This is far from true. Gophers worked hard on defense, as they always do. Some nights it doesn't matter how hard you work, the other team can score. That was true last night -- for both teams. Illinois also played decent defense, we hit shots anyway.
It is a bit lazy to just look at the score and decide whether anybody played defense. Defensive effort and points allowed do not always match up. Sometimes they do; others they don't.
For example, if someone just looked at the boxscore of last night's matchup between Maryland and Northwestern, one might assume lengendary defenses were on display from both teams. After all, combined they shot 4-35 from three. Nobody, and especially both teams, could miss that many threes unless the shooters were being smothered by defense and required to force up desperation shots, right?
Well, no, wrong. Both teams were getting the normal open looks you see in the majority of games. They were just cold. Maryland did not hoist up 23 attempts behind the line (and make two) because their shooters were blanketed, they did it because they had good shots. Same with NW hitting only two of 12.
There is little answer to cold shooting. Sometimes it happens. Likewise there is no mystical reason for hot shooting. It sometimes happens.
Minnesota played as strong a defense as they could muster last night. Not good enough with Illinois shooting 60% (same as us) and getting to the line more than we did. The fact is Illinois has more athletic talent on their roster than does Purdue.
If there is anybody here who said with confidence last September that the Gophers could play with Illinois in Champaigne or Purdue in West Lafayette, let him speak up.