After Minnesota’s statement win in Cincinnati on Monday night, they took care of business against Southern University on Thursday night at The Barn (SCORE). Here are five key observations.
Isaac Asuma’s career high
Asuma’s season high was 18 points in the 2025-26 campaign. He had 20 points against St. Thomas, and he set a career high on Thursday against Southern after a relatively disappointing performance against Cincinnati. He clearly made significant improvements as a scorer and shooter over the offseason. He finished with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting from three.
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Importance of buy games
Southern entered Thursday night as the No. 280-ranked team on KenPom, and the Jaguars are far from the toughest team Minnesota will face this season. Buy games have become standard practice in college basketball nonconference scheduling, but that doesn’t mean they don’t matter. Thursday’s win doesn’t prove that the Gophers are a great NCAA Tournament team, but a 30-point win will probably help their overall metrics more than a closer win would have.
Kyan Evans’ confidence
When Evans began the regular season 4 of 18 from the field, there were a lot of questions about how this season could look for the North Carolina transfer. He quickly answered many of those with 26 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against Cincinnati on Monday. He has looked like a different player over the last two games, and his confidence was evident when he threw the ball off the backboard to assist a layup to himself in the first half.
Evans finished with 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting, four rebounds and six assists. It’s clear that he’s beginning to settle into his role in Minnesota.
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Nolan Groves and bench guards
With Kai Shinholster out for the foreseeable future, Groves continues to entrench himself as Minnesota’s most effective player off the bench. He finished with eight points, three rebounds and three assists. Malachi Palmer hasn’t made a huge impact in any game, but he’s clearly ahead of Winters Grady in the wing rotation. True freshman Cedric Tomes is clearly Minnesota’s backup point guard with Shinholster out.
Turnovers
If there was one thing Minnesota didn’t do well on Thursday, it was take care of the ball. The Gophers had 17 turnovers against Cincinnati, and they had 17 turnovers for the second straight game against Southern. They keep winning and performing well, but they will need to clean up their turnovers going forward.
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This story was originally published by Bring Me The Sports on Nov 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN Gophers section. Add Bring Me The Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
