Gophers showing some fight, if not many basketball wins, after coach Ben Johnson's 'Year Zero'

There never has been a Gophers coach more entitled than Ben Johnson to declare his first season as "Year Zero," although that already had been claimed by a football coach inheriting the bulk of a roster from a 9-4 team.

As the new men's basketball coach for 2021-22, Johnson faced a far more difficult predicament, with all hands off deck and the need to put together a roster built on experienced transfers from lower-tier programs.

The athletes from William & Mary and Lafayette and other such outposts made an immediate positive impression, playing with awareness and determination.

The moments continued through a meeting with Rutgers on Jan. 22, one of those Saturday Big Ten matinées that were so cherished around here until TV started messing up the schedule and lives of Gophers basketball fans.

Rutgers came in with a bunch of good wins and the Gophers were in the middle of a COVID-19 outbreak. They had only seven scholarship players, and one of them was Payton Willis, a point guard of such experience that he had transferred to Minnesota, left Minnesota and transferred back to Minnesota.

So what did Willis do? Well, he turned The Barn into Payton Place (why not?), scoring a career-high 32 points and a Gophers record-tying eight three-pointers.

The final was 68-65 Gophers, and there remained hope the true Year Zeroes would continue to surprise.

And then that darned element called "talent" showed up.

The Gophers lost 11 of the final 13 games to finish 4-16 and 14th (last) in the Big Ten. They also lost to Penn State to open the conference tournament.

This season would be the start of the official rebuild, with four freshmen of note. With Jamison Battle still around, and Dawson Garcia home in Minnesota as his third college … the talent was clearly upgraded.

What was exchanged, though, was confusion for knowledge, and carelessness for determination.

For instance: The reaction here when Battle returned, and had played a few games, was that he was getting better shots in much better rhythm with Willis than with new point guard Ta'Lon Cooper (a veteran transfer) and the other guards.

And shouldn't Garcia play down low more than out on the court?

As expected, the Gophers lost the two December conference games in decisive fashion, to Purdue and Michigan. Worse, they were horrific in beating some bad nonconference teams.

The Gophers were 6-6 when Big Ten play resumed Tuesday at Wisconsin. The margin of defeat was merely 63-60. It was assessed by most as progress, although it looked from here a lot like a traditional Badgers slog to victory.

This put the Gophers at 2-15 in Big Ten games in the nearly one year since Willis scored his 32 to beat Rutgers. And it led to one of those precious Saturday conference games in the Barn, although this one tipped off just after 11 a.m. (on TV's demand).

The opponent was Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have weakened Big Ten basketball since becoming the league's 12th team in 2011. The surprise these days is that they also have weakened football.

(Herbie Husker: "OK, but we have another new high-priced coach now, and he's going to be The One to bring back our glory.")

The men's basketball team also has a high-priced savior in Fred Hoiberg, the king of transfers before they were free. Hoiberg had been such a bust since arriving in 2019 that you wondered if someone in power might be saying, "What wuz we thinkin', let's run him outta Lincoln."

Just in the nick of time for Freddie, the Cornhuskers are showing competitiveness. They beat Creighton and Iowa and took Purdue to overtime. They came into Williams Arena as 3½-point favorites.

Those paging through the Star Tribune on Saturday morning should have discovered Gophers beat writer Marcus Fuller's shocking information that the average scanned tickets for eight home games was 3,133, compared to average announced of 8,551.

Rumors have it the person in charge of this also counts the crowds at Trump rallies.

What occurred, though, amid the gloom, was a very lively contest and a loud crowd — no matter how close it might have been to the 10,948 announced.

Nebraska escaped with an 81-79 overtime victory, based on having Derrick Walker — 6-foot-9, two years at Tennessee, now three at Nebraska — being relentless as the best player on the court.

You had to like what was seen from the Gophers, after seeing what had been seen previously.

It was enough to put me on this limb: These Gophers can pull it together and equal the four Big Ten wins the Year Zeroes put up last season.