It’s anybody’s guess which Michigan team will be waiting for Illinois on Thursday night in Ann Arbor.
Will it be the Wolverines who fell behind Duke 34-2 on their way to a humiliating 104-61 loss?
Or will it be the team that grabbed a big lead Saturday night against Iowa and hung on for a 70-69 victory in Iowa City?
Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe has grown used to watching these mystifying turnarounds. That’s why he didn’t seem all that surprised when the Wolverines stunned the Hawkeyes for their first win over a ranked team this year.
“It just goes to show you that kids are very resilient when they want to be,” Ellerbe said. “We almost gave it away, but the character of the team rose up.”
They’re golden: Many observers shrugged when the NCAA spared Minnesota an NCAA tournament ban as part of the sanctions for the school’s academic fraud case. It seemed obvious that the Golden Gophers would not be challenging for a postseason berth without center Joel Przybilla, who quit the team last season, then bolted for the NBA.
But three weeks into the Big Ten winter the Gophers are very much in contention for an NCAA bid. They’re 15-3, 3-2 in the Big Ten, after stealing a 78-74 overtime win Saturday from visiting Indiana.
The Gophers did it the hard way, digging out of a 13-point hole with 3 minutes 18 seconds to go as the Hoosiers self-destructed.
“I think it’s who we are,” Gophers forward J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We’re a grimy, dirty, ugly team who in the last five minutes of the game is going to do whatever it takes to win.”
A creampuff-laden non-conference schedule isn’t going to impress tournament selectors, so the Gophers probably need to break even in the Big Ten if they hope to draw an NCAA berth. The next three games–Iowa at home, then at Purdue and at Iowa–may prove critical in Minnesota’s quest for a bid.
Officials in the program had worried that the NCAA would ban the Gophers from this postseason after finding Minnesota guilty of some of the worst academic cheating in college annals. But when the NCAA accepted Minnesota’s self-imposed one-year ban in 2000, the Gophers had something to play for this season.
“I think it’s the driving force as far as this team having life,” coach Dan Monson said.
Jump balls: With his strong defensive showing last week against Iowa star Dean Oliver, Wisconsin backup point guard Travon Davis, a junior from Argo, is looking forward to more minutes. “What happened is really making me think about some ways I can use Travon,” Badgers coach Brad Soderberg said. Asked if he had lost confidence sitting on the bench, Davis replied, “My father doesn’t let me lose confidence.” Davis’ father is Anthony Davis, a former Marquette guard who now works as a salesman in the Chicago area. … Big Ten coaches have long complained about the how hard it is to win on the road in the conference. This year they have the numbers to prove it. Big Ten teams are 93-12 overall at home this year. Going into Tuesday night’s Purdue-Indiana game at Bloomington, Big Ten road teams had won only six of 30 conference games. Purdue and Illinois won at Northwestern, Iowa swept games at Penn State and Purdue, Penn State knocked off Ohio State in Columbus and Michigan won at Iowa.