I am going to resist the temptation to make too many declarations after my first viewing of the team. With the benefit of knowing how the game ended, the stretch at 51-48 Gophers was absolutely huge. You had the Gophers miss thre front end of two one and one's with Gabe picking up his 4th foul on the second of the two. The next possession, Daniel Oturu had a wide open 3 from the top of the key go in and out. There was strong potential there to be up 58-48 and Gabe still having 3 fouls instead of 4. Instead the game is still 51-48 and Oklahoma would soon take the lead and never give it back.
As for the defense, I agree with builtbadgers that they gave up far too many second half points. That said, Oklahoma hit two really tough (bad) mid range shots and at least 2 really well contested 3's while Minnesota simply didn't make anything you'd consider a difficult attempt in the entire second half. An argument can certainly be made that Oklahoma made those shots because of the confidence gained by making the easier shots that some of the poorer defensive possessions allowed so I am not absolving the Gophers of blame just thought it was worth noting.
I was really impressed with Oturu as he looked like the best player on the floor by a wide margin and it was disappointing we didn't find a way to exploit that a bit more (obviously hitting more from the perimter may have been key to getting him room to work down low).