'We're right there': Pitino, Gophers can boost NCAA Tournament hopes with win at Illinois
Gophers sophomore Daniel Oturu celebrates near the end of Minnesota's 75-69 win over Penn State Wednesday night at Williams Arena. Oturu finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds. ((credit: University of Minnesota))
MINNEAPOLIS - The basketball world is still coming to grips with the stunning and sudden death of former L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant last Sunday, and Richard Pitino and the Gophers are no exception.
Minnesota and Michigan State were minutes away from tip-off Sunday when Pitino learned of the helicopter crash in California that left Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others dead. He didn’t inform his players until after the Gophers lost to the Spartans, 70-52, their first home loss of the Big Ten season.
The team took Monday off, then got back to work Tuesday and did so by watching film of Bryant. It wasn’t what you might expect. Instead of showing him in the midst of dominating and winning NBA titles, Pitino showed his players video of Bryant air-balling four straight shots in the playoffs in his rookie season against Utah.
The lesson? Responding from failure.
“Kobe, he’s this generation’s Michael Jordan. I just told them unfortunately you’re going to deal with this. You have to find a way to learn from it and become a better person,” Pitino said. “Through tragedy if you can find a way to be a better person, embrace life every single day, not take it for granted then maybe something good will come out of it.”
Sophomore guard Gabe Kalscheur does what he can to model his game after Bryant. Most importantly, it’s the on-court mentality. That’s been tested a lot lately as Kalscheur has been hot and cold from three-point range. He’s made seven of his last 20 from the perimeter, after a stretch where he made just 4-of-24.
“His demeanor, it didn’t matter if he missed or air-balled a bunch of shots, that next one was going to go in. That’s big for people who are kind of losing confidence or if things aren’t going well, it doesn’t matter what other people think,” Kalscheur said. “It just matters what you think and how much work you can put in the game to get yourself better.”
His biggest focus after a missed shot is mentally “throwing it in the trash,” and expecting the next one to go in.
That didn’t happen against Michigan State on Sunday. The Gophers made just one of their first 15 shots from the perimeter and finished 5-of-28 from three-point range, 17.9 percent. For the season, the Gophers are ninth in the Big Ten at 32.2 percent from the perimeter. In Big Ten play, it’s under 30 percent.
They have to find other ways to score when perimeter shots aren’t falling.
“It’s been abysmal. Got to make shots guys, don’t know what else to tell you.” Pitino said. We’re getting some open looks, last game versus Michigan State we’re wide open, we’ve got to hit them. If you’re shooting those percentages, you better be nasty defensively.”
The Gophers (11-9, 5-5) have 10 regular season games left before the Big Ten Tournament. They head to Illinois Thursday, a team currently on a six-game win streak and tied atop the conference with Michigan State at 7-2. Minnesota likely needs to finish no worse than 6-4 in its last 10 games to finish 11-9 in conference play, 17-13 overall. With one of the toughest strengths of schedule on the country, 17 wins would make them a lock for Selection Sunday before the Big Ten Tournament.
Anything less, and they likely need to make a run in Indianapolis. Of their 10 games left, eight are currently considered Quadrant 1 quality win opportunities.
“It's the bottom line, if we want to get into the NCAA Tournament or not, we’re right there. Right kind of on that bubble and when you’ve got 10 games left, you got an opportunity to go win some really good ones,” Pitino said.
The remaining home schedule includes Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland and Nebraska. The road games after Illinois are Penn State, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Indiana.
The path is there, now the Gophers need a third scorer after Daniel Oturu and Marcus Carr. Oturu is second in the Big Ten in scoring (19.7 points per game) and leads the league in rebounding (11.3). Carr is sixth in scoring (16.1) and second in assists (6.9). It’s up to Kalscheur, Payton Willis or Alihan Demir to become the third scoring option.
The Gophers know what’s ahead. They’ve got to defend Williams Arena, and steal a few on the road.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but you’ve got some great opportunities right in front of you. Got to take advantage of them,” Pitino said.