Minnesota Loses to wisconsin 56-51

Minnesota lost to Wisconsin 56-51 at Williams Arena. The Gophers drop to 6-6 in conference play. Jordan Murphy led all scorers with 16 points.

After a string of strong offensive performances at Williams Arena, this was a break in the norm for the Gophers. Minnesota struggled to get good shots in the half court. Not to say that this was a pretty game in general. There are many annoying aspects to playing wisconsin, but a major one is having to see terrible basketball be valorized. Neither team shot the ball well. Minnesota was 1/12 from three point range, and the lack of any threat from deep allowed the badgers to pack the paint. The tempo of the game strongly favored wisconsin.

Minnesota should rue this as another missed opportunity because a better shooting performance or a better rebounding performance and the magic number would be three. The Gophers let several long rebounds bounce back into wisconsin hands. Those long rebounds led to six points, which is the difference in the game. The badgers also made some key shots at the end. Minnesota had it as a one possession game at the under 2 minute mark but D’Mitrik Trice made a key three late over length to seal the win.

Individual Notes

Daniel Oturu had an excellent game. Ethan Happ took advantage of the match-up against Eric Curry, but had far more difficulty against Oturu. On offense, Oturu continues to get better. He finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Jordan Murphy had a Jordan Murphy game with 16 points and 19 rebounds. Murphy was 4-5 from the line.

Apart from those two, the individual performances from every other starter was putrid. Eric Curry was a -13 for this game. McBrayer, Coffey, and Kalscheur combined to be 7-27 for 19 total points. Against any team, but particularly a top 25 team, three key starters cannot play that poorly if Minnesota expects to win. McBrayer had three turnovers to go with 1-9 shooting.

Oh yeah, the officiating was crap. This was a mid 80s NBA slugfest and that is not a compliment.

Yes, in case you are wondering Brad Davison tried to trip another player.