Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State were picked to finish 1-2-3 in the Big Ten in preseason polls. But so far they are a combined 1-4.

The Gophers riled up the Spartans, beating them on their home court. And, in the next game, MSU beat Ohio State.

Pam Borton said before the season began her team could contend for the Big Ten title. But, besided the Gophers, a lot of the other teams also had four, five starters back, too, there are four new coaches andlast season’stop teams seemed to have lost the most talent.

So the tea leaves were hard to read. But so far so good for the U which plays Iowa on Thursday at the Barn.

The Gophers are second in the conference in scoring, averaging 69.4 points. Emmy Fox and Leslie Knight seem to be carrying too much of the scoring load lately.

Minnesota is first in fewest turnovers, averaging 16.6 per game with a season-low nine in the last game, and first in forcing the most, 20.9 per game. Those often are key stats.

The Gophers are also thriving on the boards and in shooting three-pointers. Minnesota is averaging 44.8 rebounds, including 16.2 offensive rebounds per game — they are second in the conference in both those categories.

Led by Fox and Katie Ohm, the Gophers and first in making three-point, averaging 39 percent behind the arc.

All that helps explain why they are 11-3 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten, tied for the conference lead with Illinois.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Gophers women's basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.