Big Ten Basketball: 3 takeaways from Minnesota’s blowout loss at Northwestern

Worst offense in the Big Ten?

It may sound like a broken record at this point for Gopher fans, but turnovers and poor free-throw shooting once again doomed any chance of a Minnesota comeback. They finished with 15 turnovers as compared to 4 from Northwestern while going 16-26 from the stripe.

Both continue worrying trends for the Gophers; they’ve averaged over 11 turnovers per game during their five-game losing streak and currently rank near the bottom of the Big Ten in that category. In many ways, the turnover problems are understandable for such a young basketball team, but even the veterans have struggled with taking care of the rock. Lead guard Ta’Lon Cooper, the team’s top playmaker, ended the contest with four costly takeaways.

The free-throw shooting has been particularly disastrous, with the Gophers currently dead last in Division I basketball in free-throw percentage at 59.2%. Aside from Jamison Battle, not a single player on this team shoots above 80% from free throw and several are in the 40s and 50s. Now, the 16-26 performance does actually represent a slight improvement from the season-long numbers, but it’s hard to imagine this team climbing from the Big Ten cellar unless they see a drastic improvement at the charity stripe.