Tag: Minnesota Golden Gophers Basketball

It is true that the 1997 Minnesota Golden Gophers did not comply with NCAA rules. Coach Clem Haskins ran afoul of college sports’ governing body. Many people in college sports regard that as a tainted season, and that’s a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Yet, regardless of whether you view Minnesota’s most recent Final Four season as a tainted achievement, it remains that the 1997 Gophers were really good. Bobby Jackson, who carved out a solid professional career with the Sacramento Kings, was part of a dynamic group which could really hoop.

Two years after Minnesota made the Final Four, another player with connections to the state of Minnesota, Khalid El-Amin, helped Connecticut and Jim Calhoun win their first men’s national title by beating Duke in the title game. El-Amin went to high school in Minneapolis.

Speaking of Duke, the Blue Devils denied Wisconsin a national championship in 2015 when Minnesota-born Tyus Jones starred down the stretch for Mike Krzyzewski. Jones attended high school in Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Some special high-end college basketball players have come from the state of Minnesota since the Golden Gophers made their last Final Four. This isn’t an attempt to say that Minnesota talent has been better than Wisconsin-based talent – we’re not going to go there. This is merely a way of underscoring the point that Minnesota-based prospects are not exactly scrubs. They can ball.

Yet, only Wisconsin has built a strong program this century. Only Wisconsin has SUSTAINED a strong program this century. Only Wisconsin has displayed annual high-level consistency this century.

As Minnesota comes to the Kohl Center for a Sunday game against the Badgers, it is striking to note that the Gophers – about to miss the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in seven seasons under Richard Pitino – are plainly a program which misses the Big Dance more than it makes it… at least in the current century.

When this century began, how many people could have or would have confidently asserted that Wisconsin would not only be better than Minnesota in basketball, but would completely and utterly leave the Gophers in the dust?

Neither program entered this century with a towering legacy or a glittering identity in college basketball. One could see the seeds of what Dick Bennett was planting in Madison, but Clem Haskins – say what you want about the way he ran his program – was an objectively good on-court coach. Seven years before Minnesota made the Final Four, the Gophers reached the Elite Eight in 1990 and lost to the Kenny Anderson-Dennis Scott Georgia Tech team which gave Bobby Cremins his only Final Four appearance.

Wisconsin and Minnesota were not miles apart as basketball programs on the first day of the year 2000.

A full 20 years later, the gap between them is as wide as the Grand Canyon – in a long-term context and solely within the context of this season.

What is a good way to help a Wisconsin basketball fan appreciate how good life is, before Sunday’s game in the Kohl Center? Just look over to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and see how much the Gophers are failing to realize their potential. No wonder you see Ethan Happ (in the 2019 photo attached to this story) blowing kisses to defeated Minnesota fans in The Barn.

That image summarizes the past 20 years of college basketball at these two schools.

When trying to get a sense of which stats matter in a game, one always has to weigh and balance competing tensions.

In basketball, a small number of rebounds isn’t necessarily bad. A team could shoot 55 percent from the field, which reduces the number of rebounds available. Rebounding matters little in that particular circumstance.

A small number of assists can reveal deficient ball movement and substandard passing in a halfcourt offense, but if players are missing open shots for much of a game, good passes don’t translate into assists. That reality has to be kept in mind when evaluating assists in particular and assist-turnover ratios or differentials on a larger scale.

Wednesday night in Minneapolis, Wisconsin got blown out by Minnesota, losing 70-52. In a blowout, several statistics are likely to jump out. Shooting percentage is one. Wisconsin’s 19-of-67 shooting line, with a 7-of-29 mark from 3-point range, is hard to miss. Minnesota going 9 of 22 on threes (41 percent) is also eye-catching.

The 16-9 assist differential — plus-seven for the Gophers — might seem significant, but as explained above, Wisconsin players missed so many shots that UW’s passing wasn’t necessarily that much worse than Minnesota’s.

