Minneosta Hosts Northwestern on Sunday

Minnesota Golden Gophers (13-6, 5-3) vs. Northwestern Wildcats (5-14, 1-7) LOCATION  Williams Arena / Minneapolis , Minn. DATE / TIME:  Sunday, Jan. 25 / 2 p.m. TELEVISION:  None RADIO / WEBCAST:   WCCO 830 AM  / Gopher Radio Network / gophersports.com Corbu Stathes (Play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (Color Analyst) Golden Gopher Watch List — Jan. 25, 2009 • Golden Gophers Return Home To Host Northwestern - Minnesota concludes the first half of the Big Ten Conference season on Sunday, Jan. 25, when the Golden Gophers play host to Northwestern. Tip off is set for 2 p.m. in Williams Arena. The Golden Gophers look to rebound after a 56-43 loss at Purdue on Thursday and own a 13-6 overall record, 5-3 in league play.  • Big Ten Midway Point - Minnesota 's game on Sunday versus Northwestern marks the midway point of the Big Ten season. The 2008-09 season is just the second campaign with a 18-game Conference slate. The Gophers were 6-3 at the Big Ten's halfway mark a year ago and went on to post an 11-7 record. • Protecting Our House - Only Minnesota (3-0) and Indiana (4-0) are undefeated on their home court this season in Big Ten play. The top five teams in the Big Ten combine for a 15-3 record on their home courts. • The Gophers' Best Winning Streak - The Gophers' 15-game winning streak over Northwestern is Minnesota 's longest over a Big Ten opponent.   Gophers Host Northwestern on Sunday Minnesota concludes the first half of the Big Ten Conference season on Sunday, Jan. 25, when the Golden Gophers play host to Northwestern. Tip off is set for 2 p.m. in Williams Arena. The Golden Gophers look to rebound after a 56-43 loss at Purdue on Thursday and own a 13-6 overall record, 5-3 in league play. The Wildcats sport a record of 5-14 overall and 1-7 in Big Ten action. Standing at the Midway Point Minnesota's game on Sunday versus Northwestern marks the midway point of the Big Ten season. The 2008-09 season is just the second campaign with a 18-game Conference slate. The Gophers were 6-3 at the Big Ten's halfway mark a year ago and went on to post an 11-7 record. As Minnesota looks ahead to the second half of the Big Ten season, the schedule is favorable for the Gophers in that they will play five games at home and four on the road. Honoring Coach Yow A moment of silence will be observed on Sunday in remembrance of North Carolina State coach Kay Yow. The Golden Gophers will wear pink shoe laces in honor of Yow, who brought her Wolfpack squad to Williams Arena for the Subway Basketball Classic earlier this season. How Time Flies Sunday's contest is the 20th game of the Gopher season. Only four Big Ten road trips remain on the Gophers' schedule: Penn State (Feb. 5), Michigan (Feb. 15), Northwestern (Feb. 23) and Michigan State (Feb. 26). Protecting Your Home Court To maintain a position among the upper echelon of the Big Ten standings, defending one's home court is of utmost importance. Only Minnesota (3-0) and Indiana (4-0) are undefeated on their home court this season in Big Ten play. And the one arena the Gophers do not visit this season... Indiana 's Assembly Hall. The top five teams in the Big Ten standings (Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State and Minnesota) are a combined 15-3 (83.3 percent) in home Big Ten games in 2008-09. Looking For Sweet 16 A Minnesota win on Sunday would extend the Gophers' winning streak over Northwestern to 16 games. The 15-game winning streak is Minnesota 's longest over a Big Ten opponent. The next longest winning streak against a Big Ten team is eight games and was compiled once against Iowa , Michigan , Purdue and Wisconsin . The last of those streaks, however, ended in 1986. Rebounding Quickly After a Loss Minnesota will look to rebound from its third Big Ten loss and hope history, in terms of a quick recovery, repeats itself on Sunday. The Gophers have enjoyed two of their best games in their next outing after being tagged with Conference losses this season. After Wisconsin downed Minnesota (62-52, on Dec. 29), the Gophers responded with five players scoring in double figures to defeat Penn State (69-55) on Jan. 1. After the loss at Iowa (74-57 on Jan. 11), Minnesota traveled to Columbus and upset the No. 15/13 Buckeye (59-56). 