Gophers pregame: Five things to watch vs. Wake Forest tonight

Minnesota finishes up its three-game road stretch at Wake Forest tonight for the annual ACC/ Big Ten challenge. The 6 p.m. CT game will be broadcast on ESPNU and 1500 AM.

Life has been a bit more hectic than usual in the early slate this year. Minnesota started its season with a bang, playing Louisville in Puerto Rico in the opener. The Gophers followed that trip with a three-game week, and followed that week with a trip to New York and then a trip to North Carolina. In the meantime, the personnel has dwindled. Right before the season, transfer guard Zach Lofton was dismissed from the team. Last week, Daquein McNeil was suspended following his arrest on two accounts of assault.

After tonight things should settle down a bit -- and from an opponent perspective, a lot. Wake Forest represents Minnesota's last quality opponent (if we can even call the Demon Deacons that) for nearly a month. And there are several areas Minnesota will need to improve to be competitive in the next big stretch: when the conference slate begins on New Year's Eve.

Five things to watch tonight:

1. Team health. On Sunday, both redshirt sophomore Charles Buggs and freshman Nate Mason sat out of practice with a stomach virus. Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said both would practice yesterday, and their availability and health is very important to this team as Buggs will be backing up at the power forward and small forward positions and Mason is now the only scholarship guard coming off the bench.

2. Fouls. Until Minnesota plays a mildly talented team without this being an issue, it will probably be something to watch. The Gophers sent Georgia to the free throw line 14 times in the second half, a big factor in Minnesota's 16-point deficit shrinking all the way to 2. Pitino wants his team to defend aggressively -- now the Gophers have got to find the line between finding success on that end and not getting themselves into foul trouble.

3. Wake Forest's attitude. New head coach Danny Manning has had a rough start to the year. The Demon Deacons lost to both Arkansas and Iona and then piled on the tough times after losing to Delaware State at home on Friday. Will Wake Forest come out mad? It should. The question is whether the Deacons can transform that into an efficient start. "As a coach, you never want to play a team after a loss, and then you don't want to play a team after a guarantee game at home," Pitino said. "So we know those guys have a lot of pride and that's going to be a tough game for us, certainly."

4. Joey King and the rest. In the last two games, King has totaled 23 points and 11 rebounds. That's great for the Gophers. They also shouldn't have to rely on the fifth member of the starting five (in terms of natural scoring ability) to carry them through. On Friday, it was King's nine points in the final seven minutes that allowed the Gophers to hold on. "He willed our team to victory against Georgia I thought," Pitino said. He would probably be happy to see one of the senior guards or the senior center do it as well.

5. Maintaining momentum. In the last two games, Minnesota has burst open double-digit leads in the first half before wasting them away in the second. That was a big theme a year ago. Can the Gophers escape it? Tonight could provide another chance.