Gabe Kalscheur brought his flame-thrower to Iowa and torched the No. 7 seed Louisville Cardinals with a barrage of 3-pointers to lead the No. 10 seed Gophers to a resounding 86-76 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kalscheur scored 24 points with eight rebounds and connected on five of Minnesota’s 11 threes. Amir Coffey hit a trio of triples and finished with 18 points. Jordan Murphy battled back spasms en route to 18 points and six rebounds.
Daniel Oturu scored 13 points and Dupree McBrayer added 13 points. Minnesota’s bench didn’t score any points.
Minnesota will play Saturday against the winner of No. 2 seed Michigan State and No. 15 seed Bradley. The Gophers lost 79-55 to Michigan State in their only regular season meeting, which was played in East Lansing on Feb. 9.
Minnesota entered the Big Dance as one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the tournament, but they locked in and lit up the Cardinals from start to finish.
The victory is Minnesota’s first in the NCAA Tournament since defeating UCLA in the first round of the 2013 tournament. That team lost in the next round to Florida.
A Gopher team hasn’t reached the Sweet 16 since the 1997 Gophers reached the Final Four, history that has since been deleted from the record books.
