Minnesota Gophers: Border Battle Bonanza

There will be a lot of Better Dead Than Red chanting over the next 48 hours for the Minnesota Gophers fans. The Gophers will face off against the Wisconsin Badgers in the Border Battle in five different sports and seven different events over the next 48 hours. A clean sweep is not likely for either school, but there will definitely be some bragging rights for one or another by the end of the weekend. Here is the weekend schedule in order and how you can catch each of the events. Hint—keep tuned to Big Ten Network for a Gopher/Badger marathon on Saturday!

Friday:

The action on Friday kicks off with the start of the Windy City Classic Indoor track event hosted by the Badgers in Chicago. Yeah that sounds weird too, but go with it. The action kicks off at 2 PM with the long jump being the first event at Gately Indoor Track Facility in Chicago. The Gophers will compete against several of the nation’s best teams at the invite along with the Badgers. The showcase event will be the 60 meter dash with qualifying beginning at 3:50 on Friday and the finals on Saturday. The Gophers bring in the two fastest times in the conference thus far with a 7.24 from Amira Young and a 7.27 from Akilah Lewis. Wisconsin’s Kiley Robbins sits at #3 with a time of 7.29. Live Results will be available HERE.

Closing out Friday we head to the ice for a pair of hockey games, one at Ridder Arena and the other at the Kohl Center. The Gopher women host the Badgers at Ridder with faceoff slated for 6 PM Friday night. The game will air live on Bally Sports North Plus.

Then at 8 PM the action moves to Madison when the Gopher men’s hockey team and the Badgers face off. The game will be seen only on Bally Sports Wisconsin Plus which is available on DirecTV. If you don’t get the channel you should be able to stream it through the Bally’s App via a Roku player or other streaming device. Otherwise Wally and Frank will be your friend via terrestrial radio at 1130 AM/103.5 FM or via I Heart Radio or the Varsity Network apps.

Saturday:

The action on Saturday once again starts in Chicago with day 2 of the Windy City Invite beginning at 11:30 AM. From there action begins in Madison in the Fieldhouse as the Badger wrestling team hosts the Gophers at 1 PM in a match that will air live on Big Ten Network. Minnesota is ranked #9 in the nation and are 11-3 and 4-3 in the Big Ten while Wisconsin is ranked #19 and come in with a record of 707 and 106 in the Big Ten. Minnesota will be looking for revenge on the Badgers Senior Day after Wisconsin defeated the Gophers 21-15 a season ago.

The feature bout of the dual comes at 125 pounds, where we will get the seventh installment of the classic rivalry between Minnesota’s #6 Patrick McKee and Wisconsin’s #7 Eric Barnett, with McKee leading the series with a 4-2 record over Barnett.

The rest of the probable matchups are below from the Gophers media notes:

At 3 PM while BTN airs a Wisconsin men’s basketball game, flip over to BTN+ where Lindsay Whalen and the Gopher women’s basketball team hosts the Badgers from The Barn. Minnesota dropped a 81-77 game to the Badgers in Madison earlier this season. The winner of the game will get a chance to stay out of the Big Ten’s cellar as both Minnesota and Wisconsin come in with 2-11 conference records, a half game ahead of 1-11 Northwestern. Minnesota has lost five games in a row, and Wisconsin has lost seven in a row. Something has to give.

At 5 PM flip back to Big Ten Network to catch game two of the Gopher men’s hockey team in Madison, or lets be honest if you want to watch the first half of the first period start to stream it on FOXSports.com while the basketball game ends. There is a very good chance Minnesota will be looking for a win and the sweep and that will clinch the Big Ten Regular Season Championship for the second consecutive season.

At 7:30 the action on the ice moves back to Minneapolis as Ridder Arena takes center stage for the second game of the Gopher women’s series against Wisconsin. Minnesota will be celebrating Senior night and would love to send out their senior and grad student laden class with one last win in prime time on national tv over the Badgers.

Hopefully be the end of Saturday night we can be proud of the effort the Gophers put in, celebrate a conference title and all be able to shout Better Dead Than Red!