It's a rough time to root for the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team. The Gophers are on a 12-game losing streak dating back to December, and they have yet to win a conference game this season.
Gophers Not Looking Too Great
Minnesota has just over a month before the conference tournament, which is looking like a must-win tournament for their unlikely qualification to the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Of course, in order to do that, they will have to make it past the best the conference has, beginning on Thursday when they travel to Illinois to face Northwestern.
The Golden Gophers fell 74-68 to Indiana on Saturday afternoon in their last contest. Hoosiers freshman Thomas Bryant made the Minnesota defense look helpless in that game, as he scored a career high 23 points, including the game winning basket with 1:56 left in the second half, a shot that put a Gophers rally to bed. The loss dropped Minnesota to 6-16.
In order to do make it to the NCAA Tournament they are going to have to prove that they can play the best in the conference, which is going to be no easy task, as they haven't won a conference game since the conference tournament last season, when they defeated Rutgers 80-68 in an opening round game. They then lost to Ohio State, which started off the current conference losing streak.
The Season In Short So Far
This season started very promising for Minnesota, as the Gophers won their first four games, but then the team went 1-2 at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, with their only win being against Missouri State.
The Gophers then defeated Clemson in the Big Ten ACC Challenge before an embarrassing loss to South Dakota that set off a three-game losing streak, one they snapped when they defeated Chicago State. That was their last win, as they lost to Milwaukee before entering Big Ten play and losing every game since.
Minnesota has eight regular season games left, all against Big Ten teams. Look for head coach Richard Pitino to use a mix of upper-class leaders. He won't be afraid to give the young guys some playing time to get them experience for their bigger roles going into next season.
If there is good news for Minnesota, it's the fact that of the teams they play the rest of the season, they have only played two of them already, both being losses.