On a night filled with plenty of Big Ten basketball, Minnesota won the”Bubble Battle” of the day against Northwestern in Evanston.
While securing their first road win of the year, the Minnesota Golden Gophers moved to 13-2 on the season and are looking like every bit of a potential tournament team.
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On a night when he shot 7-of-12 from the field, Amir Coffey led the Gophers with 17 points and also contributed a couple of steals. Nate Mason made eight of his nine free throws in route to 12 points and Reggie Lynch had 12 points to go with his team-leading eight rebounds.
Although in a losing effort, Bryant McIntosh had a great outing, pouring in 21 points for Northwestern in addition to dishing out five assists. Scottie Lindsey, Northwestern’s leading scorer on the season, really struggled against Minnesota’s defense, shooting a putrid 0-of-5 from three and 4-of-12 from the field for a measly 10 points.
For a player who averages nearly 16 per game on the season, while shooting 42.2 percent from three, this was not a good outing.
Despite this being a very competitive and close game throughout, Minnesota used a layup by Milwaukee transfer Akeem Springs, with 10:56 to play in the second half, to gain a lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
The true difference maker in this game was Northwestern’s inability to shoot the three ball. As a team, the Wildcats came into this battle shooting 37.5 percent from deep, but after a dreadful 6-of-21 night (23.1 percent), that number will surely go down. In fact, NU was just 1-of-15 from three in the entire second half.
As for these teams moving forward, this game could easily have a ginormous impact on the bubble.
For Minnesota, this was a very good road win against a tough Big Ten opponent. The Golden Gophers have played just about as well as anyone could’ve expected to this point in the season.
Minnesota, who beat Purdue on the road over the weekend, continues to climb up the Big Ten ranks and is finding itself with a pretty good likelihood of making the tournament at this point. Their next game comes at home against Ohio State, who just took a tough loss to Purdue at home.
Northwestern, on the other hand, could’ve really used this win. Gaining road victories in the Big Ten is not an easy thing to do, so taking advantage of home games is vital for any team sitting on the bubble. The Wildcats are right on the bubble as of now, and are looking for their first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. This loss does not help their odds.
Now losers of two straight, Northwestern needs to right the ship in their next two games, which are both very winnable. First, they travel to Nebraska on Sunday and then make another trip out east to face Rutgers on Thursday of next week. These are must-win games if the Wildcats want to be playing deep into March.
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On the whole, this should definitely go down as a good road victory for Minnesota. However, it is also a definite missed opportunity for Northwestern.