Ben Johnson knew Jamison Battle would be injured to start the season, but playing without one of the Big Ten's top players has been a big adjustment for the Gophers men's basketball team.
Battle, who is now out of a boot after foot surgery last month, is the only member of the 11-man preseason All-Big Ten team who hasn't played yet this season.
The talented 6-7 junior will be out Thursday against Central Michigan, but Johnson, the Gophers coach, is hopeful Battle could be ready to play before Big Ten play.
The Gophers, who shot just 33% from the field while suffering their first loss of the season Monday — falling 69-53 against DePaul at home — are not close to what they could be offensively if they had one of the league's best scorers.
"Obviously when you have an all-league player, it just gives confidence to everybody," Johnson said. "That's so important, especially earlier in the year when you've got three or four freshmen out there at the same time. Those guys probably need somebody to lean on to give them confidence."
It's easy to imagine the Gophers having a much more explosive offense once the Big Ten season starts next month with the possible return of Battle, who averaged 17.5 points and hit 75 three-pointers last season.
Transfer Dawson Garcia has assumed the go-to guy role in Battle's absence with 17.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per contest. Still, the Gophers ranked last in the Big Ten in points per game (62.0), 10th in field-goal percentage (43.5) and 13th in three-pointers per game (5.7) through Tuesday.
Point guard Ta'Lon Cooper, another transfer, is the only other Gophers player averaging double figures, with 11.7 points. The three players behind Cooper are freshmen Pharrel Payne (9.0), Jaden Henley (8.0) and Joshua Ola-Joseph (8.0).
"It's just the next man up," Cooper said about replacing Battle. "That's what we preached in the locker room and how we've been going about it."
But Battle, who had a career-high 39 points at Maryland last season, is the type of player who the Gophers would've probably leaned on when they went scoreless for seven minutes and missed 12 straight shots Monday. Garcia tried to bail them out early, but he had trouble vs. DePaul's length and athleticism.
The starters shot 3-for-19 from the field in the first half. The bench didn't help much, going 0-for-6 other than Payne, who had 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting.
Until Battle returns, the 6-9, 255-pound Payne might be the Gophers' most reliable scoring option besides Garcia. A Cottage Grove native, Payne hasn't missed a shot in two games, going 12-for-13 from the field this season.
"Pharrel's a monster," said Garcia, who had 14 of his 19 points in the second half vs. the Blue Demons. "Just have to continue to get him going. I thought he really set the tone in the first half for us as far as physicality goes. We just got to continue to follow that."
Johnson agrees that Payne might start getting more touches, but the Gophers don't want to rush things. Payne leads the team with 11 turnovers, including five against DePaul.
"Even the best-shooting teams sometimes aren't going to make shots," Johnson said. "You still have to find a way to win. Winning comes up a lot more on the defensive side of the ball, taking care of the ball, execution of details."
Battle will return at some point. Freshman guard Braeden Carrington made his debut Monday, so the Gophers are getting healthier and could get better offensively soon.