Battling for its postseason life for most of the season after an 0-6 conference start, the Gophers men’s basketball team made coach Ben Johnson proud for what it did to qualify for the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis before the final regular-season game.
Finishing .500 in the last 14 games of Big Ten play was no small feat, especially with the Gophers getting five road wins, the most since 2017.
A fifth consecutive road victory Sunday would have earned the Gophers the 11th seed in the upcoming tournament, but they lost 75-67 in overtime against Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J.
The Gophers (15-16, 7-13 Big Ten) own the tiebreaker over Iowa, USC and Nebraska, so they earned the No. 12 seed to play in Wednesday’s opener in the Big Ten tournament against No. 13 seed Northwestern.
“It’s a whole new season,” Johnson said on the postgame radio show. “I told them every game now that urgency is at a new level, because you just never know when it can be over. These guys have aspirations of playing in the postseason and much more basketball.”
Dawson Garcia led the Gophers with 19 points Sunday, including a floater with 7.5 seconds left to tie the score 61-61 and force an extra period.
Rutgers’ Dylan Harper nearly won the game in regulation with a spinning layup before Garcia answered. Harper was forced into a turnover before the second-half buzzer, but he had six of his 22 points in overtime for Rutgers (15-16, 8-12), which earned the 11th seed after getting the tiebreaker Sunday.
Only the top 15 teams qualify for the conference tournament this year, meaning Nebraska, Penn State and Washington were left out.