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Since 1905 the University of Minnesota basketball team has never gone a season without winning a Big Ten game. So I'm using Big Ten wins as the baseline for how badly past teams have done. Four teams have only won one Big Ten game. Let's take a look at those forgettable seasons:
1922-1923: Legendary Athletic Director Doctor L.J. Cooke was in his 26th season coaching the basketball team. Starting out with a win over Hamline everything spiraled downhill from there; including the programs' only loss ever to St. Olaf. It wasn't until the last game of the season that these Gophers picked up a conference win, a four point victory over Indiana. Overall record 2-13, 1-11 in the Big Ten.
1926-1927: Coach Harold Taylor talked a big game and increased fan support so much that attendance quadrupled during his tenure. Unfortunately the fans did not watch the home team win. The only conference win was by four points over Northwestern, who the Gophers ended the season tied with for last place. Overall Record 3-13, 1-11 in the Big Ten.
1928-1929: The first full season at the Field House (later renamed The Barn or Williams Arena) makes this list as a truly awful season. Big L's the U of M took were a first game beating from North Dakota. If Carleton College, Drake, and Iowa hadn't been on the schedule things would have been much worse. Overall Record 4-14, 1-11 in the Big Ten.
1932-1933: Carleton College came back and beat Minnesota. Thankfully the Gophers got to beat Nebraska twice in non conference but couldn't parlay that into any luck in league play. The U got blown out by almost 10 points in every Big Ten game (which is really saying something when these games didn't score more than 40 points). I honestly do not know how this team was able to win on the road against Illinois. Overall Record 5-15, 1-11 in the Big Ten.
Thankfully none of us had to witness this 10 year span of Gopher basketball. And hopefully the U beats Rutgers next week, gets one Big Ten victory and simply becomes the worst team in 83 years. If it doesn't the 2015-2016 Gophers might take a run at the worst team ever (scary face emoji).