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Women’s basketball: Lindsay Whalen, Gophers not surprised by start

john shipley, pioneer press
·3 min read

Lindsay Whalen’s University of Minnesota basketball team was a mystery to most as the team prepared for this season. The Gophers lost a handful of starters to the transfer portal in the spring and were adding a total of nine new players — four of them freshmen.

But Whalen had a pretty good idea of what she could expect, especially from a four-player freshman class that had been ranked as high as 10th nationally by ESPN. She knew they’d be pretty good.

“Clearly, because I’ve recruited them since eighth and ninth grade,” Whalen said Tuesday after an afternoon practice at Williams Arena. “I knew the talent, and I knew the type of people that they are.”

The Gophers are set to play Milwaukee at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Minnesota’s first “field trip” game since 2019. On Monday, they beat a winless Chicago State team 105-54 to improve to 6-5 overall and are 1-1 in the Big Ten. Minnesota’s starters average 19.4 years of age, and three of the team’s top five scorers are freshmen. The other two are sophomores.

Freshman guard Mara Braun leads the team with 18.8 points a game, and classmates Mallory Heyer and Amaya Battle are adding 11.5 and 10.5 points a game, respectively.

Sophomore Rose Micheaux is averaging 12.5 points and a team-high 7.2 boards a game. Four of the team’s five losses have been by six points or fewer, and the five teams to be the Gophers are a combined 44-15.

“We’re just a team that never gives up, we battle till the very end, and I think that’s showed up in all of our games, so far,” Heyer said.

ON THE REBOUND

Whalen was wearing a T-shirt honoring her former teammate Sylvia Fowles, who retired from the WNBA as a member of the Lynx after last season with a league-record 4,007 rebounds.

Whalen has seen the best up close.

“What makes great rebounders is their effort and their energy,” she said Tuesday. “I’m wearing a T-shirt of the greatest rebounder of all time.”

The Gophers have been pretty good on the boards this season. After outrebounding Chicago State 64-33, Minnesota is averaging 44.9 rebounds a game — 19th best in the country.

Battle led the team on Monday with 10 and is averaging 6.2 a game. Micheaux (7.2) and Heyer (6.7) also are averaging more than six boards a game.

“Obviously, you have to have a lot of talent and ability,” Whalen said, “but it takes a lot of effort and heart, which is what it comes down to.”

BRIEFLY

Megan Walstad, a fifth-year senior from Apple Valley who attended Eastview High School, averages 6.8 points and a team-high 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks for Milwaukee. The 6-2 forward was first team all-Horizon Conference last season. … The Gophers played the Panthers in their last field-trip game, which drew more than 4,000 to Williams Arena.

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