Last season got off to an inauspicious start as the Gophers rode the struggle bus and escaped with a one-point victory over a bad Western Michigan team, a performance that would portend one of the worst seasons in the program’s history.
With nowhere to go but up, however, Minnesota kicked off the 2023-24 season in style, stomping the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 80-60 in a season opening victory. The game looked like it would be a cakewalk at the halftime break, with the Gophers taking a 24-point lead to the locker room. But the Wildcats did not go away, and dialed up the defensive pressure against what became a sloppy, sleepwalking Minnesota team.