The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team was supposed to fly to Indiana on Tuesday for today’s Big Ten game against the Purdue Boilermakers, but bad weather postponed the team’s scheduled flight, as reported by the Star Tribune.
Instead, the Gophers rescheduled a flight to Indianapolis for 9 a.m. today. Per the report, a game has not been postponed at Purdue University in 15 years, when the Gophers had a flight from Indianapolis postponed due to weather.
The #Gophers made it to West Lafayette around noon local time. Couldn't fly out last night because of the weather in Indiana.
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) February 5, 2014
Tonight’s game is a huge contest for the Gophers. At 15-7 overall and a record of 4-5 in the Big Ten, tonight’s game marks the start of the second half of the conference season – a stretch that could very well determine Minnesota’s NCAA Tournament fate.
“If we don’t handle our business this week, we could be down at the bottom of the league,” head coach Richard Pitino told Amelia Rayno. “A week from tomorrow, we could be at the bottom. Or we could be at the top. It just shows how competitive this league is, top to bottom.”
Minnesota closes the week with a home game against the Indiana Hoosiers. The race in the conference is ultra-tight. Minnesota is one game behind the Badgers and Northwestern (5-5); one game ahead of Purdue (4-6); and just a half game in front of Nebraska (3-5).