The statistics above are relevant to varying degrees, but they can’t match this next one. This is the statistic which most centrally defined Wisconsin’s decisive loss: The Badgers forced only five Minnesota turnovers. FIVE!

That tally was ONE turnover at the half, and given that the second half was never close, there were plenty of garbage-time minutes late in regulation. Wisconsin barely forced any turnovers when this game’s outcome was still in doubt.

Understand this point about good offense versus good defense in basketball: Sometimes good defense is defeated by better offense. Andre Iguodala plays great defense, but LeBron James hits the clutch jumper anyway. However, good defense always makes good offense WORK HARD for its points. A great scorer or a good offense might have a superb night when everything is clicking, but the good defense made the offense work for its points, so that at the other end of the floor, the elite scorer can’t cruise on defense. He has to put in equal energy. Over the course of a full game, that can take a toll on an elite scorer.

Wisconsin did not challenge or bother Minnesota in the first half. The Gophers’ shooting percentages and scoring rates dropped precipitously in the second half and in garbage time, but it didn’t matter. The total no-show by the defense in the first half created a game in which Minnesota players were very fresh at the defensive end. Minnesota met so little resistance on offense that it was able to conserve energy for defense, and hold Wisconsin under 30-percent shooting from the floor.

Make the opponent earn a victory. Every competitor strives to achieve that. If you can’t win, at least know you did everything you could to make it happen.

Wisconsin didn’t do that. The Badgers weren’t just bad; they were toothless.

Wisconsin somehow scored 43 points in one half against Michigan State this past Saturday. The Badgers gave up 70 points to Purdue a week and a half ago. Yet, if one was to predict how Wednesday’s game will go for Wisconsin against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, most indicators point to a bruising, physical slog which will be played in the 50s.

Wisconsin’s offense simply isn’t built for 40-minute in-game consistency, from the opening tip until the final horn. The Badgers don’t have the dead-eye shooters to space the floor and make it easier for the guards and wings to drive to the basket and create lots of free throw attempts. This team, as we know, simply doesn’t have the high-end talent needed to load up on threes and foul shots, which is what modern basketball analytics recommend as the cornerstones of a productive offense.

Playing on the road doesn’t bring out the best in Wisconsin’s offense. Even the wins for this team away from home have not been pretty: 61 points scored at Ohio State, 58 at Penn State. When Wisconsin has won on the road in the Big Ten, it has generally done so by thwarting the opponent more than by playing brilliantly on offense. That is part of the reason this game figures to be low-scoring.

The other half of the equation rests with the Golden Gophers. Minnesota is going through its worst offensive stretch of the season. In its last four games, Minnesota has scored more than 56 just once, never more than 62. Minnesota went 1-3 in those four games. The Gophers’ average shooting percentage from the field in their three losses: 32. Minnesota shot 36 percent in a 64-56 loss to Rutgers, 32 percent in a 59-51 loss to Illinois, and 28 percent in a 70-52 loss to Michigan State.

A Wisconsin road game against a motivated but bad-shooting Big Ten opponent. Does that sound like a recipe for a root-canal basketball game? If it doesn’t, then I don’t know when one will ever find a situation more conducive to a low-scoring grinder.

Put on your hard hat and your elbow pads. This should be a bumpy ride for Bucky.

Had the Wisconsin Badgers lost to Michigan State this past Saturday, they would have been in genuine bubble trouble — not worse than the Minnesota Golden Gophers, but enough that they would have needed this game in Minneapolis on Wednesday night for their own situation.

Had Wisconsin lost to Sparta this past Saturday, the Badgers would have been 12-10, which — even with quality wins on the slate — is dangerously close to the NCAA Tournament’s bubble cut line. It would have been necessary for UW to beat Minnesota to alleviate bubble pressure.

Because Wisconsin defeated Michigan State, however, this game is not a supreme bubble pressure-cooker for the Badgers. They’re not an NCAA Tournament lock, but they are well inside the cut line and in a position where one loss won’t significantly dent their hopes. They would need to hemorrhage losses and go into a prolonged downward spiral. Given that they have a bunch of home games coming up in February, that is not likely to happen. The value of a win over Michigan State will substantially boost their profile and ensure that if they lose just a few more games — not a large bunch, but only an occasional game here or there — the Badgers will make the Big Dance.

