At a point of desperation, a critical juncture in the season after only three conference games, the Gophers men's basketball team found a new low.
On Sunday, as the game winded down and the 79-66 loss seeming inevitable, Purdue missed four of its final eight free throws. No matter, the Gophers weren't close enough to respond. The clock ran out, the seats emptied and with that, the Gophers' silver lining slipped away.
"Everybody's seen how last year ended," said junior forward Rodney Williams, who a year ago saw the Gophers drop 10 of their last 11 Big Ten games. "And it's kind of looking like it's going to go down the same road this year. But we've got a tough group of guys in the locker room, so we all know that there's a lot of basketball left to play."
Before Sunday, the Gophers had lost three close ones, but had clutched some shred of optimism along the way.
This was a blowout. At home. Against a team that had just been crushed by Penn State. Right before heading to red-hot Indiana. And with the loss, the team quickly dug a hole that will be very tough to escape from.
"When you're 0-4 and you haven't won a Big Ten game for like forever," Gophers coach Tubby Smith started before trailing off. "That's the psyche in sports -- and confidence is so fragile."
Smith went on to say that his players didn't have confidence problems, but Purdue certainly tried everything in its box of tricks to give the Gophers (12-5) a complex.
If they focused their defensive efforts inside, they were lit up from outside by Ryne Smith, who made two three-pointers in the first three-plus minutes of the game, and D.J. Byrd, who sank five of six threes and finished with 18 points off the bench. When they sent defenders to the perimeter, Boilermakers point guard Lewis Jackson drove to the basket unhindered and scored a game-high 20 points.
The new starting lineup, with Joe Coleman at small forward in place of the struggling Austin Hollins, played well for the first 15 minutes Sunday, as the Gophers made four three-pointers and looked as though they were finally starting to shoot with some accuracy. But the Boilermakers (13-4, 3-1 Big Ten), sinking 10 of 12 three-point attempts in the first half, were too efficient. Four minutes before the half, Purdue went on a 12-2 run, and the Gophers, looking suddenly worn out, trailed 47-32 at the break.
"I think we were a little late on the switches," said Coleman, who finished with a career-best 14 points and six rebounds. "They're fast shooters so if you're a split-second late, they're going to be able to get [the shot away]."
In the second half, the Gophers switched to a small lineup in an attempt to keep up with Purdue's pace. Williams was phenomenal -- finishing with 19 points and 14 rebounds, both career highs -- but Julian Welch was stagnant with only four points and a struggling Ralph Sampson III (two points) was benched for most of the half.
The Gophers crept within seven at 68-61 with 4:22 remaining on a Coleman layup, but couldn't find an answer for Jackson and again fell away, back into the rut they have dug for themselves.
"We get out to these slow starts and we fight back just to lose at the end," Williams said. "That's always tough. We've got another game coming up next week, so we've just got to get some good practices in and be ready for that."
But the road doesn't get any easier for the Gophers, who travel to Bloomington next week to face No. 12 Indiana. The following game is at Penn State, against a suddenly confident Nittany Lions team that crushed Purdue by 20 and played Indiana tight on Sunday, losing 88-82.
