Gopher Basketball
The 15th-ranked Gophers (20-6, 10-4) notched their 4th straight 20-win season, shooting 62% from the field in entertaining a crowd of 14,203. This was the women’s’ largest crowd of the season and the 2nd largest crowd ever for Gopher women’s’ basketball. With a contingent of family and friends in attendance, McCarville did just about everything except pop the popcorn. She shot 14 of 20 from the field, 5 of 7 from the free throw line, and she added 4 assists, 3 blocks, and 3 steals to her team-leading point and rebound totals.
Gopher guard April Calhoun continued her string of solid games with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Jamie Broback had a season-high 7 assists, most of which went to McCarville. Shannon Schonrock added 6 assists. Fellow guard Katie Alsdurf showed a glimmer of her shooting potential with 10 points off the bench on 4 of 5 shooting from the field, including 2 three-pointers.
A young and outsized Wisconsin team (10-14, 4-10) never really challenged the Gophers.
Indiana Next. The Gophers play 2 road games to end their regular season conference schedule. They travel to Indiana on Thursday and then Northwestern on Sunday before heading into the Big 10 tourney, where they are likely to face Purdue for the 3rd time.
Indiana (10-15, 3-11) is in 9th place in the Big 10 standings, with 2 victories over Northwestern and 1 over Wisconsin. The Hoosiers are coming off a 62-58 overtime loss at home to Purdue on Sunday.
The Gophers beat Indiana January 2 at Williams Arena, 61-47, in another game in which McCarville excelled with 22 points and 11 rebounds against a team that doesn’t start a post player.
Notes and Observations:
- Michigan State climbed into a share of 1st place Sunday with a 66-64 win over No. 2-ranked Ohio State. The Spartans and surprising Penn State are both 13-2 in conference play. Ohio State is a half-game back at 12-2. Jessica Davenport had another monster game for OSU in a losing effort with 19 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 blocks.
- Women’s college basketball continues to grow in popularity with some large crowds around the country in recent weeks, some of these crowds in unlikely arenas.
The Gophers’ Sunday crowd of over 14,000 gave them an average game attendance of about 8800 per game for the season. The MSU-OSU game in East Lansing also drew over 14,000 fans. Indiana, which averages about 1800 fans per game, drew over 10,000 fans against Purdue on Sunday. Last week, Frese’s Maryland team drew over 17,000 fans in a loss to No. 3-ranked Duke. Nebraska, not exactly a basketball hotbed, drew over 12,000 fans in a recent game.
It’s important to note that some of these numbers are enhanced because they’re parts of “pack the arena” promotions in which many tickets were sold “dirt-cheap” or given away. The Gophers’ crowd numbers are legitimate, as Gopher women’s tickets are the highest-priced in the conference and the days of free or $1 tickets are all but gone.
With increased television coverage of women’s basketball and the entire NCAA tourney on ESPN, look for women’s basketball to continue to grow in popularity. Look for ESPN to do the same thing for women’s basketball that it did for men’s college basketball, when ESPN made the men’s NCAA tourney one of the most popular events in sports before it was gobbled up by major network CBS.
- As the women’s game continues to grow, look for the Gophers to have maybe a 4-year or 5-year recruiting window before a lot of other teams catch up to them in interest and attendance. As it is now, the Gophers have a huge advantage over many of their regional counterparts. After all, would a player rather play before 14,000 fans at Williams Arena or 500 fans at Northwestern?
- If the Gophers want to become a perennial national power, they’ll have to continue to successfully recruit the Minnesota players they want, and they’ll also have to land regional recruits from surrounding states…and maybe an occasional national recruit. This year’s freshman class is led by Lauren Lacey and Natasha Williams, a pair of talented players from Illinois who should contribute significantly starting with next year. Next year’s incoming class includes guard Emily Fox from Colorado.
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