PREVIEW: GOPHERS VS. ALABAMA A&M
Nov. 20, 2017
#14/15 Minnesota (4-0) vs. Alabama A&M (0-3)
Date / Time Tuesday, Nov. 21 | 7 p.m.
Location Williams Arena - Directions
Tickets MyGopherSports.com
Travel Local Weather | Parking | Preferred Hotels
TV Big Ten Network
Live Video BTN2Go
Radio KTLK 1130 AM/103.5 FM
Live Stats Gametracker
Game Notes Minnesota | Alabama A&M
Official Sites Minnesota | Alabama A&M
Social Media Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2017
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: Minneapolis, Minn.
Arena: Williams Arena (14,625)
TV/Live Video: BTN (Cory Provus, Play-by-Play; Jon Crispin, Analyst)
Radio: Learfield/KTLK 1130 AM/103.5 FM –
Mike Grimm (Play-by-Play); Spencer Tollackson (Analyst)
SERIES INFORMATION
Series: First Meeting
Series (Home): First Meeting
Current Streak: n/a
Richard Pitino vs. AAMU: First Meeting
Minnesota vs. SWAC: 4-0*
Richard Pitino vs. SWAC: 1-0
* - excludes vacated games
STARTING FIVE
• Minnesota closes out a three-game November homestand on Tuesday, part of four games in seven days, hosting Alabama A&M in the two teams’ first meeting.
• For the second straight week, Jordan Murphy was named the Big Ten’s Player of the Week. Murphy is leading the team and the Big Ten Conference averaging 24.8 points and 12.8 rebounds per game through the first four games. Murphy has posted double-doubles in every game thus far this season, and he became the first Gopher to win the award in back-to-back weeks. Murphy is also just the fourth Gopher to win it multiple times in the same season.
• Wondering about how to watch the Gopher games in Brooklyn this Friday and Saturday? Both games will be broadcast for free on Facebook via the Stadium network’s Live College Basketball page. Visit
z.umn.edu/mbbbktv for more information on how to watch. Twin Cities News Talk (1130 AM/103.5 FM) will carry the radio broadcast for each game from Brooklyn.
• All five of the Gophers starters are averaging double-digit scoring. As of Monday afternoon, Minnesota and Purdue are the only two teams who have featured the same starting five in every game with the entire quintet averaging 10 or more points per game.
• The Gophers are ranked 14th nationally in the Associated Press and 15th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. It marks the first time that Minnesota has begun the season as a ranked squad since 2009, when the Gophers were 25th in the AP poll. It is the Gophers highest ranking since 1993-1994, when they were 10th entering the season. The Gophers received votes in each of the preseason polls from 2011-13 and 2015.
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
• Alabama A&M is 0-3 on the season after suffering defeats on the road to Ohio, Samford, and Alabama.
• AAMU is one of the four teams taking part in the Barclays Center Classic (along with Niagara, Western Carolina and UT Arlington) who will continue play in the tournament later this week on Niagara’s campus in Western New York.
• Arthur Johnson leads the Aggie offense with 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while De’Ederick Petty is the other A&M scorer in double figures, chipping in 13 points per contest.
GOPHERS VS. THE SWAC
• The Gophers have amassed a record of 4-0 against the current membership of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, excluding vacated games.
• Series records vs. SWAC teams are as follows: Alcorn State 1-0, Grambling State 2-0, Southern 1-0.
• Minnesota played games against Alabama State, Mississippi Valley State and Texas Southern that were later vacated by the NCAA.
• This is the second SWAC opponent that a Richard Pitino-coached Gopher team has faced, after a 85-57 win over Southern University on Dec. 10, 2014.
UP NEXT
• Minnesota travels eastward to Brooklyn, N.Y., for the Barclays Center Classic.
• The Gophers face UMass on Friday at 11 a.m. CT from the Steinberg Wellness Center on the campus of LIU Brooklyn.
• Minnesota will then face No. 25 Alabama the next day at the Barclays Center, with tip set for 4 p.m. CT.
