The Gophers men's basketball team's 59-52 win at Wisconsin on Thursday night was significant for many reasons. It stopped an eight-game losing streak to the Badgers, gave the Gophers their first win at Wisconsin since 2009 and vaulted Minnesota up in various metrics.
If you like more Gophers/Badgers stats, try this: If we consider the 2018 football season and the 2018-19 basketball season to be the same seasons, this was apparently the first season since 1973 that the Gophers won in football and basketball in Madison.
But also as significant is how the Gophers won: with defense, in a low-scoring game. I looked it up and Richard Pitino's Gophers entered Thursday 2-27 in Big Ten games in which they had scored 60 points or fewer during his tenure. That's not an overly surprising record since it's hard to win with that few points, but it does underscore how rare it's been for the Gophers to win defensive battles.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
