Amid bounce back, Gophers men’s basketball back to us-against-the-world mentality

The Gophers men’s basketball team is back on its us-against-the-Big Ten war cry. Going into the Washington game Feb. 1, head coach Ben Johnson brought up how Minnesota was the preseason pick to finish last in the 18-team conference.

He refreshed memories to try to keep his team hungry and humble after knocking off two ranked teams, Michigan and Oregon, at home the previous two weekends. It didn’t do the trick as the U tripped in a 71-68 loss to the then-last place Huskies at Williams Arena. Minnesota started very slow and its frantic comeback fell short.



Now, coming off a road sweep of UCLA and Southern Cal, Johnson is bringing up the preseason prognosis yet again. “It’s not one of those ‘(forget) everybody’ grudges, Johnson said. “It’s more like perspective.

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That perspective I don’t want our guys to get comfortable with.” The 12th-place Gophers (14-12, 6-9 Big Ten) host now-last place Penn State (14-13, 4-12) at 1 p.m.

Saturday at The Barn. After that Washington washout, Minnesota bounced back to beat the Nittany Lions 69-61 on Feb. 4 in University Park, Pa.

The Gophers were able to neutralize Penn State’s top player, guard Ace Baldwin. The senior leads the team with 13.9 points per game, second in the Big Ten at 7.

3 assists per game and runner-up at 2.3 steals per contest. But against the U, Baldwin had 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting, with five assists, three turnovers and one steal.

“He is a major point of emphasis,” Johnson said Friday. “He is so disruptive defensively, I think you can lose sight of what he can do offensively, especially when he is really engaged. He’s really engaged right now, and he is an elite passer.

I think we have to be on edge, for sure, with him.”.