Gophers Drop to 6-9 after Must-Win Loss to Indiana
February 19, 2020

Nothing is nice about 6-9 for the Minnesota Gophers. Their conference record fell to that number after another second-half collapse, allowing Indiana to beat them 68-56 (both teams were 6-8 coming into the game). It was the Hoosiers 6-9 freshman, Trayce Jackson-Davis, who torched the Gophers with 27 points and 16 rebounds, in addition to 2 blocked shots.

At the beginning of the week, Minnesota coach Richard Pitino thought his team would need five wins in their final seven games to make the NCAA tournament. After home losses to Iowa Sunday and now Indiana, the team has to run the table to get those wins. “That’s a blow,” he said when asked about the tourney chances. “No way about it.”

The coach didn’t mask his disappointment over the performance, or lack of it, particularly with the poor shooting. Led by Gabe Kalscheur, who made only 1 of 11 shots from the field despite a lot of open looks, the Gophers finished 21-61 for a 34.4 percent field-goal percentage. They were 4 for 25 (16 percent) on three-pointers. And, as usual, they were horrible from the line, making only 10 of 19 free throws. Pitino acknowledged that the poor shooting from the field was carrying over to the line, and he appeared to have no answers on how to get out of the slump.

Pitino was stunned by the Gophers getting no second-chance points despite 13 offensive rebounds. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.”

Indiana coach Archie Miller liked how the Hoosiers were “grimy” after a slow start defensively. Minnesota shot well to open the game, especially Payton Willis, who made four of his six shots in the first half. Miller thought Indiana had done well to trail only 31-28 at halftime, despite being outplayed to that point. “It was a gutty performance to hang in there. We wanted to put the game into grind mode—make it look ugly.”

Miller praised sophomore forward Race Thompson, who went to Armstrong High School in Plymouth and is the son of former Minnesota football star Darrell Thompson. Thompson scored 9 points off the bench and had 10 rebounds in under 25 minutes. “He’s our most physical guy. His rebounds per minute are the best on the team.”

Indiana took the lead early in the second half, lost it briefly, and regained it for good, eventually opening up a seven-point lead at 51-44. The Gophers came back to keep it close and pulled within 60-56 when Alihan Demir scored with 2:15 For the second game in a row, though, the Gophers went through a drought at the end. Indiana scored its next six points on free throws and finished the scoring on a basket by Jackson-Davies, who scored 17 of the Hoosiers’ final 26 points.

Minnesota’s big man, Daniel Oturu, had 14 rebounds, 5 off the offensive boards, but Jackson-Davis held him to 11 points, nearly 9 below Oturu’s season average.

For the Gophers, the must-win games keep piling up after losing two of them at home and now facing three road games in their final five.