Entering Big Ten play with a 6-6 record, not many folks expected the Gophers be competitive, and their 0-3 conference record generally supports that premise.
While winning, of course, is the only measuring stick that matters in the big picture, the smaller picture displays a Gophers team that has shown up in all three games and given some quality opponents a run for their money, only to wilt down the stretch.
In the conference opener, Minnesota erased a 15-point deficit in the first half to take a second half lead on an Ohio State team that had knocked off Kentucky a couple weeks prior, but the Gophers eventually collapsed in the final 13 minutes and lost by 15. Later that week Minnesota went to the wire with then-No. 1 Michigan State and trailed by two points with under two minutes to go, but they couldn’t score on their final four possessions and lost by eight. Most recently, the Maroon and Gold built two separate second half leads of eight points over Penn State in Happy Valley, only to watch the Nittany Lions go on a devastating 16-0 run within the final six minutes. “I think what happens is when it gets tight, you abandon what’s working and then you try to do something yourself,” said head coach Richard Pitino on Friday.
The Gophers dealt with similar difficulties last season under Pitino when expectations were higher. Minnesota lost seven conference games by five points or less, including four tight games towards the beginning of the schedule that put the team in an 0-5 hole to begin the conference slate.
Though there’s been a great deal of turnover from last year’s roster, those who were around in 2014-15 still have bad memories of last year’s failures. “When games go like this, you go, ‘Ahh,’ you think about some of the games from last year,” said senior Carlos Morris. “[The Penn State game] kind of felt like the Michigan game [last year] because we were up the whole game, and it was like the last four minutes we just lost it at the end, so yeah, you kind of think about it.”
There’s a stark difference, however, between last year’s Gophers and this year’s Gophers. Last season’s group was senior-laden with most of its core appearing in the NCAA tournament under Tubby Smith and winning the NIT Championship in Pitino’s first season as head coach. They were supposed to know what it took to win in crunch time, yet continually came up short and missed the postseason as a result.
The current Gophers are young and raw with four freshmen and three sophomores getting regular playing time. Most of them are getting their first taste of Big Ten play — a totally different animal from the non-conference season.
Teaching a young team how to execute down the stretch isn’t easy. Young players often need years to mature and learn how stay poised in end-game situations. This makes the Gophers’ two seniors all the more valuable. The issue is, Morris and fellow senior Joey King haven’t carried their weight either, particularly against Penn State. “Carlos had that crazy turnover and a bad shot,” recalled Pitino. “Joey had an opportunity to make an easy jump hook you’ve got to make. He had an opportunity to make a left-hand jump hook, and he passed it out for no reason. There’s certain things you’ve got to rely on seniors to do.”
In fairness to Morris and King, Pitino acknowledges that neither have been asked to be the team’s go-to player and shouldn’t simply receive that responsibility by default. Last season, the Gophers had seniors DeAndre Mathieu, Andre Hollins and Mo Walker to carry the load in crunch time, while Morris and King served as complementary pieces. Suddenly, their supporting cast includes freshmen Jordan Murphy, Dupree McBrayer and Kevin Dorsey.
Pitino said Friday that the Gophers “played scared” in the closing minutes at Penn State. “I think that’s just the problem with everybody, just that fear,” said Pitino. “They’ve got to get over that. And everybody deals with it, we all deal with it.”
As tournament hopes get dimmer and the Gophers’ record dips further from .500, there is a temptation to get discouraged and disinterested. The third-year coach says he’s relied on the methods of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban to mentor his team through its current slump of four straight losses. “The biggest thing, I think, that I really like about [Saban] is the process of everything. He’s big on the process, I think a lot of coaches are. Just understanding, ‘We’re 0-3 in the league? None of that matters in a half an hour when we practice.’ Doesn’t matter. None of it matters. We’re 6-9? That does not matter when we play Northwestern on Saturday. It doesn’t.
“I just think you can learn a lot from a guy like that because he’s the best there is.”
