Gophers Face Iowa on Friday in Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinal

Big Ten Tournament   Minnesota Golden Gophers (19-10, 11-7) vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (20-9, 13-5) LOCATION  Conseco Fieldhouse / Indianapolis , Ind. DATE / TIME:  Friday, March 6 / approx. 7:30 p.m. CT TELEVISION:   Big Ten Network Tracy Warren (Play-by-play), Vera Jones (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 — March 6, 2009 • Golden Gophers Travel to Indy for Big Ten Tournament - Minnesota travels to Indianapolis to play in the 2009 Big Ten Conference Tournament, Friday-Sunday, March 6-8. The Golden Gophers earned the No. 5 seed in the tournament field and will face No. 4 seed Iowa in a quarterfinal game on Friday at approximately 7:30 p.m. CT. • Three Gophers Capture All-Big Ten Honors - Golden Gophers Emily Fox and Ashley Ellis-Milan were selected to Big Ten Conference honor squads, released by Big Ten officials. Fox was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team by votes of both the league coaches and media. Ellis-Milan earned a spot on the coaches' and media's All-Big Ten Third Team. Minnesota rookie Kiara Buford was voted the Big Ten's All-Freshmen Team. • Ellis-Milan Joins Career Top-10 in Rebounding, Nears 1,000 Career Points - Junior center Ashley Ellis-Milan is tied for the No. 10 spot in Minnesota with 677 career rebounds. Ellis-Milan is 42 points from becoming the 19th player in Golden Gopher history to score 1,000 career points.   Gophers Head to Tourney With No. 5 Seed Minnesota travels to Indianapolis to play in the 2009 Big Ten Conference Tournament, Friday-Sunday, March 6-8. The Golden Gophers earned the No. 5 seed in the tournament field and will face No. 4 seed Iowa in a quarterfinal game on Friday at approximately 7:30 p.m. CT. Minnesota finished the regular season with a 19-10 overall mark, and tied for fifth in the Big Ten standings (with Indiana) with an 11-7 record. The Hawkeyes are 20-9 overall and tied for second place in the Big Ten with Michigan State and Purdue with 13-5 records. All Big Ten Tournament Games Televised Every game of the BIg Ten Tournament will once again be televised live. The Big Ten Network will be producing every game until the championship, which will be broadcast by ESPN2. Trio of Gophers Selected to Big Ten Honor Squads Golden Gophers Emily Fox and Ashley Ellis-Milan were selected to Big Ten Conference honor squads, released by Big Ten officials. Fox was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team by votes of both the league coaches and media. Ellis-Milan earned a spot on the coaches' and media's All-Big Ten Third Team. Minnesota rookie Kiara Buford was voted the Big Ten's All-Freshmen Team.             Big Ten champion Ohio State collected four top awards, led by sophomore center Jantel Lavender earning her second Player of the Year award. Buckeye head coach Jim Foster was named the Coach of the Year, while Ohio State also earned the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in Shavelle Little and Freshman of the Year in Samantha Prahalis.             Lavender was joined on the All-Big Ten First Team by Illinois ' Jenna Smith, Iowa 's Kristi Smith, Penn State 's Tyra Grant and Purdue's Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton.             Fox is a three-time All-Big Ten honoree, previously earning second-team accord in 2007 and first-team acclaim a year ago. The senior guard leads the Gophers in scoring averaging 12.8 points a game. Fox shares the team lead in steals with 64 and is second in assists in 116. During the season, Fox worked her way up to No. 8 on the Minnesota all-time scoring list and currently has 1,411 career points.             Ellis-Milan picks up her first postseason accolade voted upon by the Big Ten coaches. Following her sophomore season in 2008, Ellis-Milan was selected to the All-Big Ten Third Team by the Big Ten media. A junior center, Ellis-Milan is second on the team in scoring tallying 11.8 points a game overall, and a team-best 12.8 points per game average in Conference play. She pulls down an average of 7.4 rebounds a game, the Gophers' top rebounder for the last three seasons. Ellis-Milan is nearing the 1,000-career points milestone and enters the Big Ten Tournament with 958 career points.             Gopher guard Buford is just the third Minnesota freshman to earn Conference rookie accolades, following Janel McCarville who was named the 2002 Freshman of the Year (the All-Freshman Team had not been established at the time) and Brittany McCoy , who collected All-Freshman Team accord in 2007. Buford is averaging 7.2 points a game in 2008-09.             