomplished that feat this season. Minnesota's last game in which five athletes scored double figures was against Michigan on Dec. 8, 2022. In that game, Minnesota had scoring from Cooper (16 points), Payne (15), Garcia (13) Ola-Joseph (11) and Battle (11).
• Some notables from the last Gopher contest at Nebraska: Joshua Ola-Joseph and Pharrel Payne both reached 200 career points in their young Gopher tenure. Ola-Joseph has 205 points, while Payne has 204. Dawson Garcia had a career-high three blocked shots and 14 rebounds at Nebraska, one shy of his career-high of 15, also against Nebraska on Jan. 7. Jaden Henley reached double-figures for the second straight game and for the third time in the past five games.
ABOUT RUTGERS
• Rutgers enters the Minnesota game with an 18-11 overall record and 10-8 in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 59-56 win at Penn State Sunday. After dropping three-straight at Indiana, at Illinois and home vs. Nebraska, Rutgers has now won its past two of three at Wisconsin, home against Michigan and at PSU. Rutgers also lost starter Mawot Mag to a season-ending injury since the last time the Gophers faced them.
• Clifford Omoruyi leads the Scarlet Knights in points (13.2 per game), rebounds (9.9 rbg), field goals (150), field goal percentage (.503) and blocks (59). His rebounding and blocking numbers ranks third in the Big Ten. Cam Spencer averages 12.6 points, while Caleb McConnell rounds out the top three at 9.7. McConnell, Spencer and Paul Mulcahy have a combined 160 steals, which ranks first, third and fourth in the league. McConnell is also a Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist.
• As a team, Rutgers averages 68.5 points, while stifling its opponents to just 59.7 points a game. That ranks first in the league in scoring defense. The Scarlet Knights are shooting 43 percent from the field and 32.4 from three. They average 37.4 rebounds and shoot 71 percent from the free throw line.
LAST TIME AT WILLIAMS
• Minnesota defeated Rutgers the last time the Scarlet Knights visited Williams Arena on Jan. 22, 2022. Payton Willis scored a career-high 32 points, matching a program record with eight 3-pointers. Missing three starters, short-handed Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak. Willis was later named Big Ten Player of the Week after that performance.
BATTLE RECEIVES ACADEMIC RECOGNITION
• Jamison Battle has been named to the 2022-23 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Men's Basketball Team. Recognizing the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at their current institution in order to be nominated.
• Battle is a sports management major and holds a 3.5 cumulative grade point average academically as a senior.
POSTPONEMENT/CANCELED GAMES
• The Minnesota men's basketball game originally scheduled for Feb. 7 at Illinois, was played on Monday, Feb. 20 in Champaign, Ill. The game was postponed due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Golden Gopher program.
• Michigan State announced on Monday, Feb. 13 that the men's basketball game between Minnesota and Michigan State, which was to be contested on Wednesday, Feb 15 at Michigan State, was postponed because of the tragic shootings that took place on the Michigan State campus on Monday. On Monday, Feb. 27, the Big Ten announced that the game would not be rescheduled and declared a no contest. Minnesota and MSU will play 19 games during league action.
ON THE DOCKET
• Minnesota is back in action Sunday when the Golden Gophers close the regular season at home against border rival Wisconsin. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m., and will be broadcast on FS1.
• Mike Grimm and Spencer Tollackson will also be on the radio call on KFAN 100.3 FM.
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