Gophers looking to do some 'soul searching' after biggest home loss in two years

The Gophers men's basketball team's 21-point loss against Illinois on Saturday was its biggest home loss this season. It was the team's biggest loss at The Barn since Feb. 4, 2023, when the Gophers lost by 35 points to Maryland.

They will have a full week off before a two-game Los Angeles road trip, starting with a Saturday test at Southern Cal at 3 p.m. CT. Head coach Ben Johnson is trying to leave their loss to Illinois in the rearview mirror.

"It's obviously disappointing, but there's eight games left. There's a lot of the season left. We got to continue momentum and continue to build, give the guys a little bit of rest," Johnson said after Saturday's game. "Little mental rest and physical rest because we want to attack these last eight games and finish on a strong note and take advantage of what we got coming up here and I know our guys will respond."

Minnesota did lose by 20 points against Purdue and by 18 against Michigan State at home earlier this season, so it's not like a sizable loss is uncharacteristic, but veteran guard Lu'Cye Patterson had a much different sentiment than Johnson after the game against Illinois.

"It was just ugly, that's not the way we play," Patterson said. "We know what was at stake too. Win this one and we're 5-8, we're right there in the mix. Now we got to come back and we got to re-fight, go to L.A. and try to get two. We just got to do some soul searching right now because that's unacceptable. That's not on any of the coaching staff, that's on all the players."

If you looked at the box score, it wouldn't seem like it was the Gophers' worst performance of the season. They shot 8 for 20 (40%) from beyond the arc, they had only three turnovers and they were 12 for 14 (85.7%) from the free-throw line. Ultimately, Minnesota made an ill-advised effort to try and outscore an Illinois team that has one of the deepest rosters in the country, which resulted in the 21-point loss.

Subscribe to our free YouTube channel for fresh Gophers content

"We're not the high-scoring team. We're going to win ugly, we're going to defend and we didn't do any of that stuff," Patterson said after the game.

The Gophers are currently tied for 15th place in the Big Ten with Northwestern as they look to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament as one of the conference's top-15 teams. With favorable matchups remaining against Northwestern, Penn State, Nebraska and Rutgers, Minnesota still has a good chance of sneaking in.

Minnesota will look to do some soul searching as a team as it looks to keep its conference tournament hopes alive, but it might be time for the program to do some soul searching, too, as it looks to generate any hope of an NCAA Tournament appearence in the near future.