Gophers men's gameday
1:30 p.m. vs. Northwestern; BTN-1500 ESPN
Gophers (6-9, 0-3 in the Big Ten): Minnesota looked primed to seize its first league win Tuesday, but handed the honors to Penn State instead in an 86-77 road loss. The Gophers hit 11 three-pointers in that game, and shot 52.1 percent from the field, their second highest of the season. Minnesota had shot worse than 39 percent in six of its previous seven games. The Gophers have now lost four in a row and seven of their past eight. … Senior forward Joey King surpassed the 1,000-point career mark with 22 points at Penn State. King still leads the team in scoring with 13.4 points a game.
Northwestern (13-3, 1-2): The Wildcats survived the nonconference season with a single loss to North Carolina, but are coming off back-to-back conference losses to Maryland and Ohio State at home. Northwestern's normally efficient offense (1.12 points per possession) managed just .86 and .82 points per possession in those two games with Bryant McIntosh (32 points total) the only scorer in double digits. He leads a team that has four scorers averaging double digits with 15.9 points a game. Big man Dererk Pardon, a 6-8 freshman, made his college debut against Loyola Maryland four games ago and, in the last three, he has compiled 46 points and 32 rebounds off the bench.
AMELIA RAYNO