Gophers Come Up Short Once Again Against Top 5 Team

I was lucky enough to attend last night's Minnesota Golden Gopher basketball game in court-side seats. It was an unbelievable experience and may have been the most fun sporting event I have ever been to, aside from the fact the Gophers lost. This was a matchup of top ten teams with Minnesota at #9 and the Michigan Wolverines at #5. Michigan played a very composed game despite their lack of experience. Michigan has six seniors on its roster, but only one, Jordan Morgan, got extended playing time during this game.

From the outset, the Barn (Williams Arena) was rocking. People were piled in all the way up the the rafters and Dick Vitale was being his usual self. The Gophers played alright in the first half and found themselves down 36-30 at halftime. That is not the worst position to be in against the number 5 team in the country, but too many opportunities had already been lost. The first part of the second half was a disaster with the Gophers committing too many turnovers and before you knew it the Wolverines had a 19 point lead with 12:33 remaining. As in the game against Indiana on Saturday, the Gophers fought back into this one but it seemed that every time the Gophers scores Trey Burke or Tim Hardaway Jr. had an answer. The Gophers would end up falling 83-75 and probably would like to have this one back because it would have been a huge win if they would have been able to come out victorious.

A few things that I got from this game were:

1. Trey Burke might be the quickest guard I have ever seen play a game of college basketball. It seemed that he could steal the ball from the Minnesota guards at will and then on offense he would make one move and be at the rim. He also is very poised and knocks down clutch jumpers when they are needed. 
2. The missed free throws for Minnesota never allowed them to get back into the game. Joe Coleman was 3/8 from the charity stripe, Julian Welch was 0/2, and as a team the Gophers only shot 17/27 from the line which is equivalent to 63.0%. If the Gophers would have made every free throw, they would have won the game and defeated the #5 team in the country.
3. I want to point out a few top performers from the game tonight. Austin Hollins was definitely the top player all game for the Gophers. He played 38 out of the 40 minutes and finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. Trevor Mbakwe also played well for the Gophers. He finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 5 blocks. For Michigan, it was Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke leading the way. Hardaway Jr. finished with 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. He also played 37 minutes. Burke ended with 18 points, 1 rebound, and 9 assists.

Here are two photos from the game that I took:

 This is Jordan Morgan of Michigan and Trevor Mbakwe of Minnesota going up for the opening tip.

These were Dickie V's (Dick Vitale) notes from the game.

In other Minnesota sports news, the Timberwolves fell short to the Los Angeles Clippers 90-77 at home and also suffered two more injuries, Alexey Shved and Nikola Pekovic. The Timberwolves also signed Mickael Gelabale to add much needed depth for the team. The Timberwolves have fallen 4 games under .500 and now need to start winning if they want to get back in the playoff chase.