Nov. 20, 2017
#14/15 Minnesota (4-0) vs. Alabama A&M (0-3)
Date / Time Tuesday, Nov. 21 | 7 p.m.
Location Williams Arena - Directions
Tickets MyGopherSports.com
Travel Local Weather | Parking | Preferred Hotels
TV Big Ten Network
Live Video BTN2Go
Radio KTLK 1130 AM/103.5 FM
Live Stats Gametracker
Game Notes Minnesota | Alabama A&M
Official Sites Minnesota | Alabama A&M
Social Media Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2017
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: Minneapolis, Minn.
Arena: Williams Arena (14,625)
TV/Live Video: BTN (Cory Provus, Play-by-Play; Jon Crispin, Analyst)
Radio: Learfield/KTLK 1130 AM/103.5 FM –
Mike Grimm (Play-by-Play); Spencer Tollackson (Analyst)
SERIES INFORMATION
Series: First Meeting
Series (Home): First Meeting
Current Streak: n/a
Richard Pitino vs. AAMU: First Meeting
Minnesota vs. SWAC: 4-0*
Richard Pitino vs. SWAC: 1-0
* - excludes vacated games
STARTING FIVE
• Minnesota closes out a three-game November homestand on Tuesday, part of four games in seven days, hosting Alabama A&M in the two teams’ first meeting.
• For the second straight week, Jordan Murphy was named the Big Ten’s Player of the Week. Murphy is leading the team and the Big Ten Conference averaging 24.8 points and 12.8 rebounds per game through the first four games. Murphy has posted double-doubles in every game thus far this season, and he became the first Gopher to win the award in back-to-back weeks. Murphy is also just the fourth Gopher to win it multiple times in the same season.
• Wondering about how to watch the Gopher games in Brooklyn this Friday and Saturday? Both games will be broadcast for free on Facebook via the Stadium network’s Live College Basketball page. Visit
z.umn.edu/mbbbktv for more information on how to watch. Twin Cities News Talk (1130 AM/103.5 FM) will carry the radio broadcast for each game from Brooklyn.
• All five of the Gophers starters are averaging double-digit scoring. As of Monday afternoon, Minnesota and Purdue are the only two teams who have featured the same starting five in every game with the entire quintet averaging 10 or more points per game.
• The Gophers are ranked 14th nationally in the Associated Press and 15th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. It marks the first time that Minnesota has begun the season as a ranked squad since 2009, when the Gophers were 25th in the AP poll. It is the Gophers highest ranking since 1993-1994, when they were 10th entering the season. The Gophers received votes in each of the preseason polls from 2011-13 and 2015.
SCOUTING THE AGGIES
• Alabama A&M is 0-3 on the season after suffering defeats on the road to Ohio, Samford, and Alabama.
• AAMU is one of the four teams taking part in the Barclays Center Classic (along with Niagara, Western Carolina and UT Arlington) who will continue play in the tournament later this week on Niagara’s campus in Western New York.
• Arthur Johnson leads the Aggie offense with 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while De’Ederick Petty is the other A&M scorer in double figures, chipping in 13 points per contest.
GOPHERS VS. THE SWAC
• The Gophers have amassed a record of 4-0 against the current membership of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, excluding vacated games.
• Series records vs. SWAC teams are as follows: Alcorn State 1-0, Grambling State 2-0, Southern 1-0.
• Minnesota played games against Alabama State, Mississippi Valley State and Texas Southern that were later vacated by the NCAA.
• This is the second SWAC opponent that a Richard Pitino-coached Gopher team has faced, after a 85-57 win over Southern University on Dec. 10, 2014.
UP NEXT
• Minnesota travels eastward to Brooklyn, N.Y., for the Barclays Center Classic.
• The Gophers face UMass on Friday at 11 a.m. CT from the Steinberg Wellness Center on the campus of LIU Brooklyn.
• Minnesota will then face No. 25 Alabama the next day at the Barclays Center, with tip set for 4 p.m. CT.
