Gophers Overtime: Pitino trusted team in the open court in final possession

So to set the scene -- in case you forgot in last 12 hours -- Ohio State's Marc Loving had just hit a jump to put the Buckeyes up 74-72 at Williams Arena in the Gophers' latest attempt at their first Big Ten win.

There were five seconds left on the clock, and Minnesota had time for one more play.

In hindsight, yeah, sure, he rethinks not calling a timeout before the Gophers' final possession of the game coach Richard Pitino said afterward.

In the moment, however, the second-year Minnesota coach preferred to give his point guard DeAndre Mathieu a chance in the open court. Ohio State had been getting stops in the half court all night. Mathieu is traditionally good in those situations.

And Mathieu himself says he likes those opportunities. He's more comfortable on the move.

It was a bad turnover, but one hard to predict. Driving past halfcourt, Mathieu spun around and tried to hit Joey King, who was trailing just past the top of the key. He didn't see Shannon Scott, who reached in and tipped the pass enough to ruin the Gophers' chances at a good final shot.

"I should have got that pass through," Mathieu said. "He made a good play on the ball but Joey was screaming 'Trail' ... If I had got it to Joey, he would have gotten a nice look."

As it was, the Gophers came up short in the biggest heartbreaker yet. Pitino made it clear afterward it wasn't his floor general's fault. In the same situation down the road, he'd likely trust his point guard again.

"I feel bad for DeAndre," Pitino said. "Because he played really well."

QUOTEABLE
Ohio State freshman D'Angelo Russell on Minnesota's tale of two defensive halves on him:

"The first half they kind of were sleeping on me I guess. The second half they played great defense. It forced me to try to create for others and let my teammates step up. Instead of me trying to force it, I moved out of the way to let my teammates take control."

HOME ADVANTAGE?
Minnesota has had some foul problems throughout the season but Tuesday was not one of those nights. In fact, the Gophers were not called for a single foul in the last 8:09 of regulation and until the 1:13 mark of overtime despite that Andre Hollins was seen holding Russell at times. Ohio State was called for five fouls in that span.

Russell said one of the ghost fouls should have happened with 30 seconds left. He drove into the lane before losing control and turning over the ball to Mathieu.

"I got raked on that play," he said. "[Mathieu] came by and just raked my arms. We couldn't buy a call. We shouldn't have left it in the refs' hands."

BLACKOUT IN OR OUT
Leading up to Tuesday's "black out" featuring Minnesota's new black uniforms and encouraging fans to also wear black, there were strong opinions on both sides. Some, including the players, seemed to love the one-time concept. Others took to social media to exclaim how wrong it seemed to wear something other than maroon and gold in support of their team.

"I thought it was a great crowd, certainly," Pitino said. "I know there was a little resistance with it. More than anything it's just trying to do something different, trying to do something creative and fun. We're not going to change the colors or anything like that. So I thought it was a fun environment, the fans are great. We're all disappointed with the loss, but we've got to move on."