The Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball team has decided to major in inconsistency this season as March quickly approaches. The team sits at 12-12 on the regular season, but only has 4 wins in the Big Ten Conference as they take a road trip out west to visit USC and UCLA. More big wins will have to come to even have a shot at the Big Ten tournament, as the bottom three teams will be ineligible to compete with the addition of four new Big Ten teams this season.
At the beginning of Big Ten play it seemed to be much of the same for the Gophers as they started 0-4. However, Dawson Garcia was able to spark the locker room in mid January with a buzzer beater three to beat Michigan. Michigan has gone on to play well in conference play and is set up for a spot in the NCAA tournament. The win was the first in conference play for the Gophers and set the stage for a hot streak.
Garcia has been on a tear all year averaging 19.8 points per game along with 7.4 rebounds. These stats set him up to be in the Big Ten first team conversation, even getting some attention from national media. His 19.8 points average puts him tied for 20th among all division one scorers and he is truly the only offense the Gophers can count on.
After the big win against Michigan the team hoped to keep the momentum going with a road game in Iowa City. The defense was able to play at an outstanding level keeping the great shooting Hawkeyes to only 28 first half points. Guard Femi Odukale was able to produce 19 points for the Gophers which ended up being just enough as the team snuck past Iowa after a late game surge.
Another impactful transfer has been Lu’Cye Patterson, showing some light at guard as of late averaging 11.2 points per game, a stat that has gotten better throughout Big Ten play. His relevance has been able to take some pressure off guard Mike Mitchell Jr. who has also played consistently as of late averaging 10.2 points per game.
The Gophers then came home to take on the Oregon Ducks. It was the first time the Ducks had played at Williams Arena since the early 2000’s and the crowd did not disappoint. The Barn was packed and it gave the Gophers a hot start with three pointers falling. However, Oregon then ranked 11th in the country kept fighting making it a 44-38 lead for the Gophers at the half.
In the second half the crowd kept the energy going for the Gophers as the game got tight. However, there was still no answer for the Gopher senior Dawson Garcia as he scored the final two of his 31 point performance on a game sealing dunk. The fans, spoiled with back to back ranked home wins, stormed the court once again in celebration of a win that shook the conference.
Since the outstanding win at home the Gophers have fallen back to a more reasonable level in Big Ten play dropping three of their last four. They are currently third to last in the conference which would have them knocked out of the Big Ten tournament if play started today.
With only three home games remaining against Penn St., Northwestern, and Wisconsin packing the Barn will be crucial. The crowd energy is known to keep the Gophers in games and can give the team an extra push to beat better conference foes.
