Preview: Wisconsin welcomes Minnesota for Monday match-up

The Wisconsin Badgers (5-10, 12-16) face the Minnesota Golden Gophers (3-12, 14-14) at the Kohl Center on Monday night, marking the Badgers' second to last home game of the season. This contest presents an excellent opportunity for UW to hit a milestone it has yet to reach this year: win two consecutive games against conference opponents.

Game information and team previews are below:

Wisconsin vs. Minnesota

Where: Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.

Time: 8:00 PM CST

Watch: FS1

Listen: BadgerSports Network (iHeartRadio)

Follow and Discuss Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz, @McNamaraRivals, @JohnVeldhuis and @therealJMlLLS

Minnesota Notes

Monday's contest will be the only meeting between the Gophers and the Badgers this season, and Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino acknowledges his team has work to do before another chapter of the border rivalry opens.

“It’s hard. It’s hard. But nobody is going to feel sorry for us. I just have to keep these guys scratching and clawing, staying positive," Pitino said after losing to MSU on Tuesday. "It’s tough to do against Michigan State, but we get a little time off to regroup and get our confidence back…and continue to move forward.”

Like the Badgers, Minnesota has wrestled through an injury-plagued season. The team sophomore guard Amir Coffey, who was averaging 14.0 ppg, since Jan. 23 with a shoulder tweak. Pair that with the uncertainty surrounding guard Dupree McBrayer's stress and forward Eric Curry's season-ending ACL injury, the Gophers continue to search for consistent scoring as of late.

"It's tough, it's definitely tough with injuries. Four players out right now with injuries, it's definitely tough," forward Jordan Murphy said. "We just got to keep getting better, keep trying to work hard and get in the gym, stuff like that. We can't let this stop us from progressing."

The Gophers, who have won just three conference games this year, have hit a rough patch, losing eight of their last nine games.

Wisconsin Notes

It wasn't a dream.

Wisconsin defeated Purdue, 57-53, last Thursday at the Kohl Center in a performance UW head coach Greg Gard described as "really honed in."

"The biggest thing is we needed to play better, we needed to be better defensively, we needed to take care of the ball, we need to play better in longer stretches," Gard said after the game. "Tonight, we were as consistent defensively as we've been maybe all year. I think we did just enough offensively to be able to get the victory."

On a night honoring longtime Badger great Frank Kaminsky, the 2017-18 roster stole the spotlight and brought the Kohl Center crowd on the court for a postgame celebration as the final buzzer sounded.

"Personally, it was nuts. I was sweating from the game, and once I was surrounded by the fans I started to overheat a little bit," UW junior Ethan Happ said of the post-game chaos." Zak Showalter jumped into my arms, which I wasn't expecting, but it was just like old times, I guess."

Now it is time to look forward, specifically towards Wisconsin's final three conference games.

UW enters Monday's contest with the 12th-best FG percentage defense (.461), slightly below Minnesota's mark (.434). Although the Badgers limited Purdue's shooting, Gard acknowledged his team's defensive efforts have to be consistent.

We've done it well in short spurts but we haven't done it well enough," he said. "Part of that inconsistency comes when you have new faces on the block."

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Jonathan Mills covers Wisconsin football and basketball for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @therealJMlLLS.