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 coaching tenure. Emily Fox, Brittany McCoy and Katie Ohm are nominees for Academic All-American honors. Future Stars, Impact Players Today Minnesota has two freshmen in Jackie Voigt and Kiara Buford who have played their way into consideration for Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors. Voigt is one of two freshmen ( Ohio State 's Samantha Prahaulis the other) who have started every game this season. Voigt is the Big Ten's leading rookie rebounder pulling down 5.6 rebounds a game. She also contributes 6.6 points a game in an average of 29.0 minutes per contest.             Buford has emerged as an important player off the bench for the Gophers and already should be counted among the best sixth players in the Big Ten. Buford is top freshman scorer in Conference play, as well as one the top non-starting scorers, contributing 8.0 points a game, while shooting 51.0 percent from the floor. Overall, Buford is playing an average of 23.4 minutes a game, scoring 7.3 points an outing. 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 squared off against Purdue - the women in West Lafayette and the men in Minneapolis . That game was the fourth time during the Big Ten season that the Gopher men and women played at the same time. On Sunday, the men's game is an early 11 a.m. start, while the Gopher women tip off at 2 p.m.             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. 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 70.0 is averaging over 70 points per Big Ten game. Amazingly nearly half the teams - five ( Michigan , Minnesota , Northwestern, Wisconsin and Illinois ) - are averaging less than 60 points a game this season in Conference play. And, it's just tenths of a point that put Michigan State (60.1), Purdue (60.4) and Penn State (60.9) above that group.             Case in point - in Thursday's action, the teams that lost ( Illinois , Michigan , Minnesota , Northwestern and Wisconsin ) combined to average just 50.8 points scored. Finding a Little Consolation in Final Game at Mackey Emily Fox would easily trade her stats for a team victory, but since victory was not in the cards for the Gophers in their trip to Purdue's Mackey Arena at least Fox can take a little consolation in finally enjoying a little personal success on Gene Keady Court in her final trip to West Lafayette . Going into the game, Fox hadn't even hit a shot (0-9) in two career games in Mackey. Fox hit 6-of-8 field goals, including 2-of-2 three-point field goals. She also added six assists, without a single turnover, four rebounds and two steals. Emmy Continues Climb Up Scoring Chart Emily Fox started her season in 13th on the Minnesota all-time leading scorers list and is currently 11th with 1,279 career points. Looking ahead, Fox's next target on the list in 10th place is Ellen Kramer (1987-91) with 1,336 points. Experience in the Backcourt Minnesota's starting backcourt of Emily Fox and Brittany McCoy are ranked first and second in the Big Ten statistics in a very important, but under-appreciated stat of assist-to-turnover ratio. Fox has 81 assists to 49 turnovers for a 1.65 assist/turnover ratio. McCoy checks in with a ratio of 1.51 with 80 assists and 53 turnovers. The duo enjoyed their best collective outing versus Boston College , combining for 13 assists without a single turnover. In their last outing, the McCoy/Fox duo combined for 14 assists and four turnovers. Closing in on Century Mark For Record Third Time Brittany McCoy is closing in on adding the 2008-09 as her third consecutive season with 100 or more assists. McCoy has 80 assists averaging 4.2 dishes a game, which ranks fourth in the Big Ten. The Gopher junior is already the only player in school history to dish out 100 or more assists as both a freshman and sophomore.   Scouting Northwestern Northwestern enters Sunday's contest with an overall record of 5-14, 1-7 in Big Ten action. The Wildcats are coming off a 74-54 home loss to Michigan State on Thursday. Northwestern's lone Big Ten victory was over Wisconsin . Center Amy Jaeschke, at 6-5, is one of the best young talents in the Big Ten and is averaging 16.0 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. The Wildcats have out scored their opponents in the first half (560-535), but have had trouble in the second half being outscored by a 665-538 margin.