From The Barn

A rivalry renewed: The Badgers come to The Barn

Posted on 08. Feb, 2012 by JF.

On Thursday night the Gophers and Badgers renew their always heated rivalry, with a lot on the line. The Golden Gophers are one win away from reaching .500 in the Big Ten and a clear path to the NCAA tournament. With a win, the Badgers can climb right back into the thick of the Big Ten race, and all but lock up an NCAA tournament bid themselves. Throw in national television coverage, the very deserved hatred of Bo Ryan, and the first time in two seasons that the teams play each other twice, and needless to say, this is a big one.

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Gophers first Big Ten game in Lincoln is a must win

Posted on 04. Feb, 2012 by JF.

When the Golden Gophers lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes this week it wasn’t a must-win game, and thank goodness for that. The Gophers won the middle twenty minutes of the game, but were absolutely dreadful in the opening and closing moments, and let what should have been a win slip away. Now with only eight games left on the conference schedule, the Gophers face the prospect of nearly every game being a true must win.

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Joel Maturi’s reign of error finally ends

Posted on 02. Feb, 2012 by JF.

Months of breathless speculation and restrained hopefulness, Joel Maturi finally announced that he is stepping down as the University of Minnesota Athletic Director. Nearly ten years after he was hired in part to clean up the department after it was implicated in the academic fraud scandal that decimated the basketball program, he noted one of his greatest achievements was the lack of NCAA violations during his tenure. He did do that, but little else to benefit the university or the men’s basketball program.

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Selfishness vs. Selflessness: The Gophers head to Iowa

Posted on 31. Jan, 2012 by JF.

Minnesota beat Illinois, in part, because of unselfish basketball. Players made the extra pass, looked to get their teammates involved, and did not settle for poor shots. A couple of weeks ago, the Gophers lost to Iowa because they made the extra pass, deferred to their teammates, and would only settle for the “perfect” shot. Unselfishness is good, to a point, and at that point, every offense needs a player who will take charge and score on his own.

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Post-game thoughts, after the Gophers – Illini Insanity.

Posted on 29. Jan, 2012 by JF.

Between consoling myself over another hard to believe lose from ahead loss and having flashbacks to Frank Williams knocking in a last second floater to end the Gophers NCAA tournament hopes, a Minnesota team was in a must win situation, and did win, in overtime no less. I can’t begin to explain all the twists [...]

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Gophers vs. Illini starts key three game stretch

Posted on 27. Jan, 2012 by JF.

A big game on a cold January Saturday night. What could be better?

This space is usually reserved for disclaimers that there is no such thing as a must win game in January and platitudes about how a season isn’t over until it’s over because of the automatic NCAA tournament bid awarded at the end of the Big Ten Tournament. Nope, I’m not going to do it this time. This is a must win. There is a road to a 6-5 conference record with what could be an absolutely monstrous match-up with the Badgers at The Barn on February 9th that could transform the rest of the season. Illinois is the entrance ramp, and if they miss it things get complicated.

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Gophers streak into East Lansing with something to prove

Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by JF.

Welcome to the most important week of the 2011-2012 Golden Gopher basketball season. That I can use the word “important” and that there is even basketball worth watching at this point is in itself remarkable.

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Gophers go for two on the road at Penn State

Posted on 14. Jan, 2012 by JF.

Momentum, if it even exists, is extremely fleeting. It can be neither created nor destroyed. It just happens, and then leaves as quickly as it appeared. A bad break combined with a bad bounce can turn around a game. A fifteen footer from a bad shooter can save a season. If momentum exists, the Golden Gophers have it after their still stunning win in Indiana, the best road win in the hundred plus year history of Gopher basketball. Now the young Gophers must use it before it is gone.

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Gophers win in Bloomington, and save their season in the process

Posted on 12. Jan, 2012 by JF.

Sing it with me now:   The strange thing about young teams is that they rarely react as expected, and the Gophers are no exception. They couldn’t manage to hold off the Hawkeyes at home, came out flat in a blow out to Purdue. The season was over, the program was in shambles. There were [...]

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A Gophers win in Bloomington would make sense in the Bonkers Big Ten

Posted on 11. Jan, 2012 by JF.

In the bonkers Big Ten, nothing is certain except the chaos. Wisconsin has as many homes losses as Ohio State has total losses. Illinois barely beat the Gophers but then beat the Buckeyes. Seemingly every game, except of course Minnesota’s loss to Purdue or Purdue’s loss to Penn State, has gone down to the wire. Everyone can beat anyone at any time anywhere. No one likes to see the Gophers season slip sliding away, but college basketball junkies can find some solace in at least one team trying to make sense of a mind boggling loss almost every night of the conference season.

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Boilers come to town with Minnesota’s season on the brink

Posted on 08. Jan, 2012 by JF.

  Thank goodness it has been a mild winter. I don’t ask much from Golden Gopher basketball other than to be a distraction through the coldest months of the year. Now, on January 8th, the season is already in danger of spinning hopelessly out of control. I won’t rehash the home loss to Iowa other [...]

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Tubby, this is your warning.

Posted on 05. Jan, 2012 by JF.

I try not be a reactionary perched on an imaginary bully pulpit screaming into the storm after the Gophers lose a basketball team. People have been calling for Tubby Smith’s head since the Gophers were swept by an absolutely terrible Illinois team in his first season. I’d like to think that those people, as obviously [...]

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Gophers travel to Michigan hoping to replicate last season’s success.

Posted on 31. Dec, 2011 by JF.

For the Golden Gophers to make the NCAA tournament, they will have to win a game or two on the road that they are not supposed to win. Games against the bottom tier of the conference (the Iowa’s and Penn State’s of the world) should be wins.  Winning at Wisconsin and Michigan State isn’t impossible, [...]

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Gophers hope for upsetting Big Ten Opener at Illinois

Posted on 26. Dec, 2011 by JF.

The first Big Ten road game is usually a rattling at best experience, especially for a young team that hasn’t played a true road game this season. Assembly Hall has been especially cruel to the Gophers who have won once their since 1996, and even in that game, a win that went a long way [...]

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B1G Preview: Wisconsin Badgers

Posted on 26. Dec, 2011 by JF.

It has become something of a running joke in college basketball circles that Bo Ryan could take a team of any 12 players to the NCAA tournament, and that team would lose to an inferior opponent when they get there. Deep NCAA tournament runs have been non-existent during the Bo Ryan era, but don’t doubt [...]

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