Schedule turns tougher for No. 23 Gophers, starting with No. 24 Michigan

Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit returned with her team from a two-game road trip convinced of two things:

• Her team has a resilience that might have been lacking last season.

• The Gophers need to start playing more complete games.

The resilience comes from games at No. 8 Maryland and Northwestern, two teams on different ends of the Big Ten spectrum. In both games the Gophers dug deep holes before trying to climb out. It worked only once.

Down 20 late in Maryland, the Gophers pulled within three before losing. At Northwestern, with the team having battled an illness that had run through the roster, Minnesota found itself down 16 with eight minutes left Sunday before rallying for a five-point victory.

“We didn’t have that last year,” Plitzuweit said. “In that kind of situation I’m not sure we had the ability or resiliency to battle back. We’re growing in that way.”

More is needed.

So far the Gophers (17-2 overall, 5-2 Big Ten) have, for the most part, taken care of expected business. They have beaten Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Rutgers and Northwestern in conference play, five teams with a combined 5-32 conference record. The two losses have come against teams ranked at the time — a 19-point loss at then-No. 25 Nebraska and last week’s loss at Maryland.

But now business is about to get harder. The No. 23 Gophers host No. 24 Michigan on Wednesday night at Williams Arena, the team’s third chance to get a victory against a ranked team. The young Wolverines start three freshmen, including former Benilde-St. Margaret’s star Olivia Olson, who is second in the conference in freshman scoring (15.8).

After a rematch with Wisconsin on Sunday, the Gophers will, in order, play at No. 4 USC, at No. 1 UCLA, play host to Iowa and Indiana and play at No. 12 Ohio State. What’s coming is a six-game stretch against teams with a combined 26-17 conference record.

“We have to get as healthy as we can get, do everything we can do to bounce back,” Plitzuweit said. “I feel we’re turning the corner there. Now we have to put a full game together. When we have scored we haven’t defended. When we’ve defended we haven’t, at times, scored.”

Why? To Plitzuweit, part of it was health — it seemed the Gophers lacked energy from the start at Northwestern. It is also the better competition in the Big Ten.

But it’s also urgency. Defense is Plitzuweit’s top priority, and the Gophers didn’t play enough of it while allowing a season-high 99 points at Maryland and letting Northwestern score 82 points, nearly 15 more than its season average.

The Gophers did defend late Saturday. After shooting 56.3% through three quarters, Northwestern was only 5-for-17 in the fourth quarter, during which the Gophers outscored the Wildcats 29-8 over the final eight minutes.

Against Michigan, the Gophers will need four quarters.

Michigan is 13-5 overall, 4-3 in the Big Ten. The young Wolverines have played several ranked teams. They lost by only six to No. 2 South Carolina and beat a 13-win Virginia Tech team. Their other losses came to No. 15 Oklahoma, USC, UCLA and Ohio State. Since running that Big Ten gantlet, Michigan has won three in a row against Purdue, Washington and Rutgers.

The Wolverines play an up-tempo style with intensity the Gophers have to match. “They have an incredible amount of tenacity,” Plitzuweit said. “Very good athleticism. They play hard and fast. A dangerous combination, you know.”

The game will be a showcase of Minnesota girls high school basketball. Five of the 10 expected starters — Mallory Heyer, Amaya Battle, Sophie Hart and Tori McKinney for Minnesota, Olson for Michigan — are from Minnesota.

It is also a look at top freshmen. Olson, teammate Syla Swords (15.4) and McKinney (10.3) are in the top seven in Big Ten freshman scoring.

7 p.m. Wednesday at Williams Arena

No TV. Streamed on B1G+ Radio: 96.7-FM

The No. 23 Gophers (17-2, 5-2 Big Ten) are coming off a come-from-behind victory at Northwestern. The No. 24 Wolverines (13-5, 4-3) are on a three-game Big Ten winning streak. The Gophers are looking for their first victory against a ranked opponent since November 2019. The Gophers have lost eight of their past 10 to the Wolverines, but the two teams split two games last season.