INDIANAPOLIS – Illinois dribbled the ball in place as the clock, mercifully, expired.
The Gophers, brows furrowed and heads down, trudged into the locker room as the band played the team rouser one last time.
The most tumultuous Gophers basketball season in recent memory was over, an 85-52 defeat to 12th-seeded Illinois in the Big Ten tournament putting an ugly cap on a year that has featured plenty of bad looks on the court and off.
The defeat handed 13th-seeded Minnesota its largest margin of defeat and the program-worst 23rd loss, the latest negative distinction for a squad that also recorded a historically bad 14-game skid and managed only eight victories, the fewest since posting seven in 1967-68.
"That was quite an uphill battle," coach Richard Pitino said. "From an offensive standpoint and not really having any guards to a defensive standpoint and not having any depth, being scared to foul, being tired. … I feel bad for the guys that played in the game."
There wasn't much mystery in the Gophers' final act.
A team that has had its roster shrunk dramatically in the past three weeks after three suspensions, a player dismissal and an injury, came out with a final burst of energy at the start, but with just five scholarship players and three walk-ons remaining on the roster, the Gophers didn't have the pieces to hold off even a five-conference-win team like the Illini, a situation Pitino called the toughest of his career.
The Gophers turned the ball over 15 times, didn't have any player finish with more than 12 points despite five players playing 34 minutes or more and appeared winded and unwilling to even slow the damage down the stretch.
"It's a little stomach-wrenching," freshman forward Jordan Murphy said. "Just knowing the situation that we were in on both sides — the guys on the court know that we're pretty shorthanded and the guys on the bench know that they should be on the court. I think it's evenly as difficult."
Given ample room to operate by the Gophers' patchwork defense, Illinois took control early and then ran away.
The Illini knocked down 14 three-pointers and shot 55.2 percent from the field, and broke open their first double-digit lead just less than 10 minutes in. The Gophers, having a hard time setting up their offense all afternoon, settled for too many bad shots, airballing several and didn't provide much pushback.
After padding its advantage to 38-22 by the break, Illinois continued to get easy layups and perimeter shots in the second half and stomped on the gas. A 12-0 run gave the Illini 65-38 lead and the Gophers' body language began to crumble.
"The fatigue gets to you," junior Charles Buggs said. "We're only playing with a few guys."
Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of the Gophers scoring this season could only watch as the team slumped to its lowest depths.
Three weeks ago, it looked as if a youthful Gophers team was playing its best basketball of the season.
After senior Carlos Morris was dismissed for "conduct detrimental to the team" on Feb. 17, the Gophers upset then-No. 6 Maryland and then topped Rutgers by 22 points in their next outing. But less than an hour before the following game — an eventual 84-71 loss at Illinois — the team announced that it was suspending Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, later extending their punishments through the remainder of the season. Adding injury to insult, senior Joey King fractured his right foot in the Gophers' final home game, a 62-49 defeat against Wisconsin, and with barely enough players to field a team, Minnesota handed league basement dweller Rutgers its first conference win in 32 games with a 23-point cushion.
All year, Pitino has lauded the potential of next season, when the Gophers add three talented recruits — including Hopkins star Amir Coffey — and transfers Reggie Lynch and Davonte Fitzgerald will be available, but that prospect probably relies heavily on whether the team reinstates Dorsey, Mason and McBrayer, the team's backcourt corps.
Earlier this week, Pitino said he would "re-evaluate" whether their punishments would extend beyond the season. On Wednesday, he still wasn't willing to go down that path.
"I'm going to need a little bit more than five minutes after the game," he said. "But we will sit and evaluate it and see where we're going moving forward."
