Minnesota’s women’s basketball team fell three spots to 23rd in the new AP top 25 poll released Monday.
The Gophers lost Friday 61-46 to Indiana in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The loss was Minnesota’s fifth in seven games after starting the Big Ten season 9-1. The Gophers were ranked 11th on the week of Feb. 7 before beginning their slide.
This week’s poll marks the lowest ranking for Minnesota this season. On the week of Feb. 21, Minnesota was ranked 22nd in the poll.
There are three other Big Ten schools ranked in the top 25. Ohio State moved up three spots to the No. 2 ranking in the nation, Purdue moved up two notches to 12th and Michigan State remained in the 16th spot for the second week in a row.
Men’s tourney matchups
The Big Ten men’s basketball tournament field is set, with Minnesota earning the No. 10 seed.
The Gophers will play seventh-seeded Michigan in the first round Thursday. The game will be televised on ESPN2 at about 1:30 p.m.
The winner of that game will square off against second-seeded Iowa at 5:40 p.m. Friday.
Michigan has beaten Minnesota twice this season, winning 71-55 at Williams Arena on Jan. 21 and topping the Gophers by a score of 72-50 in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Feb. 15.
Star senior guard Daniel Horton lit up the Gophers for 32 points in January and scored 21 in the February matchup.
Ohio State earned the conference’s top seed and will play the winner of Penn State-Northwestern at 11 a.m. Friday. Fourth-seeded Wisconsin will play fifth-seeded Indiana in Friday’s quarterfinals and third-seeded Illinois will play the winner of Michigan State-Purdue at about 8:10 p.m. Friday.
Stoa honored
Minnesota men’s hockey forward Ryan Stoa was named WCHA co-Rookie of the Week by the league Monday. Stoa tallied four points in the Gophers’ two-game sweep of Duluth last weekend.
Stoa had two goals and an assist in Minnesota’s 7-0 win Friday and an assist on senior Ryan Potulny’s first goal in Saturday’s 2-0 win. He shared the award with North Dakota center Jonathan Toews.
