Page 10 - Gophers News Today

After the Gophers had opened their season — and opened Dawn Plitzuweit's era as the University of Minnesota women's basketball coach — with a 92-57 victory over Long Island University, there was a lot to feel good about at Williams Arena. Mara Braun picked up where she left off last year. Mallory Heyer had 10 points and eight rebounds, Amaya Battle six boards and five assists.

The Gophers have played three-fourths of their regular season and find themselves in an odd position with nine games completed. They've yet to qualify for a bowl game. With their sudden collapse in the fourth quarter against Illinois, when the Fighting Illini went 85 yards in three plays to score the winning touchdown with 50 seconds left, the Gophers fell to 5-4. They have only three more ...

The Big Ten's West Division will cease to exist after the 2023 season, a casualty of the conference expanding to 18 teams and the league's higher-ups finally asking themselves, "Just why are we letting one of those teams in our championship game?" In the 10th season of the East-West divisional format, the East champion has won its division with no conference losses four times, one league loss ...

John Paddock relieved the injured Luke Altmyer and went 3 for 3 for 85 yards to lift Illinois from a huge hole and deliver the go-ahead 46-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Williams with 50 seconds left for a 27-26 victory over stunned Minnesota on Saturday. Altmyer passed for 212 yards and a career-high three touchdowns for the Illini (4-5, 2-4 Big Ten), who had two of their three turnovers in the fourth quarter. Left tackle Julian Pearl scrambled to recover it.

Opportunity knocked – twice – for the Gophers on Saturday afternoon even before they took the field at Huntington Bank Stadium for their game against Illinois. Losses by Nebraska and Wisconsin, two of the three other teams tied with Minnesota atop the Big Ten West Division standings, gave the Gophers a chance to take control of the division race. They let the opportunity slip away. Backup ...

The Gophers and Minnesota Duluth men's hockey teams joined in the tributes for Adam Johnson on Friday, honoring the late UMD forward before and during their game at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Johnson, who died at age 29 while playing in England last Saturday, played two seasons for the Bulldogs from 2015 to '17, helping them reach the 2017 Frozen Four. The team hung his No. 7 jersey on the glass ...

The Gophers are part of a four-way tie for first in the Big Ten West Division after consecutive victories over Iowa and Michigan State.

Kevin Borseth knew immediately he was looking at a future coach. It was fall 1990. Borseth was coaching women's basketball at Michigan Tech, and he had a freshman named Dawn Zarling: a point guard who would spend much of her playing career posting up in the paint, where the hits come and the elbows fly. She was one of the best players at attacking the rim in his 36 years as a coach. She'd go ...

Line: Minnesota by 2 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The Illini are coming off their bye week, given double the time to process their homecoming collapse against Wisconsin on Oct. 21 when the Badgers scored 18 straight points in the fourth quarter for a 25-21 win. After starting 7-1 last season, Illinois has lost nine of its last 11 games against power conference opponents.

The standings show that the Gophers are in a four-team tie atop the Big Ten West entering the final four weeks of regular-season play. It's a status they worked to attain after edging Iowa 12-10 and fighting through early miscues to outlast Michigan State 27-12 on Saturday. It's also something that at the moment doesn't have coach P.J. Fleck's attention. "It doesn't matter. It really doesn't," ...