Written By Sam Ekstrom
After 14 consecutive losses – including an 0-13 start in Big Ten play – the Minnesota Golden Gophers finally got their highly-coveted first conference win with a 68-63 upset of No. 6 Maryland at The Barn.
One day after head coach Richard Pitino dismissed senior Carlos Morris from the program for detrimental conduct – another stain on a long-lost season – Thursday night’s court-storming was a much-needed tonic all involved: a coach, who was beginning to feel the heat, a group of players, who were weary from 10 single-digit losses in the last 13 games, and a devoted fan base, who still filled 10,000 seats at Williams Arena despite the team’s woes.
It seemed like the Gophers would soon get rewarded with a Big Ten victory. Maybe Rutgers or Illinois. But nobody thought it would be the powerhouse Terrapins with their rostered littered with NBA talent. (If you recall, I arbitrarily gave the Gophers a 7 percent chance of winning last night’s game in an article last week.)
So how did the Gophers do it? It was really the perfect storm for Minnesota, beginning with an event that took place several days prior to the game.
Diamond Stone was suspended. Maryland suspended Stone, the outstanding freshman center, for one game after he roughly shoved a Wisconsin player’s head to the floor in the team’s previous outing. It was a smart move by Maryland to bite the bullet and set a strong precedent that they wouldn’t tolerate dirty play, and the decision was probably made easier by the fact that Minnesota was next on the schedule. Stone, however – the team’s second-leading scorer – was missed for his interior offensive presence. “Probably hurt us,” said Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. “We weren’t making a lot of shots.”
An early flurry of 3’s. Considering the Gophers are the third-worst 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten, Thursday’s early 3-point onslaught came out of left field and gave the Gophers an early cushion they desperately needed. Within the game’s first 12 minutes, Minnesota had seven makes from behind the arc, including a trio of treys in succession from senior Joey King. “We’re not the best jump-shooting team, so whenever I can get out there and knock a few down early, give our team some confidence, hopefully a lead here and there, it gives everyone a little bit of a morale boost,” King said after the game. “I think that led to kind of a flurry. I think we started off 7 of 10 from 3, and that got us excited. It got our crowd rolling.”
The shocking part of Minnesota’s unexpected 3-point barrage was how fleeting it turned out to be. “I didn’t want to say it, but I did think we would go cold,” said Pitino. The Gophers only made one 3-pointer after the early flurry and ended up shooting a dismal 20 of 60 (33 percent) from the floor for the game. In the final 11 minutes, 50 seconds, Minnesota made just one field goal. Yet, the early cushion was enough to get them by a cold-shooting Maryland team, who shot 37.5 percent themselves.
A Herculean defensive effort on Melo Trimble. Arguably Maryland’s most talented athlete, Trimble, the future NBAer, looked overwhelmed thanks to the defense of Minnesota’s guards, primarily Nate Mason and Kevin Dorsey, Jr. Minnesota forced Trimble into six turnovers and 3 of 11 shooting. Mason told the media Wednesday that he’d been thinking of the matchup against his fellow sophomore Trimble all week. “I’m ready for it,” Mason said Wednesday. “Just extra motivation. Probably get in the gym more for late-night shooting.” The blossoming Gophers guard, who made the team’s only field goal in the final 11-plus minutes, prevented Trimble from penetrating in the lane all night, keeping him on the perimeter where he’s struggled to make 3’s in his second college season (under 34 percent). “We did a good job slapping down, helping off the guys, knowing when they’re going isolation basketball,” said Pitino. “Trimble’s a really good player. He was a little off today with some of his turnovers, but hopefully that was a little bit of our defense.”
“I definitely felt like I had an extra gear,” Mason said afterward.
Uncharacteristically clutch free-throw shooting. If you were to count the number of games the Gophers have let slip because of poor free-throw shooting over the last two seasons, you might need a third hand. Thursday night, though, it was Maryland who missed pivotal freebies. In the game’s final 10 minutes, the Terrapins split four sets of free throws at the line, including a miss by Rasheed Sulaimon with 35 seconds left that prevented Maryland from tying the game. Minnesota, on the other hand, iced the game by scoring 15 of their final 18 points at the line. “Murph makes his free throws, Joey makes his free throws,” said Pitino. “It just comes down to one or two plays, and we found a way to make them tonight.”
Minnesota finished 20 of 23 from the free-throw line. At 87 percent, they had their best effort from the charity stripe in any of their 14 Big Ten games this year.
A celebration of Dick Jonckowski. The Gophers have only had two public address announcers in their team’s history: Jules Perlt and Jonckowski. The latter was honored Thursday for 30 years behind the mic at Williams Arena. Jonckowski, 72, recently beat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the same illness that claimed the life of former Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders. He was profiled beautifully by Marcus Fuller of the Pioneer Press earlier in the week.
It was a big night for Jonckowski, and who knows, maybe the Gophers had a little extra in the tank for a local legend, who let loose after the final buzzer as students stormed the court: “THE GOPHERS WIN! GOPHERS WIN! GOPHERS WIN! GOPHERS WIN! HOW ABOUT THAT? HOW ABOUT THAT?”
Video and photo from Sam Ekstrom
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha, a Vikings writer for About Sports and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.