Gophers badly outplayed in loss to Northwestern

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Gophers basketball team held a meeting earlier this week to remind themselves they still had a long season left to prove critics wrong. Fans and outside observers basically are counting them out of Big Ten contention minus impact players Reggie Lynch and Amir Coffey.

There will be a lot more doubters after their worst loss in two years.

In the second game down two starters because of Coffey's shoulder injury and Lynch's suspension for his involvement in multiple alleged sexual assault incidents, Minnesota fell 83-60 Wednesday night against Northwestern in front of 5,514 at Allstate Arena.

"It's a difficult hand that they were dealt, but we've got to work our way through it," Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. "It's my job to get them back to having fun. We were playing good basketball. [Wednesday], we certainly looked frustrated."

The Gophers (13-5, 2-3 Big Ten) dropped to 0-2 without Lynch and Coffey, who is out indefinitely because of a right shoulder injury. Poor play down the stretch resulted in a 75-71 loss Saturday against Indiana at home, but what followed was unexpected.

Even after his speech trying to inspire them on Monday, Pitino's players showed up with little energy and effort two days later in a game that could have been a chance to regroup.

After appearing like a team far from the one that reached the program's first NCAA tournament last season, the Wildcats (11-7, 2-3) responded by leading Minnesota by as much as 28 points in the second half after taking control 43-21 at halftime.

Scottie Lindsey had 22 points and Bryant McIntosh broke a single-game school record with 16 assists for Northwestern, which shot 50 percent and had a 45-26 rebounding edge. Dupree McBrayer was the only double-figure scorer for Minnesota with 14 points.

Northwestern's zone defense stifled the Gophers, who shot 31 percent for the game and only 22 percent (6-for-27) in the first half. The Gophers' leading scorer and the Big Ten's top rebounder, Jordan Murphy, went scoreless in the first half after getting into foul trouble. Murphy, who finished with only eight points and two rebounds after fouling out in 17 minutes, had his double-double streak to start a season end at 17 consecutive games to remain tied with Tim Duncan for the NCAA record.

"Foul trouble certainly with Jordan Murphy really hurt us," Pitino said. "Nate [Mason] was in foul trouble as well. Our guys have to find a way to regroup and get positive again."

Mason, an All-Big Ten senior and fellow captain, wasn't much help in Murphy's absence with only two points on 0-for-5 shooting from the field and four turnovers in the first half. He fouled out with nine points on 2-for-10 shooting in 26 minutes.

Davonte Fitzgerald's emphatic dunk down the lane gave Minnesota a 9-8 advantage at 14:08 in the first half, but the Gophers never led again. They were outscored 25-8 in the next 13 minutes, which included a five-minute drought without a basket.

Lindsey's layup made it 52-24 three minutes into the second half and the largest lead for Wildcats, who have won four of the past five meetings in the series.

Lynch, whose status remains unchanged, and Coffey were two local, talented newcomers last season who helped the Gophers pull off their biggest one-year improvement in school history going from 8-23 to 24-10.

The turnaround helped Pitino escape the hot seat with his job status become Big Ten coach of the year and receive a one-year contract extension. This season was supposed to be building on that momentum with the Gophers projected to make it back to the NCAA tournament and possibly compete for a Big Ten title.

But in less than a week, Minnesota's season outlook and support from some fans for Pitino went from at an all-time high to lows only seen during that abysmal 2015-16 season.

The Big Ten schedule only gets tougher now playing No. 5 Purdue at home Saturday before going on the road to play at Penn State and Maryland.

"Adversity's hit us, but we can't worry about it," McBrayer said. "We have to just go out there and play. Everybody just has got to do a little bit more."