Plenty at stake as Minnesota squares off vs. Rutgers

Rutgers and Minnesota have had surprising seasons for different reasons.But both are guaranteed to make the 15-team Big Ten tournament as they square off in their regular-season finale Sunday afternoon in Piscataway, N.J.The Scarlet Knights (14-16, 7-12) and Golden Gophers (15-15, 7-12) are part of a five-way tie entering the final weekend of conference play, but factoring in tiebreakers, Sunday’s game most likely will determine the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten tourney. There are scenarios in which either team could drop as far as No. 15 with a loss and other results.Minnesota has not had much basketball success in recent years, but coach Ben Johnson feels his team has exceeded the media’s preseason expectations. The Golden Gophers have rallied from an 0-6 start to the Big Ten slate.”There’s a lot of people that did not think that (Minnesota would be) in the Big Ten tournament. Period,” Johnson said. “And they could say they did, but they did not. There was a lot of people that did not think we would win seven games with a chance to win eight. Last year we won nine. If I would’ve told people we had a chance to win eight, they would’ve laughed at me and called me crazy, right?”I want our guys to take a ton of pride in that. To start off 0-6, with it stacked against you, and then to have people in the preseason have you picked last and to be that resilient, to keep fighting — that’s a character trait.”

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