Rapid Reaction: Gophers take down Rutgers 83-61

A lot was made about how bad Rutgers was before the game as the Scarlet Knights came into it at 0-14 in the conference and facing historic struggles. I was actually pretty excited to see how bad they were. But for much of the first half it looked like the Gophers might actually be on par with them in the crap department.

But then Rutgers took it into overdrive. Playing with just six scholarship players, the Gophers basically ran circles around them in the second half, stretching a one-point lead to double digits in no time and culminating in an 83-61 blowout.

The Gophers haven't had much to celebrate recently, but the destruction of a terrible conference opponent at least proves out that they're better than the worst team in the conference, and probably more. And guess what? That's a two wins in a row for the first time since they beat Omaha and Clemson in late November. Never has this clip from Major League II been more relevant:

THE STAT: The Gophers forced 21 turnovers from Rutgers. 21. They scored 20 points off those, too.

WHO'S HOT: Jordan Murphy had another double-double racking up 19 points and 14 rebounds. He's tied for the B1G lead in that category. He still had four fouls, though.

TURNING POINT: Minnesota jumped out to a nine-point lead to start the second half and kept the pedal to the metal, wearing a thin Rutgers team down and never letting them back in the game.

NOTABLE: Kevin Dorsey had a nice stat line, putting up 13 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds. He's looking way more consistent than earlier in the year. Dupree McBrayer also filled up the sheet with 14 points, 7 assists and 6 boards. He's sneaking into consistent territory with three double-digit performances in his last four games.

UP NEXT: The Gophers try for three in a row when they head to Champaign to take on Illinois.