Ben Johnson’s basketball team took a big step in their last game, beating then-No. 20 Michigan in overtime, 84-81, last Wednesday at Williams Arena. It was the Gophers’ first Big Ten win and pulled them to .500 overall.
The goal now is to keep moving forward.
“My message to the team is that this should only ignite the fire even more, only make us hungrier,” Johnson said Monday after a morning practice at the Barn. “If you’re a true competitor, you want that feeling again.”
The Gophers’ next chance will be Tuesday night against Iowa in Iowa City. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
Star forward Dawson Garcia won the game on a 3-pointer from near the logo as time expired. Johnson hopes it will serve as an epiphany for a team that in large part only started playing together during summer workouts.
That inevitably steepens a team’s learning curve, and it showed early in the Big Ten calendar as the Gophers played games against programs such as Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana. After an 82-67 loss to the Hoosiers on Dec. 9, Johnson challenged his returners — Garcia, forward Parker Fox and point guard Mike Mitchell Jr. — to take control in the locker room.
“I don’t think people realize that teams like Michigan State and Purdue, these are programs that maintain and don’t necessarily go (transfer) portal. That’s a big advantage,” said Johnson, whose team had a breakout season last year, going 19-15 overall, 9-11 in Big Ten play, yet still lost four players to the NCAA transfer portal and one to the NBA.
Three big pieces of that team left. Standout guard Cam Christie was selected No. 49 overall in last summer’s NBA Draft, Center Pharrel Payne transferred to Texas A&M, and point guard Elijah Hawkins went to Texas Tech. Instead of having that skill and experience in the system this year — and the improvement expected with it and newcomers such as guard Isaac Asuma — Johnson has been introducing most of his team to Minnesota basketball.
Players at No. 8 Michigan State and No. 11 Purdue, Johnson said, “know the system, know Tom Izzo and Matt Painter — some for two, three, four years — and whether you’re struggling or not, you’re connected. You’re not teaching all that stuff.”
In last week’s victory over Michigan, Johnson said, veteran newcomers such as Lu’Cye Patterson, Femi Odukale and Frank Mitchell finally saw their hard work and commitment to Minnesota’s system pay off.
“I want them to own it, ‘You’re a Gopher, you’re here, you compete and play to represent Minnesota basketball,’ ” the coach said. “The young guys pick up on that. They’ve been thrown into the fire, and I like that. Isaac Asuma’s confidence is growing; he’s getting huge experience, and that should really carry us (in the future). The challenge is, ‘Don’t stop. Keep the momentum going.’ ”
Iowa (12-6, 3-4) is coming off a pair of lopsided losses at UCLA and USC but has wins this season over Utah, Indiana and Northwestern. Minnesota (9-9, 1-4) has the momentum of a Top 25 victory, a healthy roster and 13 regular-season games remaining before the March 12-16 conference tournament in Indianapolis.
“We’re in a pretty good place right now, and I know there’s a little bit of luck involved in that, obviously,” Johnson said. “You’re going to see teams down this last big stretch that are healthy and teams that are banged up. We’ve had some help from Father Luck. Now we’ve got to go full blast and take advantage of being really healthy right now.”
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