On Saturday, the Minnesota Golden Gophers suffered their second straight loss, falling to the Washington Huskies 71-68. There's no way around it, it's a poor loss for the Gophers. Washington is arguably the worst team in the Big Ten and entered the contest on a six-game losing streak.

It's not a shocking loss, despite the Gophers winning three of their last four games entering their matchup against Washington, the two teams in the grand scheme of things are very similar and close to each other.

However, what was "shocking" was how the Gophers managed to come out on the losing end of the matchup.

Let's start with a positive before discussing all the negatives from Saturday's loss. That bright side was Dawson Garcia. The amazing senior forward was the only Gopher who chose to show up offensively, finishing the day with 28 points including 23 coming in the second half. In the first half, Garcia had just five points on 2-of-4 shooting. In the second half, he was spectacular, as mentioned, the senior had 23 points on 7-of-8 shooting including 8-of-12 from the free throw line. Now, those free throw misses are a part of the story of the loss.

Before moving onto the negatives from Saturday's loss, it is worth mentioning that Dason Garcia over his last seven games is averaging an incredible 24.3 points per game while shooting 53.9% from the field and 43.3% from deep.

Ben Johnson had one of his more baffling coaching decisions on Saturday when he chose to play MNike Mithcell Jr, Femi Odukale, Lu"Cye Patterson, and Frank Mitchell for nearly all 20 minutes. Mitchell Jr, Garcia, Odukale, and Patterson all played the full 20 minutes Frank Mitchell played 16.

The only other players to play in the second half were Parker Fox for four minutes and Isaac Asuma with 115 seconds. The decision to practically bench Asuma in the second half was mind-boggling, Asuyma in the first half was one of the Gophers' top players, if not the best. He had a team-high eight points in 15 minutes of action on 2-of-3 shooting including 4-of-5 from the free throw line.

But Ben Johnson refused to put Assuma on the court in the second half. He said after the game, with the Gophers down 10 at halftime that he wanted to go with his veterans, which is understandable, but at some point, you need to get some breathers in there. Asuma has proven his play over the last month or so that he's someone who can be trusted in these moments.

The Washington Huskies owe a lot of their win to guard Tyler Harris and forward Great Osobor.

Harris was the Huskies leading scorer with 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting. He was perfect from three-point range as well, going 4-for-4. He was especially strong in the first half with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and was a huge reason, Washington found themselves ahead at halftime 40-30. In the second half, the Gophers managed to keep him to just eight points. The performance isn't a surprise, the 6-foot-8 sophomore wing has been strong all season for Washington this season, averaging 12.0 points per game this season while shooting 51.1% from the field and 46.8% from three-point range.

On Saturday, Harris was a matchup problem for the Gophers, they looked for several answers but his size and athleticism on the perimeter make him so tough to guard at times, especially for the Gophers who don't have a ton of size at guard.

Moving onto the Great Osobor. The 6-foot-8 native of Bradford, England was the Huskies leading scorer coming into Saturday, averaging 15.5 points per game. In the Gophers' loss on Saturday, Osbor had 16 points and 10 rebounds. They were able to slow him down in the second half as he was 2-for-9 but it wasn't enough for the Gophers as they hoped to squeak out a win.

It was not a strong rebounding day for the Gophers who were outrebounded 33-25. It is worth noting that in the first half, the Huskies dominated the boards to the tune of 20-8, it was a pitiful effort on the boards. Washington had SEVEN offensive rebounds in the first half that led to four second-chance points. The Gophers had ZERO offensive rounds in the first half. In a three-point loss, the rebounding efforts in the first half, especially on the defensive end of the court have to be highlighted. I mean, the Gophers had eight total rebounds in the first half while Washington had seven just on the offensive end.

To the Gophers' credit, the rebound improved in the second half. They outrebounded Washington 17-13 in the final 20 minutes of play but as the second half, the rebounding success diminished. Over the final five minutes of play, Washington outrebounded the Gophers 7-4. In the final three minutes, they won the battle 6-2. and at one point had five straight rebounds, two of them being offensive rebounds.

Those final three minutes with obviously tired legs is where Ben Johnson's decision to only play five players for the majority of the second half hurt the Gophers. They were exhausted entering those final three minutes and it ended up showing up dramatically on the boards. The second of those two offensive rebounds in the second half ultimately led to a Great Osobor free-throw attempt which gave Washington the lead back at 65-64 with 2:12 remaining. The Huskies wouldn't relinquish that lead the rest of the way.

For the game, the Gophers were 16-of-24 from the free-throw line, which on paper doesn't seem terrible. However, a 66.7% free-throw percentage is an absolute killer, especially when the opposition shot 85.7% from the line, making 18-of-21 total attempts.

The Gophers started the game pretty well from the line, making 13 of their first 16 shots from the charity stripe. However, as the second half progressed into the final five minutes, Ben Johonson's refusal to get a majority of his starters including Dawson Garcia any breathers was a killer for the Gophers. Now, it's understandable, Garcia was red hot for the Gophers in the final 20 minutes and for a majority of that second half, he was the only Gopher to score, at one point scoring 16 straight points. That being said, the full 20 minutes of action showed on Garcia as he missed three of his last four free throw attempts on Saturday afternoon including a pair of attempts in the last 10 seconds. As a whole, the Gophers made just four of their final 10 free throw attempts over the last seven minutes of the game.

Former Minnesota Vikings head coach Dennis Green had one of the greatest quotes in NFL history when he was the head coach with the Arizona Cardinals. After a disappointing loss for the Cardinals against the Chicago Bears, Green famously finished his press conference by yelling at the media "The Bears are who we thought they were and we let them off the hook." There were some expletives in there as well but that's the main crux of the quote, one that fans across sports still love to use today when describing their favorite team or another team's play.

Now the main point here for me, is the Gophers are who we thought they were. They're not a team that after starting 0-6 in conference play is suddenly going to figure it out and find a way to end the season off with a strong stretch and make some noise perhaps in the Big Ten Tournament. They're not going to the NIT.

Yes, for a week-and-half it appeared that perhaps they were going to do those things, winning three straight games including a pair of ranked wins, the first two of the Ben Johnson era. But the Gophers' last two performances are both games that snap everyone back to reality. The Gophers are simply not a good enough team to consistently win in the Big Ten.

Despite their three-game winning streak at one point in January, the Gophers are who we thought they were.

It's been that way since the start of the season, I mean they barely beat teams like Omaha, Yale, and Central Michigan. They did beat Cleveland State by 11 but shot just 38.5% in that game. They also lost to a bad Wichita State team in November. They took advantage of an extremely weak non-conference schedule mostly well but it has also been glaring that when facing major conference competition, the Gophers have had massive struggles. According to KenPom, the Gophers are now 3-10 against teams ranked within the KenPom top 100.

The Gophers have enough talent to win games here and there, we've seen that, we've seen them even win three straight. When they play with confidence, they're a gritty and tough team to play. But their talent level is also not one that can sustain success and consistency over multiple weeks.

They have nine Big Ten games remaining. There are winnable matchups against Penn State (2x), USC, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Rutgers. They'll also face Illinois, UCLA, and Wisconsin. For Ben Johnson, these nine remaining games over the next 40 days will have to be the best coaching job of his career, because if the Gophers continue to prove that they are who we thought they were, Ben Johnson will be looking for a new job shortly after the Gophers season comes to an end.

Notably, the Gophers are currently 3-8 in conference play, tied with Penn State and Northwestern. In the expanded Big Ten conference, only the top 16 teams in the standings will advance to the Big Ten Tournament - making the Gophers' three games against Penn State and Northwestern, all the more important.

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