After the final buzzer of their 56-51 win over the University of Minnesota Thursday night, Wisconsin Badger center Ethan Happ blew a kiss toward the Williams Arena student section.
"They've been very kind to me over the years," he said postgame, mustering a straight face as head coach Greg Gard and teammate Nate Reuvers of Lakeville North smiled. "I was telling (Big Ten Network) that I haven't lost here and I kind of wanted to thank them for their hospitality and that's what that was."
A packed crowd at Williams Arena, which during pregame introductions booed the Badger players from Minnesota the most loudly, watched as the U split the season series with Wisconsin -- and lost their second straight to a ranked team.
In a grind-it-out, low-scoring game, the Gophers shot 32.2 percent in the second half.
“Tonight was a tough one," head coach Richard Pitino said. We were tough, physical, did a really good job in the second of rebounding the ball. I thought (Jordan) Murphy and Daniel (Oturu) especially all things considered did a really good job on Happ keeping them off the glass. We went cold and I thought we got some good looks but we just couldn’t hit them. Credit to Wisconsin, (D'Mitrik) Trice made a good shot at the end of the clock and we just couldn’t answer.”
“I think one miss led to another and the confidence aspect of it got to us," senior forward Jordan Murphy said. "I think we got into our heads a little bit down the stretch on the offense and let that affect our defense and our rebounds. We just gotta learn from it and move on and try to get a big win on Saturday.”
The Gophers have little turnaround time before Saturday's game in East Lansing, Mich., against No. 9 Michigan State.