Complete coverage of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA. Latest scores, player stats, schedule, standings, game highlights and sports commentary from the Star Tribune.
The Gophers are confident they will be one of the top teams in the Big Ten and have a chance to make a March Madness run in 2018. "We're going to be fine," sophomore Jordan Murphy said.
The Gophers took advantage of a softer-than-usual Big Ten to put together an eight-game winning streak and peak at 11-6 in the conference, and then came the unimpressive finish.
Reggie Lynch was in foul trouble, Nate Mason was scoreless in the first half and 12th-seeded Middle Tennessee lived up to its reputation to knock out the Gophers in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.
Some Gophers fans applauded this season's turnaround after Thursday's loss to Middle Tennessee in the NCAA tournament. Others, well, expected a bit more than a one-and-done.
Middle Tennessee, the 12 seed Thursday, looked like a veteran team on both ends of the floor. The fifth-seed Gophers looked like a young team that has zero depth and was hanging by a thread.
The Gophers' Nate Mason averaged 17.2 points per game in the Big Ten but on Thursday struggled shooting from the field and also suffered an injured hip.
This year's Big Ten tournament will be the last held at Joe Louis Arena, where the fifth-ranked Gophers won their only Big Ten tournament title in 2015.