U women's gameday
8 P.M. at Illinois • State Farm ctr. • TV: BTN, 88.5-FM
Gophers (17-5, 6-4): After a 21-point drubbing by Northwestern on Sunday, Minnesota limps into Champaign having lost three of its past four. The Gophers are still in the midst of an impressive season under first-year head coach Marlene Stollings. They are No. 35 in the NCAA RPI standings released Tuesday, and all five of their losses have come to teams ranked in the top 55 of the RPI. Many pundits have Minnesota making its first NCAA tournament field since the 2008-09 season.
Fighting Illini (11-11, 2-8): Illinois has lost its past seven games, but six of those games came while leading scorer Ivory Crawford was out with a knee injury. Crawford, a 5-10 senior guard, averages 15.6 points per game. Before Crawford's injury, the Illini were 11-4 and had impressive wins over Kentucky and Iowa. Illinois leads the Big Ten in assists-to-turnover ratio (plus-5.5 per game) and is second in steals (11 per game) and defensive three-point percentage (27.9 percent).
BRYCE EVANS
