Alabama @ Minnesota preview

No. 15 Minnesota and Alabama face their biggest challenge of the season and an endurance test when the two unbeatens meet on the second day of the Barclays Center Classic on Saturday in Brooklyn, N.Y. Minnesota took care of Massachusetts 69-51 while Alabama outlasted BYU 71-59 on Friday afternoon in games played at LIU Brooklyn, and the teams will move over the Barclays Center to conclude the tournament one day later.

The Golden Gophers did not come close to their scoring average (94.5 coming into the game) against the Minutemen on Friday, but coach Richard Pitino liked their defensive intensity and the business-like effort from his starting five. “We were the most fundamentally sound today,” Pitino told reporters after the win. “We guarded their ball screens well. They run really good stuff. I thought we were really, really connected.” That will have to be the case again versus Alabama, which has rolled to its first 5-0 start since opening 2012-13 with six consecutive victories and boast a talented young group that is led by highly regarded freshman guard Collin Sexton. The Crimson Tide shot 49.1 percent from the field and limited BYU to 37.3 in Friday’s victory as freshman John Petty continued his strong start by scoring a team-high 16 and knocking home four more 3-pointers to bring his season total to 21.

TV: 5 p.m. ET, Stadium TV

ABOUT ALABAMA (5-0): Sexton cooled off a little Friday with 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting after averaging 25.3 points and connecting on 26-of-41 shots from the field in his first three games. Petty, a 6-5 guard, drained a school-record 10 from 3-point range against Alabama A&M on Nov. 17 to score 30 and averages 15.8 overall while going to the free-throw line just twice in five games (0-for-2). Sophomore guard Dazon Ingram (12.4 points, 20-of-37 from the field) and junior forward Donta Hall (10.2, 7.2 rebounds, 24-of-30) have also been productive.

ABOUT MINNESOTA (6-0): Junior forward Jordan Murphy has strung together six straight double-doubles to begin the season and averages 22.5 points along with 12.0 rebounds while shooting 64.6 percent from the field. Senior Nate Mason (12.7 points, 4.8 assists) had a quiet scoring game Friday with eight, but runs the show in the backcourt with sophomore shooter Amir Coffey (12.5 points), who is 21-of-40 from the field the last four games. Senior center Reggie Lynch has also contributed 11.8 points per game and leads the defense with 28 blocks.

TIP-INS

1. Alabama senior G Riley Norris has contributed nine points, six rebounds and two assists in two games since returning from a hip injury.

2. Minnesota junior G Dupree McBrayer, who shot 41.6 percent from 3-point range in 2016-17, is 9-of-20 from behind the arc this season.

3. The teams last met in 2004 and Alabama came away with a 78-72 victory in the Great Alaska Shootout.

PREDICTION: Minnesota 76, Alabama 70