Can the Minnesota Gophers stay undefeated in their first road game of the season against Pittsburgh?
Let’s check out the NCAAB odds to find out!
Tuesday, November 30, 2021 – 07:00 PM EST at Petersen Events Center
The Minnesota Gophers are undefeated on the year and have already defeated solid teams like UMKC, Western Kentucky, and Princeton. This will be the Gopher’s first test on the road but I’ve got Minnesota winning by a wide margin against a deflated Pittsburgh team that will be competing against Miami to see who the worst ACC team is this season.
The Gophers are shooting a 53 percent effective field goal percentage and have turned the ball over just 15.9 percent of possessions this year. Offensive rebounding has been hard to come by for the Gophers but thankfully, Minnesota is shooting 34.6 percent from long range and 53.6 percent from inside the arc.
Defensively, Minnesota is holding teams to an effective field goal percentage of 41.9 percent. They’ve been dominant defending the three, allowing just 21.4 percent from long range. Despite being awful on the offensive glass, Minnesota is way above average on the defensive glass.
The Gophers won’t see many three-point shots from Pittsburgh, as they’re shooting a low amount of them while only hitting 27.9 percent. It’s just good to know that when Pittsburgh tries to shoot a three, they’ll likely hit just one of every five.
Pittsburgh also turns the ball over 24 percent of the time and has hit just 60.4 percent of foul shots. The Panthers are always finding ways to get to the line and are one of the top teams in the nation at getting there. However, they can’t capitalize most of the time with a very poor free throw percentage.
Plus, Minnesota is top 20 in limiting foul shots from their opposition. Pittsburgh will be lost without getting to the line at a high rate. Pittsburgh has given up 13.1 percent steals this season and is shooting just 50 percent from inside on the season. While 50 percent is average, that’s not going to cut it going up against power-five teams, even with Minnesota lacking height, especially in comparison to Pittsburgh.
We already bet on Minnesota once. This team has plenty of former mid-major talent turned into high-major talent. It’s a quality team and would be like an all-star team for mid-majors. They’ve got four players in double figures and have four players playing at least 35 minutes per game.
Jamison Battle and Payton Willis have been the two most used players in terms of possession percentage. Willis has an assist rate of 20.8 and is shooting 44.4 percent from downtown on the season. Meanwhile, Battle is shooting 69 percent from inside the arc.
There’s not much depth on this Minnesota team but this game shouldn’t be at an extremely fast pace. These guys are conditioned and ready to go.
Pittsburgh is also 2-4 on the season with single-digit wins against UNC Wilmington and Towson. All four losses have been by double digits to The Citadel, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, and UMBC. For our NCAAB pick today, let’s ride Minnesota at -140!
NCAAB Pick: Minnesota ML (-140) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.