Riding 3-Game Big Ten Win Streak, Gophers Head To Michigan State
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It is one of the amazing turnarounds to date that we've seen in these parts in some time.
The Gopher basketball team, going to Michigan State Wednesday night a top-25 team. As WCCO's Mike Max reports, that's a small part of the big picture.
Make no mistake, cracking the top-25 matters to this team. It's a symbol of what has become. The Gophers were ranked No. 24 in both basketball polls on Monday for the first time in the Richard Pitino era.
"It wasn't as big as I thought it would be but I mean I got kind of emotional because this is my first time being ranked in three years," junior guard Nate Mason said. "So I was like, finally."
What seems to matter most to this team, though, isn't being ranked in the top-25. It's the attitude, the attitude that to this date at least, they have mastered. That you have to have when you play on the road in the Big Ten.
The win against Purdue on the road.in overtime was a game changer. They played with poise when it mattered most, something you try to teach, but you have to have results.
"You try to teach it but it's almost like in golf. You've got to make a tough putt type of thing and then that confidence goes," Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. "I just think the Purdue game, they had to break through and they did it."
Yes, the conversation has changed. Who would have thought we'd be realistically talking about a Michigan State team that they could have beat in overtime two weeks ago?
"It's really just about knowing that this is a tough team and we need to go into the game knowing that they're 3-1 and we expect them to be at the top of the conference win-wise," center Reggie Lynch said.
After the road test at Michigan State, the Gophers head to Penn State on Saturday.
