The Gophers are back from being nearly dead. After struggling early this season, Ben Johnson's Golden Gopher men have crawled up the Big Ten basketball rankings and a sweep of the LA schools - USC and UCLA - have them thinking big things.
With four games remaining, a couple more wins assure the Gophers of an appearance in the Big Ten Tournament (not every team makes it in the new Big Ten). And more postseason games could await.
Johnson, who spoke to WCCO's Chad Hartman this week, says he never lost faith in the team despite a tough start in conference play. Johnson says their early schedule was loaded with good teams, which helped the Gophers grow.
"Obviously, you know, best case scenario is, you want to get a couple of wins out of those and we didn't," Johnson said. "But what we did do is, the ability for guys to learn and go through it. So that it hardened us. So then these last 10 games we've been able to fall back on all those lessons that were learned against those really good teams."
Johnson adds there is a clear, key moment in the Gophers' season where they turned the corner, and he credits the players with staying strong mentally up until that point despite the early struggles.
"And if you don't break your spirit, your confidence can strengthen with that," Johnson explains. "And I thought our guys did a great job of just showing resolve those first, you know, 10 games and not losing confidence. It really started with, obviously, the Michigan game, and we won the Michigan game because we have been so tested leading up to that."
PREVIEW
Penn State Nittany Lions (14-13, 4-12 Big Ten) at Minnesota Golden Gophers (14-12, 6-9 Big Ten)
Minneapolis; Saturday, 1 p.m.
BOTTOM LINE: Minnesota takes on Penn State after Dawson Garcia scored 32 points in Minnesota’s 64-61 victory against the UCLA Bruins.
The Golden Gophers are 10-6 in home games. Minnesota is 5-6 in games decided by 10 or more points.
The Nittany Lions have gone 4-12 against Big Ten opponents. Penn State scores 79.8 points while outscoring opponents by 6.3 points per game.
Minnesota averages 68.8 points per game, 4.7 fewer points than the 73.5 Penn State gives up. Penn State averages 7.2 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.3 more makes per game than Minnesota gives up.
TOP PERFORMERS: Mike Mitchell Jr. averages 2.3 made 3-pointers per game for the Golden Gophers, scoring 10.0 points while shooting 34.9% from beyond the arc. Garcia is shooting 50.7% and averaging 21.8 points over the past 10 games.
Zach Hicks averages 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Nittany Lions, scoring 12.0 points while shooting 40.6% from beyond the arc. Adrian Baldwin Jr. is averaging 13.9 points, 6.1 assists and 2.7 steals over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Golden Gophers: 6-4, averaging 69.9 points, 28.8 rebounds, 15.3 assists, 7.0 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 45.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.1 points per game.
Nittany Lions: 2-8, averaging 72.0 points, 26.6 rebounds, 14.1 assists, 6.2 steals and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 46.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 78.3 points.