Minnesota displayed some impressive defense at times, bookended by some not-so-impressive defense, in their 76-69 survival of visiting Siena. The Saints came out on fire, scoring 25 points on their first 13 possessions (1.92 PPP) to run out to an early lead that would go as high as 11 points. Then, Minnesota's defense went into a stretch that likely had Tubby Smith saying, "yeah, that's more like it!", holding Siena to 9 points on their next 21 trips to close the half (0.43 PPP).

The second half brought more Gopher stinginess, with the exception of a late 14 points in 7 possessions flourish that probably made Tubby sweat a little more than he'd have liked. Outside of those two bad stretches, the Minnesota defense allowed just 0.59 points per possession, hinting at their lockdown ability. Sadly, you can't throw out your worst 20 possessions, so Minnesota's overall defensive mark (0.97 PPP) was much less impressive. For the game, the defense did one thing well, and that was force bundles of turnovers. Siena actually shot quite well when they got one off, and they even rebounded a third of their misses.

Offensively, Minnesota crashed the boards and got themselves to the foul line, led by the inside duo of Ralph Sampson and Trevor Mbakwe. The pair combined for 9 offensive rebounds and 11 free throw attempts, and Mbakwe put up his second double-double in as many games as a Gopher. Blake Hoffarber continued to show that he's not just a spot-up shooter anymore, posting a line of 16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 7 assists (2 turnovers). That makes 13 assists to 4 turnovers for The Hoff in two games. Is Blake Hoffarber now a point guard?

All in all, Tubby Smith will have plenty of tape with which to teach his team, but the Gophers did show flashes of defensive excellence. It appears they'll need to cultivate that profile, as the offense hasn't looked impressive enough through two games to carry them. Of course, it's still mid-November, and the Gophers are playing without Devoe Joseph, so it's probably best not to read too much into the early tea leaves. Minnesota has now beaten two potential conference champions in the early going, and that's nothing to sniff at.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller