What must Gophers women’s basketball change to end its spiral?

After a difficult loss at Rutgers on Tuesday, Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit talked about discipline and how much her team needed it. As her team prepared for Saturday’s home game vs. Northwestern, Plitzuweit spoke more specifically about what that meant.

“You can look at every little aspect of the game,” she said, “and what discipline looks like within that area. You look at what gives you the most bang for the buck, what can you practice that is going to alleviate as many of those mistakes as possible.”

The Gophers will try to end a six-game losing streak against Northwestern. Four of those games have come without leading scorer Mara Braun, who is recovering from right foot surgery. Here are some areas where Plitzuweit thinks the Gophers need to improve:

The Gophers have allowed 73.3 points per game during the streak, up from 63.3 for the 24-game season so far.

But the problems haven’t always been the same. “We need to be disciplined in the way we start our defense,” Plitzuweit said, “and in how we start our transition defense. How do we get to spots we need to get to? Look at how we’re guarding ball screens. Were we disciplined in our ball screen coverages? And we weren’t.”

That was especially true in the Rutgers loss, a game in which Gophers fouling resulted in the Scarlet Knights shooting 28 free throws, making 26. The Gophers were outscored by 18 at the free-throw line in a game they lost by eight points.

But there have been other problems: knowing when to help and where, being able to get off the help and get out and contest perimeter shots. Gophers opponents have shot 40.4% this season. But in the last six games, that’s jumped to 45.2%. Opponents’ three-point shooting has jumped from 32.1% to 35.1%.

“It’s doing the right thing every time,” guard Janay Sanders said, “and not just when you feel like it or want to. We all have the capability. So it’s being willing to do the right thing every single time.”

Center Sophie Hart added: “Coach says it all the time. You can play really hard. But if you’re not doing the right things at the right time, then playing hard won’t help you secure the win.”

Without Braun, scoring has dropped more than 10 points a game.

It starts with taking care of the basketball, something the Gophers have struggled with of late.

But it’s also working hard on the offensive glass, setting good picks and getting shots off that, using ball penetration to score.

“We have to be able to catch and shoot, be active with the ball,” Plitzuweit said. “Catch the defense off balance. Those kinds of things.”

Defensive improvement would help. The Gophers are far more efficient when they can attack off a defensive stop before the opponent can set up its defense.

Here’s one big little thing: free throws.

The Gophers lost at Rutgers by eight in a game where they were 8-for-16 on free throws. They were 10-for-20 in a 16-point loss to Penn State, 6-for-12 in a loss to Michigan State. Braun is one of the best free-throw shooters in the country at 95%. The rest of the team, over the course of the season, is at 62%.