Golden Gopher senior Kay Sylva was named as Minnesota 's recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. Awardwinners are student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. In addition, they must be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. Looking for That Big 20th Victory A win on Friday would give Minnesota its 20th victory of the season. The Gophers have collected 20 wins four times (2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2007-08) in the Minnesota coaching tenure of Pam Borton. Fox Now No. 8, Surpasses 1,400 Career Points Emily Fox has made quite a move up the all-time scorers' list in the past few weeks. With 14 points in her last outing versus Illinois , Fox now has 1,411 points and ranks No. 8 on the Minnesota scoring list. Fox joined the top 10 of the Gophers' all-time leading scorers list in the game on Feb. 15 at Michigan , her 117th career game in a Gopher uniform. In her next game (Feb. 19 versus Ohio State ), Fox scored 18 and climbed into the No. 9 spot. Another game and another step up the charts. She scored 16 versus Northwestern to take over the No. 8 spot previously held by Deb Hunter (1979-83) with 1,363 points. The No. 7 spot is held by Carol Peterka (1982-86) with 1,441 points.             Fox also recently became the eighth player in Minnesota history to score 100 three-point field goals, hitting the trey to get her triple digits in the Iowa (2-8) game. She currently has 109 career three-pointers. Big Ten Tournament History Purdue enters the 2009 Big Ten Tournament as the two-time defending champion. The Boilermakers are one of six teams to capture the crown in the 13-year history of the tournament. No. 3 seed Purdue defeated upset-minded No. 9 seed Illinois , 58-56, to capture the tournament title with Boilermaker guard FahKara Malone named the tournament's most valuable player. Here's a list of the tournament champions: School  Championships Iowa       1997, 2001 Indiana  2002 Michigan State  2005 Ohio State          1992, 2006 Purdue  1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004,             2007, 2008 Penn State         1995, 1996 Minnesota at the Big Ten Tournament Minnesota hasn't had the best of luck at the Big Ten Tournament. The Gophers own a record of 5-14 in Tournament action. The one bright year was 2005, when the Gophers advanced to the championship game. Following is Minnesota 's Big Ten Tournament history: Year     Result   Round 1995     (9) Iowa 57,  (8) Minnesota 44     First 1996     (6) Ohio State 78, (11) Minnesota 64       First 1997     (11) Minnesota 80, (6) Wisconsin 75        First             (3) Illinois 98, (11) Minnesota 76  QF 1998     (6) Wisconsin 65, (11) Minnesota 47        First 1999     (6) Michigan 74, (11) Minnesota 55          First 2000     (7) Wisconsin 56, (10) Minnesota 49        First 2001     (7) Indiana 78, (10) Minnesota 56 First 2002     (6) Wisconsin 74, (3) Minnesota 64         QF 2003     (7) Iowa 80, (2) Minnesota 77      QF 2004     (6) Minnesota 68, (11) Northwestern 47    First             (3) Ohio State 58, (6) Minnesota 50         QF 2005     (4) Minnesota 71, (5) Purdue 68  QF             (4) Minnesota 66, (1) Ohio State 63 ot     SF             (2) Michigan State 55, (4) Minnesota 49   Final 2006     (6) Indiana 61, (3) Minnesota 46  QF 2007     (6) Minnesota 60, (11) Northwestern 43    1stRd             (3) Michigan State 77, (6) Minnesota 68   QF 2008     (5) Michigan State 56, (4) Minnesota 51   QF The Countdown to 1,000 Gopher junior Ashley Ellis-Milan has played the best basketball of her collegiate career this season and is nearing the 1,000 career points milestone. She is averaging 10.2 points per game over her career and currently has scored 958 points as a Golden Gopher. Ellis-Milan Now Top 10 in Career Rebounding Ashley Ellis-Milan has led the Golden Gophers in rebounding in each of her first three seasons donning the Maroon and Gold. By averaging 7.2 boards in each of her 94 career games, Ellis-Milan has now joined the top-10 list of all-time career rebounders in Minnesota history with 677 caroms. She is tied with Denise Erstad (1974-77) at the No. 10 spot and will chase down Marty Dahlem (1979-82) in No. 9 with 703 rebounds next. McCoy Notches Third Season With 100+ Assists Brittany McCoy added the 2008-09 as her third consecutive season with 100 or more assists and currently has 118 on the season. McCoy's average of 4.1 dishes a game, which ranks third in the Big Ten. The Gopher junior was already the only player in school history to dish out 100 or more assists as both a freshman and sophomore and now she adds her junior season to the list.             