Gophers men's basketball opens as hefty favorite for game against Omaha

Minnesota will play its second game against the Summit League on Saturday.

Nov 6, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (2) works around Oral Roberts Golden Eagles guard Darius Robinson Jr. (5) during the first half at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Gophers men's basketball will host Omaha at Williams Arena in Minneapolis at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday. The experts favor Minnesota to win the game by 20.5 points.

NEWS: #Gophers MBB opens as (-20.5) point favorites for their matchup tomorrow against Omaha.

The Mavericks will be playing their third game in six days, fresh off a 79-76 win at Stetson. The game will NOT be on BTN+ !!! https://t.co/ML49BjRE61 pic.twitter.com/Yprb5bPj19

— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) November 8, 2024

Saturday will be Minnesota's second and final nonconference game against the Summit League this season. The Mavericks will be playing their third game in six days to start the season. They opened their season with an 85-69 win over NAIA opponent Mid-America Christian. On Thursday, they had their first road test against Stetson and won 79-76.

Omaha is led by third-year head coach Chris Crutchfield, and it was voted to finish eighth out of nine teams in the preseason Summit League poll. Preseason All-Summit League second-team forward Marquel Sutton has been the team's leading scorer through two games, averaging 14.5 points and six rebounds per game.

Popular college basketball analytics site KenPom.com has the Mavericks as the 308th-best team in the country out of 364 total teams in Division I this season. Minnesota will play only two other teams in the nonconference that are currently ranked lower — Morgan State (328) and Fairleigh Dickinson (353).

Prediction

The fact that this will be Omaha's third game in six days to start the season and its second straight road game after playing in DeLand, Fla., plays well in the Gophers' favor. The Mavericks have a relatively tall team with six different players listed at 6-foot-8 or taller, but I think the talent difference in this game is far too wide for it to be a close contest. I think Minnesota flexes its muscles again and picks up a dominant win before a big week with upcoming games against North Texas and Yale.

• Score: Minnesota 84, Omaha 60