Just like a group of antsy kids in the back of a rambling station wagon, the Gophers women’s basketball team must be asking themselves an age-old question: Are we there yet?
Not quite, kids, but the end is near. Minnesota plays its last two games of the regular season this weekend, at Michigan on Friday and at Iowa on Sunday.
The 1996-97 season has been a long, ugly trip, but the Gophers will try to finish it on a positive note.
“We want to perform at a level that makes you feel as though there’s been some progress,” coach Linda Hill-MacDonald said. “Ending with a win — maybe several wins, who knows — would be huge for us.”
After a dismal outing last Sunday against Indiana, their worst home loss of the season, the Gophers are itching to start playing again.
The Hoosiers beat Minnesota 103-75, a loss Hill-MacDonald called “horrible” and “awful.” The game put to rest a spirited week of practice that had left the coach and her team feeling confident of victory.
Still, the loss to Indiana guaranteed the Gophers the eleventh seed in the Big Ten tournament next week. So this weekend — and the rest of the season — means little more than a chance at redemption.
“(Finishing strong) is important in terms of being competitive and playing the way we know we’re capable of playing,” Hill-MacDonald said.
When the Gophers hosted Michigan and Iowa to open the Big Ten schedule in December, the season ahead looked far different from its current state. Iowa, the defending conference champion, appeared ready to duplicate last season’s success. Michigan was shaping up as an early-season surprise.
The Hawkeyes beat Minnesota 61-48 on Dec. 28 and pushed their Big Ten record to 2-0 two days later. Iowa then lost five of its next seven games to fall out of the hunt for another title.
Michigan came into the Sports Pavilion on Dec. 30 off to its best start in school history, 8-2, and looked to be more than a fluke in beating the Gophers 82-63. But the Wolverines also slipped, losing seven of their next 10.
Now, Iowa is hovering at .500 in the Big Ten, alone in sixth place. Michigan sits in ninth. Does that mean the two teams are beatable for the Gophers?
In the first matchup with the Wolverines, Minnesota played a strong first half but stumbled in the second. Hill-MacDonald said playing “a solid 40 minutes” will put the Gophers in position to win, but she expects another tough game.
“I’m sure they saw the stats from Indiana,” she said. “They’re going to try to pressure us into turnovers.
“We just have to take them out of their offense and not let them get into an early comfort level. Indiana got comfortable against us very early.”
Iowa received 10 of 11 first-place votes in the preseason coaches poll. With nearly everyone back from the championship team, the Hawkeyes looked tough. But a slew of injuries proved too much to overcome.
Without a win, the Gophers will end the season with the worst overall record in the history of the program. But Hill-MacDonald seems more concerned with the present.
“We’re ready to move on, but it would be nice to put together some back-to-back good performances and go into the postseason with that in mind,” she said. “I’d like to see that happen for us, because I think (the players) have worked too hard to end it on a sour note.”

Note: If the Hawkeyes remain in sixth place, they will meet Minnesota again in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Jan. 28.