Iowa Falls
March 7, 2010

The 2009-2010 University of Minnesota men’s Golden Gophers are like, in the words of the nursery rhyme, the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she is good, she is very, very good. When she is bad she is awful.

The awful Gophers played at Michigan March 2 and were blown away by an inferior gang of Wolverines by the score of 83 to 55. Five days later, at home in Williams Arena on Senior Night, the same Minnesota team waxed the Iowa Hawkeyes by the similar score of 88 to 53. The two games showed the perplexing inconsistency with which the Gophers have played all season long. When primed for greatness, as when Minnesota knocked off highly-rated Butler, the Gophers promptly fall on their face and lose to Portland. A pair of wins against Wisconsin are overshadowed by embarrassing losses to Michigan (twice), Indiana, and Northwestern.

It should be noted that Sunday’s triumph over Iowa, a team better qualified to play in the Classic Lake Conference, did not come as a surprise. However, given the Gophers haphazard approach to basketball this season, an upset was not inconceivable.

“It was important for us to bounce back [from Michigan],” said senior forward Damian Johnson after the Iowa game. “We’ve been able to rebound [from losses] the right way.” But not enough for the team to qualify for the NCAA tournament. The only way the Gophers qualify for the Big Dance is to win the Big Ten Tournament, a feat equivalent to the Pittsburgh Pirates going to the World Series this October.

Minnesota used a 17-0 run midway through the first half against the Hawkeyes to turn an 18-10 lead a 35-10 advantage. And that was all she wrote for the plucky lads from Iowa City. Minnesota stretched its lead to as many as 37 points late in the game before finishing with the 35-point margin of victory. It was the Gophers’ biggest dominance over the Hawkeyes since a 49-10 win at home on March 1, 1902. It’s interesting to note that the Gophers finished and ended the regular season with blowout wins. On November 13, Tennessee Tech fell, 87-50.

Senior guard Lawrence Westbrook led all scorers with 20 points, followed by Devoe Joseph with 17. Johnson scored 10 points and dished out 11 assists. Aaron Fuller of Mesa, Ariz., the only non-Midwesterner on the Iowa roster, led the Hawkeyes with 16 points.

Back to Main Page