University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Travel To Michigan State on Thursday
2/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game 28
Minnesota Golden Gophers (18-9, 10-6)
vs.
Michigan State Spartans (19-8, 12-4)
LOCATION Breslin Center / East Lansing, Mich.
DATE / TIME: Thursday, Feb. 26 / 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT)
TELEVISION: none
VIDEO WEBCAST: BigTenNetwork.com
RADIO / WEBCAST: KBEM 88.5 FM / Gopher Radio Network / gophersports.com
Corbu Stathes (Play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (Color Analyst)
Golden Gopher Watch List Feb. 26, 2009
Golden Gophers Plays Final Road Game Thursday - Minnesota travels to Michigan State on Thursday, Feb. 26, for the final road game of the 2008-09 regular season. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT).
Note Time Changes For Final Games - Minnesota’s Feb. 26 game at Michigan State will be a 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) tip, while the home game on March 1 versus Illinois will begin at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on bigtennetwork.com.
Gopher Win Secures First-Round Bye - The Gophers need one more victory to secure a first-round bye in the Big Ten Conference Tournament. The top five teams receive surpass the first round of action and straight into the quarterfinals on Friday, March 6.
Fox Moves Up Career Scoring List - Emily Fox scored 16 points in the loss to Northwestern to move into No. 8 on the Minnesota all-time scoring list with 1,377 points.
Gophers On The Road For Final TIme
Minnesota travels to Michigan State on Thursday, Feb. 26, for the final road game of the 2008-09 regular season. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT). Both the Golden Gophers and Spartans are coming off difficult losses. The Gophers are 18-9 overall and 10-6 in Big Ten play after suffering a 62-53 setback at Northwestern on Monday. Michigan State (19-8, 12-4) was upset at Wisconsin to slip out of a first-place tie with Ohio State.
Live Web Streaming Available
The Gophers’ game versus Michigan State will be video streamed live on bigtennetwork.com. The audio is provided by the home team’s radio team.
Tip Times Confirmed For Gophers’ Final Two Games
The Big Ten announced the starting times and media coverage for the games in the final week of the Conference season. Minnesota’s Feb. 26 game at Michigan State will be a 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) tip, while the home game on March 1 versus Illinois will begin at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on bigtennetwork.com.
First Goal - Secure Big Ten First-Round Bye
Two weeks ago, Minnesota looked to be a virtual lock for earn a first-round Big Ten Tournament bye. Four games and three losses later, the Gophers are clinging to the fifth and final spot to garner one of those precious tourney byes.
A lot of scenarios are possible as this last week of Conference games plays out. Minnesota wins are crucial, but a quick synopsis finds the Gophers is decent shape with they would happen to finish in ties with either Iowa or Indiana. A Gopher win over Michigan State, already in the books from early February, would prove vital in the scenario of a Iowa/Minnesota tie. A tie with Indiana would be a simple case of the advantage going Minnesota’s direction due to the Gophers’ win over the Hoosiers in this season’s only meeting.
A Lot at Stake
Though there are teams, including Minnesota, that are mathematically eliminated from winning the Big Ten title, with two rounds of play remaining the race seems to have come down to a three-team race. Even accepting that reality, the Golden Gophers still have plenty to play for. The first order of business is wrapping up one of the Big Ten Tournament first-round bye awarded to the top five teams in the Conference standings. After that teams will be looking to bolster their NCAA Tournament resumes. Following is the remaining games for the top six teams in the Big Ten.
Ohio State (13-3)
Feb. 26 vs. Wisconsin
March 1 vs. Penn State
Michigan State (12-4)
Feb. 26 vs. Minnesota
March 1 vs. Purdue
Purdue (12-4)
Feb. 26 vs. Michigan
March 1 at Michigan State
Iowa (11-5)
Feb. 26 vs. Illinois
March 1 at Northwestern
Minnesota (10-6)
Feb. 26 at Michigan State
March 1 vs. Illinois
Indiana (10-7)
March 1 vs. Michigan
Fox Takes Over No. 8 Spot On All-Time Scoring List
Emily Fox joined the top 10 of the Gophers’ all-time leading scorers list in the game on Feb. 15 at Michigan, her 117th career game in a Gopher uniform. In her next game (Feb. 19 versus Ohio State), Fox scored 18 and climbed into the No. 9 spot. Another game and another step up the charts. She scored 16 versus Northwestern and now has 1,377 career points taking over the No. 8 spot held by Deb Hunter (1979-83) with 1,363 points. The No. 7 spot is held by Carol Peterka (1982-86) with 1,441 points.
