Gophers true freshman guard Cam Christie had the basketball in his hands with the Missouri game on the line on Nov. 16.

A top recruit out of Arlington Heights, Ill., missed both of his 3-pointers in the final 25 seconds of Minnesota’s 70-68 loss, but Christie wasn’t too shook up by the first missed opportunities of his college career.

“The sky is not falling, just remaining confident,” Christie said of his mindset after he contributed 14 points on four made treys in the 86-67 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday. “I know I’m a good basketball player and knowing that each game is going to make me better, so just learning from each game.”

The next opportunity for Christie and the Gophers (4-1) will be against San Francisco (4-2) at Chase Center at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Like most first-year players, Christie said this biggest adjustments to the college game has been its speed and quality of defenses. That didn’t show in his debut Nov. 10 in a blowout win over Texas-San Antonio; he scored 18 points, made 4 of 6 from 3-point range and added four assists, no turnovers and two steals.

“Shoutout to Cam, what a first game as a Gopher,” fifth-year forward Isaiah Ihnen said. “But it didn’t come as a surprise to us. We’ve seen it in practice.”

Christie was sidelined for roughly a month with mononucleosis and missed the season opener against Bethune-Cookman. He was cleared to return to practice about three weeks ago.

“It was definitely rough,” Christie said of his prolonged absence. “My teammates did a good job of keeping me included. I just had stay confident in myself and true to my work. … I just had to get more practices under my belt and get back into the swing of things.”

But head coach Ben Johnson put Christie in that clutch spot late in the Missouri game because of his composure, pedigree and a brief precedent he’s setting. Both plays against the Tigers led to mismatches and open looks the Gophers wanted, Johnson noted.

“I think to a man in our program we’ve seen him in scrimmages and in short bursts when we’ve competed, make game-winners and make play,” Johnson said.

Christie put the Missouri game in perspective. “Just knowing that it was my first game against a Power Five team, so just soaking in the experience,” he said. “Watch film and get better from it.”

After Missouri, Christie had a quieter game against South Carolina-Upstate, with five points on 2-of-8 shooting, but that was a one-game blip.

Christie’s older brother Max played at Michigan State and is now in his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers, taking the court in 11 games so far this season. His mother Katrina played at Northwestern, and his father Max played at Wisconsin-Superior.

“He’s not your normal 18-year-old in terms of that maturity,” Johnson said. “He’s still young, and I’ve got to remember that, but he does carry himself a little bit older. … He takes it serious. He wants to be really good, and he’s competitive.”

Christie’s aplomb has led to Johnson using Christie at the point guard spot on top of his more-natural shooting guard spot. Johnson said the position addition for Christie became part of the plan when recruiting him out of Illinois.

“He’s a little bit like Amir (Coffey) in terms of when I recruited him here,” Johnson said. “When Amir was on the ball, he was really engaged. Sometimes if Amir was off the ball, you couldn’t notice him. He would just kind of float.

“Cam is not like that, but when he is more on the ball, there is just more of a fight to him,” Johnson continued. “I think with his size (6-foot-6), he can make every type of pass. He can make his cross-court skip. He is crafty in the ball screens, but with him and Mike (Mitchell), it’s kind of pick you poison on who brings it up. I think we can develop him as one of other primary ball handlers.”

Minnesota’s goal is to have multiple capable ball-handlers on top of starting point guard Elijah Hawkins, with Mitchell and Braeden Carrington on top of Christie.

Payne progressing

Gophers center Pharrel Payne (foot) has been on a minutes restriction this season, not playing more than 20 minutes in a game this season. The program doesn’t want what the Gophers consider to be a minor issue become a bigger deal.

Johnson said they will continue to monitor Payne’s playing time based on how he is feeling and the training staff’s assessment.

Meanwhile, San Francisco has good size inside with five players listed at 6-foot-8 in the rotation. San Francisco is picked to finish third in the West Coast Conference, behind St. Mary’s and Gonzaga. It is ranked 80th in KenPom as of Friday; Minnesota is 107th.

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