Gophers' backcourt situation complicated during McNeil's absence
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Gophers men's basketball team has had to play its last two games without guard Daquein McNeil after the sophomore was arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault. Minnesota's players have not only had to cope with the situation mentally, but physically as well.
Without McNeil, the Gophers' backcourt is thin. The sophomore guard was averaging nearly 19 minutes per game off the bench in his first four games before his arrest early last week. In his absence, others have had to step up and play more minutes or, in some cases, play out of position.
"Certainly the Daquein McNeil situation threw us for a loop," said Minnesota coach Richard Pitino. "That's such a big deal, and I understand it's much bigger than basketball. But as a team, you lose a guy that played 19 minutes a game, so now we had certain guys playing different positions than they're used to playing."
Among those playing out of position is senior guard Andre Hollins, whom Pitino said has practiced a bit at small forward -- not necessarily ideal for a 6-foot-2 guard -- and sophomore Charles Buggs has also spent time learning the small forward position. Pitino added that Buggs and freshman guard Nate Mason missed the team's last practice. Mason will be practicing at both guard positions and small forward, Pitino said, so the missed practice time hurts the Gophers there.
Mason has impressed for a true freshman and is currently third on Minnesota in scoring with 10.2 points per game. Because of how Mason has handled his first handful of college games, Pitino feels comfortable giving him more minutes with McNeil unavailable.
"My thought process always when putting guys in is you've got to put them in positions to succeed," Pitino said. "Nate certainly I think is basketball ready to do that, but we run plays and we have scouting reports and things like that that he has to be prepared for. That's what practice is all about."
Pitino has not said much on McNeil's situation, and it appears highly unlikely that McNeil will rejoin the Gophers any time soon -- if at all. McNeil was in court Monday in Minneapolis and did not enter a plea. A judge set his bail at $75,000.
If McNeil's time with the Gophers is done, Minnesota will have to continue to improvise to round out the backcourt.
"For it to be so sudden, I think they did a really good job of stepping in and stepping up," senior DeAndre Mathieu said of his teammates playing out of position. "Charles Buggs stepped up really big in the Georgia game, playing the three, and he hadn't played the three all year."
The McNeil situation is just one example of how Minnesota has had to deal with adversity this year, both on and off the court. On the court, the Gophers have gone through games in which they've struggled to hold onto big leads. Such was the case last week against St. John's, where Minnesota led 40-31 at the half but was outscored 39-21 after halftime.
In order to be one of the better teams in the Big Ten, the Gophers know they'll have to be able to sustain spurts when opposing teams go on a run. The key is answering back, something they didn't do against St. John's.
"We come out to pretty hot starts, but sometimes we tend to dwindle down a little bit," said Minnesota center Mo Walker. "We just need to be a little more consistent and play the whole 40 minutes through."
The Gophers did bounce back from the St. John's loss to beat Georgia in the final game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden. Now Minnesota takes on Wake Forest on the road Tuesday in Winston Salem, N.C., as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Wake Forest has had a pair of non-conference home losses already against Iona and Delaware State, and also lost on the road at Arkansas. The Demon Deacons are one of the best rebounding teams in the country -- something that Minnesota has struggled with a bit in the early portion of the season -- but they've been plenty vulnerable in other areas.
If Minnesota does build another big lead early, the Gophers hope it won't be yet another hard-learned lesson in dealing with adversity.
"I think that our guys have come ready to play," Pitino said. "A main message to our team has been, how do you handle adversity? Because it's been all year. Louisville, we were ready to play. Then when they throw that punch, whenever adversity hits or something doesn't go our way or a turnover or a call we don't like, how do we respond? ... That's part of competing. You try to simulate it as much as you can in practice, but until you play those games, it's just hard to do that."
Follow Tyler Mason on Twitter