When McCoy dishes out five or more assists in a game this season, the Gophers are 9-1. Fox Also Hits Century Assists Mark Emily Fox has 116 assists on the season as she joined Brittany McCoy with 100 or more assists this season. The duo both collected their 100th assist of the 2008-09 season in the win at Michigan (2/15). Fox and McCoy share the honor of being one of just two sets of Minnesota teammates (Janel McCarville/April Calhoun, 2004-05) to tally triple assist totals in the same season. The Fox and McCoy tandem now accomplished the last three seasons. Defense, Defense and More Defense The Big Ten is known as a physical league. The statistics are revealing just how important team defense is this season. Amazingly over half the teams - six ( Illinois , Michigan , Michigan State , Minnesota , Northwestern and Wisconsin ) - are averaging less than 60 points a game this season in Conference play. Gophers Are Winning The Close Ones Good teams find a way to make plays in the closing minutes to win games. Minnesota has made the big plays in the last four minutes and its 11-7 Big Ten record certainly reflects it. The Gophers are 7-0 in Big Ten games decided by six or less points. If the Game in on the Line, It's a Good Thing for the Gophers Minnesota plays the style of game where is physical nature hopes to be rewarded by trips to the free throw line. In the Gophers' seven Big Ten losses, Minnesota visited the charity stripe just 81 times for an average of 11.6 a game. In the 11 wins, the Gophers attempted 178 free throws or 16.2 per game. Taking Minnesota 's opening BIg Ten loss at Wisconsin way back on Dec. 29 (where they got to the line 23 times but made just 14) out of the mix  the lack of trips to the free throw line is staggering. In those six losses, Minnesota shot just 58 free throws - 9.7 a game. Taking That Theme a Step Further If there is one Golden Gopher who needs to score from the free throw line as an element of her game is center Ashley Ellis-Milan . In the Gophers' seven Big Ten losses, Ellis-Milan shot just 23 free throws. In the 11 wins, Ellis-Milan stepped to the free throw line over twice as many times - 55. Ohm Impact Shines in East Lansing When shots from the perimeter are finding the bottom of the net, the Gophers are a different team. One of Minnesota 's main weapons from long range is Katie Ohm and when Ohm is hitting the three-pointer is opens up even more options in the Gopher offense. Ohm hit three triples in the win at Michigan State (2/26), marking her first game with a trio of trifectas in 10 games.             Ohm has netted three or more three-pointers in 12 games this season. When Ohm hits three or more triples, the Gophers are 10-2. When she hits four or more, Minnesota is 4-0. Harper Continues to be a Force Off the Bench Zoe Harper has contributed solid games off the bench in the post for the Gophers. In the win at Michigan State , Harper pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds and helped once again neutralize Michigan  State standout Alyssa DeHaan, who finished with just seven points and two rebounds. Against Ohio State (2/19), she helped limit Jantel Lavender to just three rebounds and 14 points, while adding six points and five rebounds of her own. Harper was one of the few bright spots in the game at Northwestern (2/23) tallying eight points, eight rebounds (including six offensive boards) and a career-high four blocked shots. Scouting Iowa Iowa (20-9) is perhaps the hottest team entering Big Ten Tournament play. The Hawkeyes won six straight games to climb into a second-place tie (13-5) in the final regular-season Conference standings. The last loss for Iowa came to the Gophers in Williams Arena (64-58) on Feb. 8. Sophomore guard Kachine Alexander has been quite the player to watch of late. Alexander has posted two triple-doubles this season, including an outing that features 26 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists in a triple-overtime 97-89 victory over Penn  State . Senior Kristi Smith leads Iowa with a scoring average of 13.4 points per game.  The Minnesota / Iowa Series Iowa leads the series with Minnesota by a 40-21 margin. The teams have split the series in two of the last three seasons, including 2008-09 where each team won on their home court.