***OFFICIAL RUTGERS VS MINNESOTA BIG TEN TOURNAMENT IN-GAME THREAD!!!***

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Gas tank has finally seem to hit empty for the 6 guys gutting it out down the stretch and giving us some good W's this year. Tough loss to go out on, but lot of fun, development and good times this year! Should be a lot of players wanting to come play for Niko in the next years!
 

howeda7 said:
It's a Wednesday loss in the B1G tournament. Little remembered and long forgotten. I found the losses to Penn State, Maryland, USC etc. more distressing than this.
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Not me, the last loss is always the worst. Especially against this Rutgers team. Watching them play tonight, they should not have beat the Gopher team I watched for most of conference play.

Just my opinion. Like I said, I'm not going anywhere as a fan, I just don't like this result.
 

topos said:
I wanted a post-season opportunity just because I love the grit of these guys. I think they deserve it, especially if they can make some extra $.

But selfishly, as a fan, there's not a ton of upside in playing more games. We know what we've got with the young guys; we won't make a run with how thin we are, and why risk any more injuries? A torn ACL in April means you're missing next season (this is a pathetic excuse, but can you blame me!?).

The future is bright; these dudes ran out of gas, but the foundation of the Medved era is laid.
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They did run out of gas, I don’t feel any post season play is beneficial. Come back next year with a full team
 



Ski-U-Ham said:
Not me, the last loss is always the worst. Especially against this Rutgers team. Watching them play tonight, they should not have beat the Gopher team I watched for most of conference play.

Just my opinion. Like I said, I'm not going anywhere as a fan, I just don't like this result.
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The Rutgers team you are familiar with got hot tonight. We played hard and had the one bad stretch. It doesn't bother me a bit. We were going nowhere in this tourney. We are in great hands and Niko now can dig into the portal. If he gets us to the middle of the pack in terms of talent we will be a tournament team next year.
 


bga1 said:
The Rutgers team you are familiar with got hot tonight. We played hard and had the one bad stretch. It doesn't bother me a bit. We were going nowhere in this tourney. We are in great hands and Niko now can dig into the portal. If he gets us to the middle of the pack in terms of talent we will be a tournament team next year.
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I don't disagree with most of what you said. But saying you had one bad stretch is a little bit of an understatement when it lasted the last 10 minutes of the game.

I guess all I'm saying is if we were going to go down tonight, I wish it would've been swinging harder down the stretch than what we did. And again, I know we were short handed. I just wanted more based on what I had seen the last couple months.
 

Someone posted that the Gophers have now lost 10 straight neutral site games. I’m too tired to double check it but seems about right.
 






On one hand, we had no chance to do anything notable in the tournament with only 6 guys. On the other it's F'ing Rutgers and there's nothing encouraging about losing to them. As I see it, we had 4 losses on the season I'd put in the "F'ing Terrible" category: San Francisco, Penn State, Maryland, and now Rutgers. That just can't happen. The Michigan State win was awesome, but those losses are all more devastating to a resume than any other win on the schedule.

I appreciate the team didn't quit after losing JCJ and those late season wins (especially UCLA) were a lot of fun and nice change of pace from the February fade we've seen for decades. It was a fun group to root for and with just even average luck this good have been a good season. My level of excitement for next season will be totally dependent on roster upgrades made this Spring. Hopefully Niko has both the NIL and the recruiting ability to land 2-3 upgrades.
 




GophersInIowa said:
Someone posted that the Gophers have now lost 10 straight neutral site games. I’m too tired to double check it but seems about right.
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Off the top of my head..

2026 BTT

2025-26 non conference: San Francisco, Stanford, Santa Clara.

2025 BTT

2024-2025 non-conference: Wichita and Wake Forest

2024 BTT

2023-2024 non-Conference vs San Francisco.

