The 2014-2015 college basketball season gets under way Friday night, as the Minnesota Golden Gophers travel to Puerto Rico to face the Louisville Cardinals in the Armed Forces Classic. This matchup is intriguing because Rick Pitino, the Louisville head coach faces his son, Richard, who is the Minnesota head coach.
Last year, in the younger Pitino's first season, the Gophers went 25-13, missing the NCAA tournament, but they did make the NIT, and went on to win it with a 65-63 victory over SMU.
This year, the Gophers are seen by many as a potential sleeper team who could go very deep in the NCAA tournament, and they have 5 seniors from last year's team returning, led by Elliott Elliason, Andre Hollins, DeAndre Mathieu, Kendal Shel, and Maurice Walker, so veteran leadership should be no problem. Elliason, Hollins, and Mathieu were starters last year. With Elliason having a breakout year, leading the team in rebounds, while Hollins lead the team in points.
Louisville has 8 players returning from their team that made it to the Sweet 16 last year, with seniors Wayne Blackshear, and Chris Jones and All-American candidate Montrezl Harrell.
This game should be a very good early season test for the Gophers, who are looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013, when they lost to Florida in the second round.
These two teams match up pretty evenly, with Minnesota having the senior leadership advantage. While Louisville wins the height competition, led by 7'0 Matz Stockman.
VAVEL USA will have a live blog of the game, done by Phillip Steinmetz.
PREDICTION: The Gophers pull out a 75-69 win.