A shorthanded Minnesota team defeated Eastern Illinois 72-68 to open the season at Williams Arena. Kadiatou Sissoko led all scorers with 24 points.
The Gophers accomplished the two tasks for non-conference games. They won and no one was injured. Good thing on the latter too because due to COVID-19 (because really what isn’t this year), the Gophers had to make do with just seven players. Three of them were playing their first college basketball game.
Fortunately, one of them was Kadi Sissoko. My friend Patrick J from Punch-Drunk Wolves has a rule about star power I’ll dub the 30 seconds test.