2023 BTT 2nd round loss.
 


cheeseheadgophfan said:
And got bodied/fouled on a lot of them.....but the refs are letting them play.
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If you call two missed kicked balls letting them play I suppose. Not blaming the refs but those were big possessions at crucial times with bad non-calls. 13 TO’s isn’t getting it done even if those two weren’t. They were dead beat tired and it showed. Free throws being left short down the stretch were a telltale sign of that. I am way happier with the full body of work this year than anything I saw from Ben’s teams. Pull up your shorts, get some improved talent and a full roster and you have something next year!
 

Guard play, guard play, guard play! Gotta have BETTER from that group next year. Guards are the engine that make your team hum. They are the most important position on the team. Asuma has to get better, or we need to find someone who is.
 

MaxyJR1 said:

Hard to disagree. Big month of April needed
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Indeed. Of course, we had particularly difficult circumstances this season but even early in the season, before the injuries, the talent assembled didn't look like it was capable of being more than a team hovering around .500. The team actually played better when it was down to 7 and 6-man rotations.

We only need two or three portal players but at least two of them need to be good ones.
 

We finished 11th in the Big Ten...we pretty much all marvel the accomplishment.
We sit in this area of the standings and lower a lot. It is not going to be easy to do better next year.
Here is what pisses me off...Wisconsin is pretty similar to us for recruiting advantages, geography, money etc...yet in the last 25 years these are their Big Ten finishes:
5 Big Ten Titles
4 2nd's
3 3rd's
8 4th's
2 5th's
1 6th
and twice they were lower than that in 25 years. Top 4 20 times! Gophers once!

Minnesota in those 25 years? Richard Pitino finished 4th once for our highest place in the standings in the last 25 years. Pitino also had 2 - 7th place finishes. Tubby had two 6th's and a 7th.
Those are the recent glory days...Dan Monson gave us two 5th place finishes in 2001-02 and 2004-05, plus a 7th in 2002-03.
The other 16 years? 1-8th, 4-9's, 3-10's, 2-11's, 2-12's, 3-13's and 1-14th place finish.
Wisconsin twice in 25 years below 6th place ... Minnesota 20 times in 7th or below !!! 1- 4th, 2 5th's, 2-6th's are the highs for Minnesota.
So, Niko has a hill to climb...it doesn't happen often at Minnesota that we finish top 6. It's probably harder to do with 18 teams than it was with 10, 11, 14 teams.
 




MaxyJR1 said:

Hard to disagree. Big month of April needed
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A strong talent grab is a realistic expectation of this program. In general, Minnesota ought to be able to recruit top-100 talent, especially now that they have exceptional coaching and development to recruit to. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Richard Pitino is the only Gopher coach in the last 55 years to not sign a 5-star or equivalent recruit. It's not an impossible dream. Also, Niko takes 3-star (Roddy) and 4-star (Clifford) recruits and sends them to the NBA.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Indeed. Of course, we had particularly difficult circumstances this season but even early in the season, before the injuries, the talent assembled didn't look like it was capable of being more than a team hovering around .500. The team actually played better when it was down to 7 and 6-man rotations.

We only need two or three portal players but at least two of them need to be good ones.
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With more players available there is no doubt the team would have also improved. The 6-7 man rotation really simplified things and guys knew they weren't coming off the floor and took on the iron man mentality. The limited roster also really limited what Niko could do on defense and offense.

Rutgers had the ability to take what they learned in their loss a couple weeks ago and prepare a better game plan this time around. Had we won last night I'm thinking UCLA would have been much better prepared that last time around. Northwestern played us way back at New Years, so we were a completely different team the second time around. Indiana had a great plan against the zone as well. Teams make shots against the zone, we were in trouble.
 

book said:
Game turned when Grove got two foul shots and missed and then we didn’t score with the free possession and of course Rutgers scored
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I’m still somewhat in awe of how completely and consistently incompetent GG has remained at the free throw line.
 


Gilthorp57 said:
And USC
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That one was more understandable than the two I mentioned IMO. CBM played in that game, and as much of a wild guy he is, he played very well against us. They were a different team without him.
 

GoodasGold said:
I’m still somewhat in awe of how completely and consistently incompetent GG has remained at the free throw line.
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When you see the guy swish that beautiful spinning hook shot with his left hand and then clank two free throws...it makes no sense at all.
 


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