The real value of this game for Wisconsin, then, is not to make sure it gets into the NCAA Tournament (though that is certainly a part of the picture). It is to make sure Minnesota does NOT.

The Badgers can lose this game and still feel very good about their NCAA position. Naturally, they want to further solidify their position, and a win would do precisely that. There is value to be gained for Wisconsin in this contest on Wednesday. We’re not saying or suggesting there isn’t any value to be found for the Badgers on their own terms.

However, the BIGGEST source of value for Wisconsin does not pertain to the Badgers themselves, at least not directly. The biggest source of value for UW on Wednesday is to take a bubble team, Minnesota, and push it into the NIT.

We have discussed Wisconsin’s bubble position in recent weeks. We noted that while Wisconsin derives a benefit from the Big Ten being very deep — meaning that most wins in the conference are quality wins — the Badgers also don’t want every Big Ten team near the bubble to get in. If Minnesota and Purdue don’t get in, that’s two fewer teams UW has to worry about as competitors. If, to lay out the hypothetical, Wisconsin does stumble in February and the month doesn’t go as well as planned, it will be valuable if Minnesota and Purdue aren’t in the NCAA picture.

Wisconsin can severely cripple an opponent’s NCAA Tournament case. Sometimes, that can matter more than a team’s own profile. Wisconsin can improve its resume, yes, but the bigger benefit on Wednesday is to shove the Gophers to a less important mid-March postseason tournament.

This past Saturday afternoon, the Wisconsin Badgers did to Michigan State what other teams have done to them this Big Ten season.

Remember when we discussed the Badgers’ first game against Michigan State on January 17, and then the Badgers’ Jan. 24 game at Purdue one week later? We noted in both instances that Wisconsin’s opponent was going to be very mad, following a blowout loss in its previous game. Michigan State, entering that Jan. 17 contest against Wisconsin, had lost to Purdue by 29 in its previous outing. Purdue, entering Jan. 24 versus the Badgers, had gotten spanked by Illinois (more than 15 points) at home in its most recent game.

Both Michigan State and Purdue played mad against Wisconsin. The Spartans and Boilermakers took out their anger on the Badgers, who were not ready to take an opponent’s best punch.

Saturday, though, Wisconsin was the team with a lot to prove. The Badgers had the chip on their shoulder after a pair of road losses to Purdue and Iowa. The Badgers were supremely motivated after Kobe King left the team and Brad Davison got suspended. Every Badger player spilled the tank and left everything on the floor in the Kohl Center against the Spartans. It was just enough to produce the most thrilling, most important, and most satisfying win of a very rough and bumpy ride this season. Wisconsin benefited from being mad.

Now, as the Badgers turn the page, they are once again entering a situation in which their opponent will have steam coming out of its ears.

Minnesota has lost three of its last four games. In fairness to the Golden Gophers, this has been a tough stretch, with three road trips and no games against the soft spots in the Big Ten, Nebraska and Northwestern. Minnesota lost at Rutgers and Illinois while losing to Michigan State at home. The Gophers’ one win in the last four games was a road game at Ohio State. Minnesota and Purdue — of the 12 Big Ten teams pursuing NCAA Tournament berths — are the teams in major bubble trouble. The Big Ten seems to have a fairly decent hold on 10 NCAA bids, but the Gophers and Boilermakers need to start stacking wins to make the cut as well.

Here we go, then. Wisconsin plays an opponent which is likely to go all-out and play — if not its best game — its most energetic game. Michigan State (on Jan. 17) and Purdue (Jan. 24) were pissed off when they played Wisconsin. Minnesota is likely to exhibit the same demeanor on Wednesday in The Barn.

Let’s see if Wisconsin can finally take an opponent’s best punch on the road.