Home-Court Drama Has Been a Staple in Gophers' Turnaround

Photo Credit: Brian Curski

Williams Arena rightfully gets lauded as one of the best Big Ten basketball atmospheres when it gets rocking.

That claim is true, partly thanks to the mystique of an almost 90-year-old structure. There’s the quirky raised floor, the exposed piping in the walkways and the old tapestries hanging from the rafters with images of legends who once graced the court.

But ambiance can only take “The Barn” so far. It needs good basketball being played to reach its full potential. And this season, its creaky infrastructure may be strained to its limits with the convulsions of ballistic Gophers fans. “These have been some emotional roller coasters for sure,” said fourth-year head coach Richard Pitino.

The game-after-game drama at Williams Arena this season is the stuff typically found in cheesy movie scripts, and the craziness only continued Sunday night as Gophers competed in their fourth overtime home game – and fifth overall – since the start of the conference slate. They defeated the Michigan Wolverines 83-78 in a game that had 17 lead changes and featured a 12-4 run in the final two minutes of regulation.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what’s occurred in Dinkytown this season.

The most lopsided scoring differential in Minnesota’s seven conference home games was a 12-point win over Iowa. A walk in the park? Not a chance. The Gophers needed a controversial ruling in their favor and a late game-tying shot to send the game to overtime, then had to sweat out a last-second Iowa shot attempt to reach a second overtime, only to pull away and win by a hardly-comfortable 12-point margin.

“My heart can’t take it, all these close games.”

Twice in that Iowa contest, the potential game-winning shot was released before the buzzer as the crowd held its breath. Remarkably, that’s been the norm at Williams Arena this season.

Nine times at The Barn either the Gophers or their opponent have had the ball with a chance to win or tie the game in the closing two seconds. Teams have been just 1 for 9 in those situations.

  • vs. Michigan State: Amir Coffey missed at the end of regulation. Nate Mason missed at the end of overtime.
  • vs. Wisconsin: The Badgers had the ball stripped away at the end of regulation. Akeem Springs missed a game-winning 3 in overtime.
  • vs. Iowa: The Hawkeyes faltered on chances at the end of regulation and the end of overtime.
  • vs. Indiana: James Blackmon Jr. missed a last-ditch 3-pointer in Wednesday’s game after Springs gave the Gophers the lead on a layup with 3.2 seconds left.
  • vs Michigan: D.J. Wilson hit a 3-pointer at the end of regulation to tie it, then Derrick Walton Jr. missed a 3 to tie it in overtime.

“It’s been crazy,” said Pitino. “Just so many close games. I have so many people come up to me and say, ‘My heart can’t take it, all these close games,’ and I just laugh that they’re saying that to me because how do you think I feel up there?”

Photo Credit: Brian Curski

The pulsating finishes haven’t just affected the coach. Center Reggie Lynch has been forced to watch the finish of every single conference home game from the bench due to foul trouble.

“After the Indiana game,” recalled Lynch, “even though I wasn’t in for the last two minutes or so, my heart was racing the whole time. I was just watching, my fists were tight, just hitting the court, and even like an hour after the game my heart was still racing and I couldn’t go to sleep. I was like, ‘Man, we gotta close stop with these close games. I need to get a blowout one of these times.’”

Toss in an overtime game on the road against Purdue and the Gophers have officially matched their OT total from the 1980-81 season. That season consisted of five overtime games in conference with one of them going to double overtime – same as this season. Even stranger, four of those overtime games came against Michigan State, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin – a mirror image of the current campaign.

The once-waning interest level within the fan base, frustrated after an 8-23 season, has dissipated, thanks in large part to the myriad sagas taking place at Williams Arena. The Michigan game Sunday brought in the second-best crowd of the season with over 12,000 fans. In contrast, the team’s third-to-last home game a season ago sold just 10,333 tickets, which likely exceeded the number of bodies in seats by over a thousand.

“The fans have gotten their money’s worth,” said Pitino. “Concessions are probably up a little bit.”

Yes, only a fool would try to beat the traffic this season. All but one game – a 10-point win over Ohio State that was still highly entertaining – has been undecided heading into the game’s final minute.

But all the nail-biting seems to be paying off for the Gophers, who are suddenly the hottest team in the Big Ten. “Obviously we’d like to not be in close games,” said Lynch, “but even if we are, it just shows maturity and growth from our team that some of those close games we were losing about two, three weeks ago, now we’re winning them.”

The head coach agrees with Lynch, but he’d like to put a halt to the late-game histrionics. “We need to stop,” said Pitino, “because it’s driving me crazy.”

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