For me, this was the first disappointing loss of the season. Any road loss, short of Nebraska, is understandable (NOTE: Hell, Nebraska has improved markedly since the calendar turned to January, so I don't think a loss there even qualifies anymore).
Here, the 8 day rest and CJ injury created a recipe for disappointment. You gotta capitalize. However, the officials did not help our cause yesterday. Minnesota, by virtue of a short bench, thrives off moving their feet and playing sound defense. Yesterday, the officials leveled the playing field by refusing to call anything a foul. Furthermore, they swallowed the whistle multiple times to preserve Garza's fate in that game. If the whistles operate under normal conditions, Goldy wins going away. The gophers performed at or near their typical outputs on offense and defense. The Hawkeyes performed about 8 standard deviations above their average road defensive performance (sllight exaggeration). Officiating mattered greatly yesterday because the Hawkeyes were allowed to bump, grab, dislodge, the far more quick and athletic Gophers front line. NOTE: Kalscheur was Kalscheur yesterday. He took away Wieskamp. Oturo managed Garza once the Demir experiment failed. Nothing special. The Gophers played their usual D. And Iowa got away with play that usually gets them (or anyone else) into trouble with 9 out of 10 officiating crews in the Big 10. Congrats Iowa.
Now, you can't let it define your season...
1. Beat Indiana at the Barn
2. Beat NW. Scary only because it is the road this time.
3. Beat Nebraska. Getting better, but it is at home.
4. Beat Maryland at home? Why not. Crazier wins have happened. The gophers are collectively due a hot shooting game from the 3-point line.
5. Beat Wisconsin at the Kohl center? Why not. Would you trade the gopher roster for the badger roster? Nope. Didn't think so.
6. Beat Indiana on the road. Why not? They are no better / worse than Ohio State.
The gophers will be favored to win 3 more times. That's 9 big ten wins. Pulling off just one other win gets you to .500. That's why the Iowa loss hurts because the margin for error got smaller, but that doesn't mean that they "done" and we should fire Pitino. This is the single toughest Big Ten Conference in years. The conference is historically good.
Given this team's SOS / Pom Ratings / NET rankings, they should be in the field of 64 if they can just get to .500 or better. 1