University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Hopes to Begin Marathon at Wisconsin
1/9/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
It's an often-used cliche, but the Big Ten race is a marathon, not a sprint.
Minnesota's women's basketball team has played three Big Ten games so far, and is 0-3. The past two losses have been frustrating, as the Golden Gophers have blown double-digit second-half leads at home against both Indiana and #21/22 Iowa.
Minnesota had a 13-point lead against the Hawkeyes, who followed their 63-57 win at Williams Arena with an 89-76 victory against nationally-ranked Ohio State yesterday, dropping the six-time defending Big Ten champion Buckeyes to 1-2 in the conference. Northwestern is 12-4 overall, but is also 1-2 in the conference.
So this afternoon's Border Battle game at Wisconsin (7-8, 2-1 Big Ten) gives the Gophers a chance to get right back into the mix of a 16-game Big Ten race that will be...well, a marathon.
"We've got a lot of room for improvement, but we're only three games into the (Big Ten) season, and we're continuing to improve and gain more experience," head coach Pam Borton said. "We need to have the energy and the effort, and if we do, we think we can be successful. We're excited to play."
Minnesota (8-8, 0-3) can take a look back and know that it could easily be 2-1 in the Big Ten at this point, but the Gophers were unable to protect leads down the stretch against the Hoosiers and Hawkeyes, and Borton isn't one to look back.
Coach Borton wants her team focused on the games it has ahead of it, and starting with today's game against the Badgers, the Gophers have a six-game stretch that includes games at Penn State (Jan. 13), home against Wisconsin (Jan. 20), at Michigan State (Jan. 23), and then home for games against Northwestern (Jan. 27) and Michigan (Jan. 30) to close out the month of January.
The Gophers are a young team, without many players who have gone through the rigors of a Big Ten season before. Minnesota's leading scorer, sophomore guard Leah Cotton, played a total of 94 minutes in Big Ten games during her freshman season. Cotton enters today's game ranked among the conference's top 10 scorers with an average of 15.3 points per game, but her role this year is completely different than it was last year.
Senior forward Kristen Dockery is another player whose experience this year is completely different than anything she's experienced before. During her first three years, the 6-foot-4 Dockery struggled with injuries and played in just 14 games for a total of 34 minutes. This season, Dockery has played in all 16 games, making eight starts and totaling 340 minutes, but it's really her first time being on the court for extended periods of time against Big Ten foes. Dockery heads into today's game averaging 5.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
The Gophers are 3-3 at the Kohl Center during Borton's eight-plus seasons at Minnesota, and a bus-load of Minnesota fans who are traveling to Wisconsin for today's game will try to help the Gophers improve that mark to 4-3. Today's game tips off at 3:00 p.m. (CST), and will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.
If this race is a marathon, the Golden Gophers are hoping to find their pace and get into the pack today.
--Athletic Communications Assistant Michael Molde
