Fortunately for the Gophers, style points aren't deal-breaker

Wisconsin put on a display of offense in the first half that was uglier than cockfighting. To prove it wasn't a fluke, the Badgers reverted to that form down the stretch and sent the Gophers to a 51-46 victory on Wednesday night in Williams Arena.

The Badgers' opening and closing ineptitude also figures to send the Gophers into the NCAA tournament for only the second time in the past decade.

The hometown witnesses were very amped about this as they left the Barn, and that again provided irrefutable evidence that winning is all that matters with sports fandom.

The Big Ten has spent more than two months providing a level of offensive basketball worse than anything seen in this conference in decades. The Gophers have contributed to this by failing to reach 60 points five times in their past nine games.

This is a league that does not figure to send one player to the NBA next season. This is a league without a player even in the discussion to be an All-America.

And the public reaction has been: "Quality? Who cares? The Gophers are on the way to a top-six finish in the Big Ten, and that means an NCAA bid, so hip-hip for Tubby!"

The Gophers had been living off a neutral-court victory over a travel-weary Louisville team for 10 weeks. There was nothing else dramatic on the résumé, and yet the Gophers remained 39th in the RPI heading into Wednesday's game.

Tubby Smith's club made this important victory much more difficult than necessary. Wisconsin's brain-numbing ineptitude provided the Gophers with a 23-16 lead at halftime and they should have coasted from there.

Wisconsin was 5-for-20 from the field. The Badgers went from 12:40 remaining to 8:00 left without scoring. The Gophers lit it up by scoring five points in those nearly five minutes.

Wisconsin was able to get back in the game when Marcus Landry went outside and started making jumpers. Then, point guard Trevon Hughes went inside twice, making a basket and then one of two free throws and Wisconsin had a 46-41 lead with 2:48 remaining.

The Gophers then did what they did in a comeback victory at Madison in January: They went to Lawrence Westbrook, and Wisconsin acted as if it were dealing with LeBron James.

Westbrook scored 29 in the first meeting with the Badgers, including a three-pointer that forced overtime. On Wednesday, he scored the game's final 10 points.

The junior played poorly enough at Illinois last week that he didn't start on Wednesday for the first time in 17 Big Ten games. He was a non-factor through the first 30 minutes.

Then, he had a five-point flurry that gave the Gophers a 38-35 lead, and the 10 points to finish the game.

He also came out the winner in a key play with four minutes left. Wisconsin was leading and Westbrook was pressuring the ball. Joe Krabbenhoft came up and set a screen inside the half-court line.

None of Westbrook's teammates let him know the screen was there, and he took a thump. The official on the scene decided Krabbenhoft's forearms and elbows were in an illegal position and gave him the foul.

The fact Krabbenhoft had laid out a Purdue player with a similar screen probably was something not lost on a veteran Big Ten officiating crew.

The Gophers now have used the raised-court advantage to win four in a row in the Big Ten. That's enough to offset five consecutive miserable efforts on the road and will get Minnesota back in the NCAA tournament.

And we know this when the Gophers get there: Win or lose, it won't be pretty.