Ben Johnson could have faced accusations of stealing silver linings after an 0-4 start to Big Ten play.
The Gophers men’s basketball coach pointed out Thursday how each defeat came with a steady, incremental improvement. For what it’s worth, he was right.
The conference opener against Michigan State in December was poor, but the first road game at Indiana was a bit better. Once league play restarted in January, the matchup with then-No. 20 Purdue was two-thirds full before a late collapse and Ohio State went to double overtime on Monday.
The gulf started out a mile wide and shrank to inches, but each game still ended in defeat.
On Friday night, the gap was ripped wide open again with a 80-59 loss to the Badgers at Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.
Minnesota (8-8, 0-5 Big Ten) led 31-30 early in the second half, but the 12.5-point underdog allowed the Badgers to go on a 13-2 run to make it 43-33 over the next three minutes.
It didn’t stop there. Wisconsin outscored Minnesota 50-30 after halftime.
At one point during the slide, a group of upperclassmen Gophers huddled up on the court before foul shots as if to come up with something to help stop the bleeding. Nobody appears to say anything, and a few looked up to watch the replay of Steven Crowl’s basket seconds earlier.
Wisconsin (13-3, 3-2) extended its winning streak in the rivalry to eight straight since 2020.
To start Friday, Minnesota took a 15-5 lead through the first five minutes, but Wisconsin got it right back with a 13-2 run to take an 18-17 lead. The U had four turnovers over a six-minute span.
After foul trouble and bad shooting against the Buckeyes, Garcia started hot with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting along with eight rebound in the first half. He finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Femi Odukale shook off his bruised his ribs injury suffered in a scary fall off the raised floor at Williams Arena on Monday. He had eight points, seven rebounds and three assists in his 16 first-half minutes. He didn’t add a rebound nor assist in the second half.
Gophers second-leading scorer Mike Mitchell went missing for big stretches of the game and finished with five points on 2 of 7 shooting.
After a career-high 18 points against the Buckeyes, Isaac Asuma showed a freshman’s inconsistency with no points, four fouls and three turnovers.
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