Gopher Women Battle Purdue on Thursday

Minnesota Golden Gophers (13-5, 5-2) vs. Purdue Boilermakers (12-6, 5-2) LOCATION  Mackey Arena / West Lafayette , Ind. DATE / TIME:  Thursday, Jan. 22 / 7 p.m. (6 p.m. CT) TELEVISION:  Big Ten Network Lisa Cornwell (Play-by-play), Stephanie White (Color Analyst) RADIO / WEBCAST:   KBEM 88.5 FM  / Gopher Radio Network / gophersports.com Corbu Stathes (Play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (Color Analyst) Golden Gopher Watch List — Jan. 22, 2009 • Golden Gophers Travel to Purdue on Thursday - Minnesota faces another tall order as the Golden Gophers take a road trip to one of the toughest places to play in the Conference - Purdue's Mackey Arena. The Gophers face the Boilermakers on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT). Minnesota enters the week with a 13-5 overall record, 5-2 and a game out of first place in the Big Ten standings, after posting two victories last week. • Keep the Remote Handy - Both the Minnesota men and women play Purdue on Thursday and both tip off at the same time - 6 p.m. CT. The women's game in West Lafayette will be broadcast live by the Big Ten Network . The men's game from Williams Arena will be televised on ESPN2. • Ashley Ellis-Milan Claims Big Ten Weekly Honor - Minnesota junior Ashley Ellis-Milan was named the Co-Big Ten Player of the Week (Jan. 20) after leading the Golden Gophers to a pair of victories last week. Ellis-Milan averaged 18.0 points and 8.0 rebounds in Minnesota wins over No. 15/13 Ohio State and Michigan . Another Game, Another Challenge There certainly isn't a night off when going through the Big Ten schedule. This week, Minnesota faces another tall order as the Golden Gophers take another road trip to one of the toughest places to play in the Conference - Purdue's Mackey Arena. The Gophers face the Boilermakers on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT). Minnesota enters the week with a 13-5 overall record, 5-2 and a game out of first place in the Big Ten standings, after posting two victories last week. Purdue is 12-6 overall and 5-2 in Conference play. Minnesota/Purdue Game Televised Live on BTN Minnesota's game on Thursday at Purdue will be televised live by the Big Ten Network . Lisa Cornwell and former Purdue standout Stephanie White will call the action. Great Coverage on the Road Each of Minnesota 's 10 road games in Big Ten play have been or will be either televised or streamed live on the internet. The Illinois game was televised by CBS and the game at Penn  State on Feb. 5 will be streamed on the bigtennetwork.com website. The remainder of the games are BTN television broadcasts. This extensive coverage marks the first time in Gopher history that every Conference road game is available in the Twin Cities. Unfortunately, the down side of the great coverage on the road is having only three home games televised in Williams Arena. Seems to be a Trend Heading into the 1999-2000 season, the Big Ten implemented a Thursday/Sunday schedule for women's basketball aiming to give positive exposure to the sport by trying to eliminate direct scheduling conflicts with men's basketball. The women's program received a boost in coverage, on TV and in print. This season, as a result of the television schedules, that trend has been reversed somewhat. On Thursday, both the Minnesota men and women will square off against Purdue. The women in West Lafayette and the men in Minneapolis , both with a 6 p.m. (CT) tip off. The game is already the fourth time during the Big Ten season that the Gopher men and women are playing at the same time.             Overall, half (nine games) of the Gophers' Big Ten schedules will be played on the same day. On a positive note, there have been four Minnesota doubleheaders televised on the Big Ten Network . Following is a list of this season's games where the Gopher men and women are playing on the same day (* games played in same time slot, # doubleheaders on BTN): Jan. 3 * W - at Illinois     M - Ohio State Jan. 8 * W - Indiana        M - at Iowa Jan. 11 #           W - at Iowa         M - Penn  State Jan. 15 #           W - at Ohio State           M - at Wisconsin Jan. 18 *           W - Michigan      M - at Northwestern Jan. 22 *           W - at Purdue    M - Purdue Jan. 25  W - Northwestern           M - at Indiana Feb. 19 #          W - Ohio State  M - at Michigan Feb. 26 #          W - at Michigan State    M - at Illinois Ellis-Milan Named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week Minnesota junior Ashley Ellis-Milan was named the Co-Big Ten Player of the Week (Jan. 20) after leading the Golden Gophers to a pair of victories last week. Ellis-Milan averaged 18.0 points and 8.0 rebounds in Minnesota wins over No. 15/13 Ohio State and Michigan .             Ellis-Milan, a 6-2 center from St. Paul , Minn. , was instrumental in Minnesota 's monumental win at Ohio on Jan. 15, the Gophers' first win in Columbus . She led the Gophers with 17 points, added seven rebounds and even took two charges. Versus Michigan , Ellis-Milan scored 19 points, including 9-of-10 from the free throw line. She was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine rebounds. Ellis-Milan shot 63.2 percent on the week and averaged 38.0 minutes per game.             The Gophers have earned two Big Ten weekly awards this season. Ellis-Milan joins Katie Ohm on the honored list. Ohm was a December award winner. The award is Ellis-Milan's first of her Gopher career.             Ellis-Milan shares this week's honor with Iowa guard Kachine Alexander. One Shot and One Shot Only Minnesota shut out its last two opponents on second-chance points off the offensive glass. Meanwhile the Gophers have taken advantage of their offensive rebounding opportunities. The tally stands at 32-0 in second chance points over the last two games - 15-0 at Ohio  State and 17-0 versus Michigan . The Buckeyes managed just three offensive rebounds, while the Wolverines had nine.             