Fox also recently became the eighth player in Minnesota history to score 100 three-point field goals, hitting the trey to get her triple digits in the Iowa (2-8) game. She currently has 106 career three-pointers.
Fundamental Forces At Work
Minnesota has been out-rebounded in eight of its last nine games. Especially in a season where points and even possessions come at a premium, rebounding is a major focus for the Gophers down the homestretch of the season. Despite being out-rebounded by an average of over six rebounds in the last nine games and having team’s average of 11.4 offensive rebounds per game over that span, Minnesota has only given up just 9.2 second-chance points per game.
This is How Important Rebounding Has Become
The second go-around of the Big Ten schedule always seems so much tougher than the first. Coaches make adjustments and the wear-and-tear of a long season comes into play. Surprisedly, the Gophers’ stats from the first nine games of the Big Ten season are very similar to the last seven, or the second half of the Conference season. Minnesota struggled shooting the basketball from the get-go and has actually improved slightly from 37.0 percent to 38.1 percent from the field. The Gophers are getting to the free time line exactly as much 14.4 attempts per game, though opponents increased from 13.7 to 14.7 attempts per game. The big difference? Rebounding. In the first half of the Big Ten season, Minnesota outrebounded their opponents by 1.5 rebounds a game. The second half of the season has seen a drastic dip to the Gophers being outrebounded by 5.2 rebounds a game.
Harper Has Solid Week in Relief
Zoe Harper contributed two solid games off the bench in the post for the Gophers. Against Ohio State, she helped limit Jantel Lavender to just three rebounds and 14 points, while adding six points and five rebounds of her own. Harper was one of the few bright spots in the game at Northwestern tallying eight points, eight rebounds (including six offensive boards) and a career-high four blocked shots.
The Countdown to 1,000
Gopher junior Ashley Ellis-Milan has played the best basketball of her collegiate career this season. Not only is she a solid candidate for All-Big Ten honors, Ellis-Milan is also nearing the 1,000 career points milestone. She is averaging 10.2 points per game over her career and currently has scored 935 points as a Golden Gophers. Ellis-Milan also has 668 career rebounds.
McCoy Notches Third Season With 100+ Assists
Brittany McCoy added the 2008-09 as her third consecutive season with 100 or more assists and currently has 112 on the season. McCoy’s average of 4.1 dishes a game, which ranks third in the Big Ten. The Gopher junior was already the only player in school history to dish out 100 or more assists as both a freshman and sophomore and now she adds her junior season to the list.
Fox Also Hits Century Assists Mark
Emily Fox has 108 assists on the season as she joined Brittany McCoy with 100 or more assists this season. The duo both collected their 100th assist of the 2008-09 season in the win at Michigan (2/15). Fox and McCoy share the honor of being one of just two sets of Minnesota teammates (Janel McCarville/April Calhoun, 2004-05) to tally triple assist totals in the same season. The Fox and McCoy tandem now accomplished the last three seasons.
Defense, Defense and More Defense
The Big Ten is known as a physical league. The statistics are revealing just how important team defense is this season. Amazingly over half the teams - six (Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Wisconsin) - are averaging less than 60 points a game this season in Conference play. Purdue managed to escape this list, checking in at 60.6 points a game.
Scouting Michigan State
Michigan State dropped out of a first-place tie after suffering a disappointing 54-51 loss at Wisconsin last Sunday. The Spartans, with a 19-8 overall mark (12-4 Big Ten) put a balanced and experience squad on the court. Junior Alisa Jefferson is back after missing the 2007-08 season with an ACL and is leading the team in scoring at 11.0 points a game. Junior Alyssa DeHaan checks in at 10.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks a contest. The Spartans lost starting point guard Brittany Thomas to an ACL injury in early February but haven’t missed a beat.
The Minnesota / Michigan State Series
Michigan State leads the series with Minnesota by a 32-18 margin. Minnesota has won three of the last four in the series. The Gophers swept the series with the Spartans last season, but lost to to Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament.
