From The Barn

First off, a belated congratulations to the entire Gopher men’s basketball team for showing up to play against the seething, tenacious 2009-2010 Iowa Hawkeyes.  Honestly, it probably wouldn’t have surprised even the most skeptical of Gopher fans had Minnesota dropped the season finale on Senior Night against arguably the worst team in the conference.  Such [...]

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Pathetic.  Embarrassing.  Unbelievable.  What ever negative word someone wants to use to describe the Gophers effortless, aloof performance against the Michigan Wolverines would probably be deserved.  At a time when Minnesota needed to come out firing against a team with nothing to play for, a time that called for nothing more than a solid performance [...]

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Three weeks ago I was cursing Michigan for ruining the Gophers’ season. Now I should be thanking them, profusely. Minnesota’s embarrassing home loss to the Wolverines may be the final nails in the NCAA tournament coffin, but it also awoke a struggling Gopher team that was threatening to sleep walk its way through the rest [...]

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A ten point half time lead was surprising. A seemingly insurmountable 19 point lead with just over seven minutes left was shocking. The final score, a 62-60 victory for the Gophers was only unexpected because the Gophers won.
Assembly Hall has been a house of horrors for the Gophers for decades. The last win at Illinois [...]

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More later, but now, belt it out with me!

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I hope you’ll excuse me for not delving into the finer details of Minnesota’s latest blown lead and missed buzzer beater. If you saw last season’s Michigan game, or this year’s games against Michigan State or at Indiana and Northwestern you know how the story goes. This team is as formulaic as any of the [...]

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On his first field goal attempt of his college basketball career, punt returner/point guard rolled in a three pointer. Moments later he hit Justin Cobbs on a three-quarter court bounce pass that led to a thunderous dunk. A second later it was Rodney Williams streaking to the basket, too contested to dunk but not for [...]

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Two days after ripping Wisconsin with the season on the line at Williams Arena, the Gophers once again came back ready to play and dumped the Indiana Hoosiers by 23 points.  The Gophers held Indiana to 32% shooting from the field and, perhaps more important, didn’t allow them to get anything going from beyond the [...]

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With one tongue wagging push off and an obvious travel, Minnesota’s season fell apart. Verdell Jones, on track to become one of the least likeable player in the Big Ten was giddy, not because his fall away jumper knocked off the Gophers, but because he knew he got away with another one on a day [...]

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Well I’ll be….where in the name of Clem Haskins has this team been all season.  Intensity, concentration, EXECUTION.  If all it takes is a shaved head to win in this business, than maybe Joel Maturi should consider bringing Andre Agassi on board as a consultant.
Not that it even comes close to making up for the [...]

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In the darker days of Gopher basketball, and for the last 40 years or so in Gopher football, there was always a saving grace to even the most atrocious season. Beating the Badgers has a way of making up for countless losses and blown opportunities, and can make even the darkest off season tolerable.
This season [...]

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A week ago this looked like it could be quite a game. The Gopher would have been looking for a big road win to build momentum for an end of the season run that would include 3 wins over probably NCAA tournament teams, two easy home wins, and  a winnable game at Northwestern. That first [...]

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I came into yesterday’s game with above-average expectations for a team that, for the most part, has underachieved all season.  They’d been up and down for the better part of the last month but were coming off a stretch where they had won two of three and seemed to have been gaining some momentum after [...]

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Dylan from UMHoops.com generously agreed to answer a few questions about tomorrow night’s must win match-up between two of the more disappointing teams in the country. I also answered some questions of his. Fair warning, go elsewhere for boundless optimism.
FTB: I hate to start with the obvious question, but what the heck happened? Where [...]

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When we last checked in, Elliott Eliason had committed to the Minnesota Gophers for the 2010-11 season, becoming one of two major recruits for the team going into next year.  Con Marshall from the Chadron Record, a local newspaper in Eliason’s hometown, took the time to update From The Barn on how Eliason’s senior season [...]

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The Big Ten Geeks have once again generously calculated plus/minus statistics for a Gopher basketball game, this time for that epic (note the semi-sarcasm) win over Penn State. In blow-outs, plus/minus statistics can be pretty meaningless. The plus/minus statistics also often become just a function of playing time. If a player plays every second of [...]

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What’s that? Something good finally happened to the Gopher basketball team. I don’t care who you are playing, the circumstances, or the pre-game predictions, a road win in the Big Ten is huge. Minnesota needed to win to keep the season alive, and they got the job done!

The seniors finally stepped up today. The team [...]

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Golden Gophers vs. Penn State Nittany Lions

1:00 pm (CST) at Bryce Jordan Center (University Park, PA)
Radio: WCCO 830 AM
TV: Big Ten Network

For the better part of a month, I’ve been claiming each upcoming game was not a must win. Those games were important, and every conference game ultimately will have some impact on a potential [...]

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Gophers: 13-8, 4-5 in the Big Ten.  Nine games to go.  Lost four of their last five.  Can things look bleaker?
It’s hard not to be discouraged after a season in which such high hopes have disintegrated into an abysmal pool of mediocrity.  Results have fallen miles short of expectations, players have walked away from the [...]

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Paul Carter as Desmond
Each a nomad, they finally found a home after years of traveling, though the destination may not have been what they were looking for. Desmond sailed around the world only to find himself on an abandoned island forced to push a button to keep the world from ending. Paul Carter traveled from [...]

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When laughter and self-mockery are all that is left!
Bryant Allen as Dogen
Lost introduced Dogen last night during the season premiere of the final season. Apparently the Lost writers fail to recognize how preposterous it is that a giant temple and its caretakers would be hidden for so long on an island roughly the size [...]

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The 2009-2010 Gopher basketball season hasn’t gone the way any expected or wanted. The string of close losses, catching Portland at absolutely the wrong time, a near epic comeback at Indiana, the epic anti-comeback against Michigan State, and the most lackluster defensive performance at Ohio State have been equal parts frustrating, confusing, and infuriating, and [...]

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After an encouraging victory at home over a legitimate Northwestern team, the Gophers went on the road to Ohio State in hopes of building on their glimmer of success.  What we saw, though, was perhaps the worst performance of the year from Minnesota at a point in the season where you’d like to see quite [...]

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Gophers vs, Ohio State

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Golden Gophers vs. Ohio State Buckeyes

12:00 pm (CST) at Value City Arena (Columbus, OH)

Radio: WCCO 830 AM
TV: CBS

Any conversation about the 2009-2010 Ohio State basketball team begins and ends with Evan Turner. Therefore, logically, any conversation about an opponent of the Buckeyes should at least begin with defending the national player of the year candidate.
Earlier [...]

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The Gophers came into their contest against Northwestern sitting squarely on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament and desperately in need of stopping a three-game slide that had included meltdowns and upsets.  A loss against Northwestern would have meant an almost insurmountable road to the Big Dance and another “should’ve” miss that has plagued the [...]

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Golden Gophers vs. Northwestern Wildcats

8:00 pm (CST) at Williams Arena (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Radio: WCCO 830 AM
TV: Big Ten Network

Tickets: Row 11, baseline, upper deck

For Tuesday’s preview, John Templon of Chicago College Basketball answers a few questions about the almost must-win game against Northwestern.
FTB: Who is the real NU? The team that beat Purdue and Illinois, [...]

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Royce White was officially charged in the missing laptop incident.  Still unclear if/when he will join the team.
It goes without saying, but as Wisconsin found out there are no easy games in Big Ten play.
Iowa goes to Bloomington and mauls Indiana by 15.  Really?
Michigan State has decided to redesign it’s classic Spartan logo into a [...]

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