No. 12 Wisconsin knows it is in for an important game against border rival Minnesota in a Big Ten matchup Wednesday night in Minneapolis.
The Badgers (22-7, 12-6 Big Ten) have no shortage of reasons to strive for the road win.
“I think it’s (about the) big picture,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “Obviously it’s important because it’s our next game. But yeah, it’s our border state. We’ve recruited that area really well. That area has been really good to us, we’ve got really good players from there.
“It’s important in terms of Big Ten tournament seeding. It’s important in terms of NCAA Tournament seeding — if we can keep or get to that two-line. It’s important for the Big Ten tournament to get the double-bye if you can.
“And, quite frankly, it’s your next game and you’re competitive and you want to win. Then the other stuff that can happen from that is a byproduct from really doing good things on Wednesday night.”
Minnesota (15-14, 7-11) will look to play spoiler in its final home game of the regular season. The Golden Gophers are coming off a 67-65 road win against Nebraska that snapped a two-game skid.
Senior guard Brennan Rigsby, who started the first 10 games before being dropped from the lineup, scored a season-high 20 points off the bench — highlighted by his game-winning 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left. Rigsby had managed just 17 points in his 10 previous appearances.
Golden Gophers coach Ben Johnson praised Rigsby for his dedication.
“I give him so much credit,” Johnson said. “His minutes have been kind of up and down, but he has never changed. He’s the same guy every day. No ego. Gets up his shots. Extra work. Positive attitude. … He’s about the right stuff. I’m just so proud of him and all of our guys, to be honest.”
All-American candidate John Tonje leads Wisconsin with 19.2 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 37.6 percent shooting from 3-point range. John Blackwell adds 15.2 points per game, and Nolan Winter ranks third with 9.9 points to go with a team-high 6.1 rebounds.
Minnesota’s top scorer is Dawson Garcia, who averages 19.3 points and 7.5 rebounds. Lu’Cye Patterson is next with 11.7 points, and Mike Mitchell Jr. rounds out the top three scorers with 9.1 points per game.
This is the second meeting between the rivals this season. Wisconsin cruised to an 80-59 win on its home court on Jan. 10.
Gard said Minnesota is better now than when the teams met the first time.
“They’ve been competitive,” Gard said. “They’re 7-6 since we played them. They’ve had a little bit of a positional shift in terms of their lineup. They’ve got (Femi) Odukale playing the point a little bit more, and they’ve used Rigsby here recently off the bench, and he obviously shot it really well at Nebraska.
“We understand where we’re at. It doesn’t matter where we go, who we play, even (on our home court) — the league is extremely competitive. They’ve done that. They’ve played really well.”
–Field Level Media
