It feels like an annual occurrence, but once again, the Gophers are on the bubble! With Selection Sunday just a week and a half away, Minnesota faces a must win game on Sunday as it hosts a vastly improved Penn State team which swept Ohio State this year. It will be Senior Night on Sunday and a must win game, so the Gophers crowd should be rocking. According to Twin Cities-based Ticket King, Gopher basketball tickets sales have XXX and are going between $xx-xx.
Be it good and bad, the Gophers have played to the level of competition all season long. It will be critical for Minnesota to get out to an early lead Sunday to get the crowd going and to not let Penn State feeling like they have a chance. Additional game notes courtesy of GopherSports:
• Prior to tip-off, guards Maverick Ahanmisi, Austin Hollins and Malik Smith along with forward Oto Osenieks will be recognized for their contributions to Gopher basketball.
• The Gophers are 7-10 in Big Ten action, with a 5-3 mark at home in conference play. A win Sunday would guarantee Minnesota the number-seven seed in the Big Ten Tournament later this week.
• Minnesota took a 68-65 victory in State College on Jan. 8 in the two teams’ first meeting.
• Minnesota leads the league in steals per game (7.6), is third in free throw percentage (.746), and fourth in three-pointers made per game (7.1) and assists (14.0).
• Senior guard Austin Hollins will tie Rodney Williams’s school record on Sunday when he takes the court, marking Hollins’s 134th career appearance in the Maroon and Gold. Hollins’s next game will mark sole possession of the new school record.
• The Gophers’ offensive outburst on Feb. 25 against Iowa marked a number of highs. It was the most points (95) scored in a Big Ten game since a 95-67 win over Penn State on Feb. 3, 1993 (not including vacated games). Minnesota tied a season high with 11 made 3-pointers, and the 61.2 percent team field goal shooting was a season high, and the best since Jan. 22, 2011 (.634 at Michigan – 26-41).
• DeAndre Mathieu made the game-winning layup on Feb. 8 against Indiana and over the last 10 games, is the team’s leading scorer (12.2 ppg). Mathieu poured in a team-high 18 points (13 in second half) in the win at Northwestern.