Reusse: Gophers coach Niko Medved’s “Iron Six” pick up win over indifferent Oregon

The new world of college athletics, with players being paid and able to transfer schools repeatedly, brings some cynicism. This might be particularly true in basketball, where the court is occupied with a small number of players and effort is more easily analyzed.

So, excuse me if we’re getting later into the season and I suspect losing teams in major conferences might have athletes starting to focus on where they might be playing next season, rather than charging hard for, say, the next defensive rebound.

I would never directly accuse players on the Oregon Ducks of embracing that mindset, but this was much was obvious from 1,800-plus miles away in a TV den in a Minneapolis suburb on Tuesday night, Feb. 17:

This was a late-starting game in Eugene, Ore., matching a pair of teams in the bottom third of the Big 18 standings, and Niko Medved’s Gophers were considerably more interested in stealing the road victory than Dana Altman’s Ducks were in defending that garishly painted court of theirs.

In a quick phone conversation with Medved earlier this week, when it was definite that ultra-valuable forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson was going to miss another game with a foot injury and perhaps the rest of the season, he was asked about Oregon. Niko said:

“They’ve had some injuries — not quite like us, but a few — but what you know for sure is Oregon has a great coach in Dana Altman.”

Altman’s 789-422 career record confirms that, but on this night, the greatest of them all — maybe Bobby Knight, with chairs to throw — might not have been able to inspire the Ducks in the final minutes.

Our guy Grayson even went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line, rattling in the first before producing a line drive into the rim that would have made Rod Carew proud.

The final was 61-44, which meant these Gophers held Oregon to two more points than the Ducks football team scored when P.J. Fleck’s squad visited Eugene three months ago and lost 42-13.

This was a win that should accomplish Medved’s main goal once Crocker-Johnson joined his MASH unit:

Avoid being one of the bottom four teams in the standings that will be required to play on a dreary two-game first day of the conference tournament.

Gophers fans had the “Iron Five” a couple of times in the long era of full houses at Williams Arena. With Crocker-Johnson joining the wounded, Medved had the “Iron Six” in this victory:

The result, in front of a crowd worthy of Gophers-Alcorn State in our Barn in November, led to a question.

The Ducks are now 2-13 and tied with Northwestern and Penn State as the league’s worst.

It has cost Phil Knight a hunk of millions to assist coach Dan Lanning in turning the Ducks into a football power, but shouldn’t the guy who started his Nike fortune with sneakers have a few million left for his favorite college’s men’s basketball team?

What we do know: It wasn’t a thrill to see Lindsay Whalen and Ben Johnson go, a grand Gopher and a good one. But athletic director Mark Coyle (aka Mr. Dull) landed a very good coach in Dawn Plitzuweit — Sweet 16 potential, at least, in Year 3 — and Medved has been close to miraculous in Year 1 in getting this injury-ravaged collection of nomads to compete fiercely (and smartly) in most every Big Ten game.

To make it officially a miracle, we’ll have to see Grove step to the line late in a game and have a couple of free throws settle softly into the net as if he had captured oversized butterflies.

ADDENDUM: Oregon’s 44 points were two fewer than when it won its only NCAA tournament title. That was 1939, the NCAA’s first tournament, and Oregon — then called the Webfoots — defeated Ohio State 46-33 at Patten Gym in Evanston, Ill.