The #11 seed Gophers will look to try and earn a win in Minneapolis
For the second year in a row the Women’s Big Ten Basketball Tournament will take place in Minneapolis at the Target Center, and for the second year in a row the Minnesota Golden Gophers will try to not get eliminated on the opening day of competition. The Gophers are the #11 seed and will be the “home” team when they face off against #14 seed Rutgers at approximately 8 PM Wednesday night for a chance to advance to play #6 seed Michigan on Thursday night.
It’s been a tale of two seasons for the Minnesota Gophers. They got off to a fairly good start under new head coach Dawn Plitzuweit beginning the season 14-5 before losing star guard Mara Braun to a season ending foot injury. Since Braun has been out the Gophers have gone just 1-10 and have been doubly hammered the last five games by an injury to junior post Sophie Hart which has left the Gophers perilously thin. Minnesota lost the final game of the regular season at Penn State by a devastating score of 90-34 shooting only 20% from the field for the game. Can the Gophers regroup against the last place team in the conference and try to earn more than one game in front of what should be a very friendly crowd?
Rutgers comes into the tournament finishing just 2-16 in the Big Ten this season. However, one of their two conference wins this season was the lone meeting between the Scarlet Knights and the Gophers in Piscataway, where they defeated Minnesota 81-73 on February 13th. In that game the Gophers shot 55% in the first quarter and kept Rutgers to just 2-15 from the field in the opening ten minutes. Unfortunately both would not last as the Gophers went clod shooting just 38% in the final three quarters while the Scarlet Knights shot 57% the rest of the way to earn the eight point win. Grace Grocholski led Minnesota with 23 points on seven three pointers.
The Gophers will need to shoot better than they have during their losing streak. Other than the win over Northwestern where the Gophers erupted for 88 points, Minnesota has been limited on offense the past 11 games. Meanwhile Minnesota needs to eliminate massive turnovers and find a way to get some stops against a Rutgers team that just pulled away in the fourth quarter when the Gophers could not stop them. The Gophers will need to do a better job at keeping Rutgers off the foul line where in their first meeting they excelled shooting 26-of-28 from the free throw line, which included a perfect 10-of-10 in the fourth quarter. Sophie Hart has 17 points in that game for Minnesota and she is not expected back on Wednesday so the Gophers will need to find another offensive threat. Minnesota will need to try and stop Destiny Adams, who is averaging 15.1 points per game and dropped 21 on Minnesota in their first meeting. Adams has been doing it all for Rutgers; she averages a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game while also leading the team in steals, blocks, offensive rebounds and free throw attempts. She ranks second in the Big Ten and 24th nationally at total free throw attempts at 168.
Tuesday was also the day that the Big Ten Conference Awards were announced. The Gophers had two players make Honorable Mention All-Big Ten in Braun and Amaya Battle. Braun was a unanimous selection while Battle was just selected by the media. Grocholski was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman team as she lead all conference freshmen with 11.4 points per game.
If Minnesota advances they would take on #6 seed Michigan at approximately 8PM Thursday night who the Gophers defeated with a full strength roster in Ann Arbor in January. Wednesday’s game will stream on Peacock and will officially tip off 25 minutes after the completion of the #12 vs #13 game between Purdue and Northwestern which begins at 5:30 PM. Ohio State is the #1 seed as the Big Ten Regular Season Champions followed by #2 Iowa, #3 Indiana and #4 Michigan State who all earned the double bye. The Tournament continues on Big Ten Network with four Second Round games on Thursday, four Quarterfinals on Friday, the semifinals on Saturday, and the Championship game at 11 AM Sunday morning live on CBS. The full Big Ten Tournament bracket is below:
The Big Ten Tournament is officially a 107,000 person sell-out thanks to a majority of Iowa fans who will make the trip up I-35 and make Target Center sound a lot like Iowa City on Friday through the time the Hawkeyes are eliminated. It should be a great showcase weekend of basketball from Minneapolis!
HOW TO WATCH: WOMEN’S BIG TEN TOURNAMENT OPENING ROUND
#14 Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs #11 Minnesota Golden Gophers
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
When: Approx 8 PM Wednesday
Stream: Peacock
Radio: 96.7 KFAN+, I Heart Radio