Like I posted before, I realize Tubby Smith Gopher teams were used to tanking it in the month of February.... I looked up some Gopher history in Eric Thrall's excellent site on Minnesota basketball.
Unfortunately, our 2 best teams in history had their wins officially taken off the books because of scandal but the 24-3 record in '76-'77 team with Mychal Thompson, Ray Williams, and co had 2 losses(both to Michigan) in the month of February that year.. The other loss was to Purdue btw.. They had been ranked in the top 10 in the country. Musselman's best team in '72-'73 and the Final Four team in 1996-97 are the only Gopher teams undefeated in the month of February, in recent history... This team has the chance on Saturday to be the 3rd team to do that.... Impressive month regardless what happens but the win at home against Penn State would be so sweet in the history of Gopher basketball.
'72-73' team led by Jim Brewer and Ron Behagan from the Olympics. They actually had a better overall winning percentage than Big Ten champ Indiana but remember, there were no at-large teams from any conference in the NCAA tournament in those days. That Gopher team was 21-5 but got knocked off twice by Iowa in really close games. The Gophers had problems with Iowa 7 foot big, Kevin Kunnert, who ended up playing in the NBA for the Buffalo Braves.
the '81-'82 team had 2 losses in February that year under Jim Dutcher, if you want to know. Lost to Illinois and Indiana that year.
Unfortunately, our 2 best teams in history had their wins officially taken off the books because of scandal but the 24-3 record in '76-'77 team with Mychal Thompson, Ray Williams, and co had 2 losses(both to Michigan) in the month of February that year.. The other loss was to Purdue btw.. They had been ranked in the top 10 in the country. Musselman's best team in '72-'73 and the Final Four team in 1996-97 are the only Gopher teams undefeated in the month of February, in recent history... This team has the chance on Saturday to be the 3rd team to do that.... Impressive month regardless what happens but the win at home against Penn State would be so sweet in the history of Gopher basketball.
'72-73' team led by Jim Brewer and Ron Behagan from the Olympics. They actually had a better overall winning percentage than Big Ten champ Indiana but remember, there were no at-large teams from any conference in the NCAA tournament in those days. That Gopher team was 21-5 but got knocked off twice by Iowa in really close games. The Gophers had problems with Iowa 7 foot big, Kevin Kunnert, who ended up playing in the NBA for the Buffalo Braves.
the '81-'82 team had 2 losses in February that year under Jim Dutcher, if you want to know. Lost to Illinois and Indiana that year.
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