MINNESOTA (11-7, 4-7 B1G) vs NEBRASKA (4-9, 0-6 B1G)
Monday, February 8
7:00 p.m. CT
Minneapolis, Minn. (Williams Arena)
STARTING FIVE
1. Minnesota hosts Nebraska on Monday night at Williams Arena. The Gophers last played at home on Jan. 23 against Maryland, which means that Minnesota has had a 16-day span between home games (longest span since team also had 16 days between home games from a win against Cleveland State on Nov. 5, 2019 and a win against Central Michigan on Nov. 21, 2019). Minnesota played at Rutgers last Thursday and is in a stretch of playing four games in 11 days, five games in 14 days and six games in 17 days. Earlier this year, Minnesota had stretches of six games in 16 days and six games in 18 days. The Gophers are scheduled to play seven games in February, which would be their second busiest month of the season. Minnesota’s busiest months this season have been December (8 games), January (6 games) and November (3 games). Minnesota is scheduled to play two regular-season games in March.
2. Minnesota is 38-8 all-time against Nebraska at home, which is a winning percentages of 82.6%. That is the third-best for Minnesota against current Big Ten programs, although not every game contested was a Big Ten conference game. Minnesota is 5-0 all-time at home against Rutgers (winning percentage of 100%) and is 15-3 against Penn State (winning percentage of 83.3%). Minnesota is 494-308 at home against current Big Ten opponents (winning percentage of 61.5%) and is above .500 against every team except Maryland (Gophers are 1-5 all-time at home against the Terrapins).
3. The Gophers beat Nebraska 107-75 at home on March 8, 2020 (last home game of last season) and made a school-record 18 threes in the win. The 107 points were the second most in the Coach Pitino era (beat UNC Wilmington 108-82 on Dec. 27, 2014) and the most in a Big Ten game. The 107 points were also the most scored by Minnesota in a Big Ten game since the No. 21 Gophers beat No. 12 Indiana 108-89 on Jan. 28, 1990.
4. Marcus Carr will play in his 50th career game as a Gopher on Monday. Carr, who played his freshman season at Pittsburgh, averages 17.1 points per game, 6.1 assists per game and 4.9 rebounds per game as a Gopher. Those are historically good numbers. At this point in his career, his 17.1 points per game would rank tenth in school history (minimum 40 games played) and would be the best career scoring average for a Gopher since Mychal Thompson averaged 20.8 points from 1975-78. His average of 6.1 assists per game would rank first in school history (minimum 40 games played) ahead of Ray Williams who averaged 5.7 from 1976-77.
5. Gabe Kalscheur ranks sixth in school history in made threes (174) and attempted threes (501).
CARR COMMENTS
Gopher guard Marcus Carr spoke with MNN sports director Mike Grimm about the loss at Rutgers and about tonight’s game:
(info and photo courtesy of Gopher Sports)