The Gophers have pitched four second-chance shutouts this season: North Dakota State (22-0), Drexel (13-0), Ohio State (15-0) and Michigan (17-0). They Weren't Free This Time Michigan experienced a rare occurrence versus Minnesota on Sunday. The Wolverines did not make a single trip to the free throw line. Minnesota , in comparison, made 12-of-15 from the charity stripe. It wasn't that fouls weren't called - Michigan finished with 12 personal fouls to Minnesota 's 10. The explanation is that Michigan simply did not attack the basket. The Wolverines took only 20 shots inside the three-point arc and only 12 in the paint, while firing 25 shots from long range.             The last time Minnesota held a team without a free throw attempt was on Jan. 8, 2004, in Evanston , Ill. , when Northwestern failed to get to the line in a 72-40 Gopher victory. Let's Call it a Record Minnesota forced the Michigan offense into five 30-second shot clock violations in the Gophers' 52-46 win on Sunday. The Wolverines looked to limit the overall possessions in the game by milking the shot clock whenever possible. Minnesota added two violations of its own, so the game overall had seven. Gophers Continue to Perform in Classroom Minnesota added the 2008 Fall semester to the list of terms where the Gophers compiled a team grade point average of over 3.0. Last fall, the Gophers earned a collective GPA of 3.109. Even more impressive is the cumulative GPA of this team - 3.216. The Gophers have earned a 3.0 in every semesters of Pam Borton 's coaching tenure. Emily Fox, Brittany McCoy and Katie Ohm are nominees for Academic All-American honors. Ohm is Back in the Groove Katie Ohm exploded for five three-point field goals in the win at Ohio State . She added three more in the win over Michigan to go 8-of-14 (57.1 percent) for the week. Though she leads the Big Ten overall in three-pointers made (53), Ohm had netted just nine treys in Big Ten play in the Gophers' five previous Conference games (9-28) before the Ohio State game. She hit 5-of-7 from behind the arc versus the Buckeyes. Ellis-Milan Doubling-Up Effort in Big Ten Play Ashley Ellis-Milan has been the Golden Gophers' most consistent performer in Big Ten action this season. She leads the team averaging 14.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per Conference game. Ellis-Milan has recorded double-doubles in three Big Ten games this season and has improved her field goal percentage to a solid 54.5 percent against Big Ten opponents. Overall, Ellis-Milan has posted 19 double-doubles in her Golden Gopher career. Doubt This Will Last Long Brittany McCoy has made a steady climb up Minnesota 's leaderboard in career assists. She has moved up fourth on the list with 315 assists, but surprisingly McCoy has not dished out an assist in either of the last two games, just the second and third games of her Gopher career where she did not record a single assist. Buford One of the Big Ten's Top Rookies Gopher rookie Kiara Buford is averaging 10.4 points per game when she sees 20 or more minutes of action. Buford's latest 20-minute outing was her lowest with four points in 28 minutes against Michigan, but her biggest contributions was on defense with three steals. Averaging 8.0 points per Conference game, Buford is currently the Big Ten's third-leading freshman scorer behind Ohio State 's Samantha Prahaulis (9.2) and Purdue's Brittany Rayburn (8.7). Ohm Firing on Record Pace From Long Range Katie Ohm has been sensational from behind the arc this season. Her 53 three-point field goals in on record pace to set Minnesota 's single-season record of 73 (Lindsay Lieser, 2001-02; and Shannon Schonrock, 2004-05). Ohm has 16 more three-point field goals made than her nearest Big Ten competitor. Ohm has netted three or more three-pointers in 11 games this season. When Ohm hits three or more triples, the Gophers are 9-2. When she hits four or more, Minnesota is 4-0. Better Be Ready To Play Some Defense The Big Ten is known as a physical league. Starting the Conference season where experienced coaches know so much about their Big Ten opponents, the statistics are revealing just how important team defense is this season. Only one team, Indiana at 71.4 is averaging over 70 points per Big Ten game. Amazingly over half the teams - six ( Michigan State , Michigan , Minnesota , Northwestern, Wisconsin and Illinois ) - are averaging less than 60 points a game this season in Conference play.             Case in point - in Sunday's action, three Big Ten teams: Illinois (43), Michigan (46) and Northwestern (46) were held below 50 points.  Scouting Purdue Purdue owns a 12-6 overall record, 5-2 in Big Ten play, one game into a brutal week of Conference competition. The Boilermakers lost a 71-57 contest to first-place Indiana in Bloomington on Monday. Two more tough games are on tap for Purdue but both are at home - Thursday versus Minnesota and Sunday against Ohio State . The Boilermaker roster is loaded with talent, topped by All-American forward Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton. Wisdom-Hylton is nearly averaging a double-double at 13.1 points and 9.4 points a game. She missed the 2007-08 after tearing an ACL during USA Team basketball in the summer of 2007. Also back after missing last season to injury is junior guard Jodi Howell, who is one of the top three-point shooters in the Big Ten. The injury bug bit again this season. The Boilermakers are currently without point guard FahKara Malone, who suffered a sever finger injury in an overtime loss to Michigan State on Jan. 10.    The Minnesota / Purdue Series Purdue leads the series with Minnesota by a 33-16 margin, but in recent seasons the matchup has been one of the best in the Big Ten. The teams split the series last season, each winning on their home court. The series is also split at 5-5 in the last 10.