CHICAGO— For the majority of Thursday night’s Big Ten Tournament game against Penn State, the Gophers felt like they were playing a step slow. The offense was out of sync and everyone lacked energy on both ends of the court. Minnesota was trailing by eight points with four minutes remaining and it felt like the game was starting to get away from them. It wasn’t until senior leaders made vocal statements in the huddle, including senior big-man Jordan Murphy.
“We were zombies,” Minnesota head coach Pitino said. “Every huddle was like me trying to get them going, and then Murph was really speaking, but the rest of them were very, very quiet…that middle part of the second half, it was able to get the emotion going, and then all of a sudden the light came on and those guys were really, really talking in huddles.