All-Time Record vs. Louisville

[coolhandgopher]

Golden Gophers vs. Louisville history

Since we have a whole week between now and Saturday's big non-conference game versus Louisville, I thought I'd get the week going with a look at our history versus Louisville. Saturday's game versus the Cardinals will be the fifth all time meeting between the two programs, with things knotted up at 2-2. Interestingly enough, Minnesota has won both games the two programs have played in the regular season, while Louisville has won the two NCAA tournament games played between the two. Here is a look at those match ups:

February 19, 1978 Minnesota 72, Louisville 71 Williams Arena
December 22, 1980 Minnesota 62, Louisville 56 Freedom Hall
March 18, 1982 Louisville 67, Minnesota 61 Birmingham (Mideast Regional)
March 20, 1994 Louisville 60, Minnesota 55 Sacramento (West Regional)

I couldn't find box scores for any of these games, but a few things of note for each game that I was able to find:
* Obviously the 1978 game looked to be a "barn" burner at Williams, with a late season non-conference game that is rare to find among major college programs these days. Louisville's leading scorers that year were sophomore Darrell Griffith, seniors Rick Wilson and Ricky Gallon, and sophomore Bobby Turner. The Gophers were lead by seniors Mychal Thompson and Osbourne Lockhart, junior James Jackson, plus sophomore Kevin McHale.

* The Cardinal team that Minnesota defeated in 1980 were the defending national champs, and while Louisville legend Darrell Griffith had graduated to the NBA, that Cardinals team featured a bevy of young talent that had contributed to their national championship such as juniors Derek Smith (deceased father of Duke's Nolan Smith) and Jerry Eaves, the McCray brothers (Rodney and Scooter) who were sophomores, and freshman Lancaster Gordon. The Golden Gophers were lead by juniors Trent Tucker, Daryl Mitchell and Mark Hall along with sophomore Randy Breuer.

* The 1982 tournament loss to Louisville was the final game for Golden Gophers Trent Tucker, Daryl Mitchell, Cookie Holmes, and John Wiley (I think on Wiley). The last Minnesota team to officially win the Big Ten championship, the Gophers were ranked #7 nation in the nation before being upset by the Cardinals. That Louisville team defeated UAB in the next game to head to the Final Four, where they lost to Georgetown. Derek Smith and Jerry Eaves along with great name Poncho Wright were seniors while Rodney and Scooter McCray were juniors.

* The Gopher team that lost in the round of 32 to Louisville were lead by seniors Ariel McDonald and Randy Carter, and juniors Voshon Lenard, Jayson Walton, and Chad Kolander. The Cardinals lost their following game in the Sweet Sixteen to Arizona. That Louisville team was lead by Clifford Rozier, Dwayne Morton, and Greg Minor.

I was too young to recall the first three games and the last game was during my senior year of college at Winona State, so it's a bit of a haze for me . I would love to hear any recollections from the veterans on the board about these games, particularly the first three games of the series. Hopefully, the Gophers are able to extend their undefeated streak in the regular season against the Cardinals this upcoming Saturday!

I forgot to add this originally-thanks to Eric Thrall's website and the U of M and U of Louisville media guides for the details of this series

 

[Lincoln gopher]

The first game you mentioned

is my number 1 memory of attending a Gopher game in person. The Gophers had just beaten Purdue and Joe Barry Carroll the day before. Back to back home games on a Saturday and Sunday. The Barn was truely electric that day. It still held 18000 or so before more exits and chair backs. National TV, lights turned out for introductions, certainly the loudest I can ever remember it. In 2 years Louisville won a national title when Griffith was a senior. Mychal Thompson was unstoppable. I think he had over 50 points for the 2 games.

 

[Roy Christensen]

The 78 game was on national TV and was played one day after a huge victory over Purdue with Joe Barry Carrol. Coach Dutcher had his recruits in for that weekend and wound up signing them all. Rautins, Tucker, Holmes, Mitchell. Some felt it was the climax of the season and they suffered a letdown afterwards. The Gophers wound up finishing behind Big Ten Champs Mich State led by a freshman Magic Johnson.

 

[Bad Gopher]

I remember the '82 and '94 games.

The '82 team was, of course, one of the great Gopher teams. Ranked in or near the top 10 for practically the entire season, it was a glorious run. As great of memories those were, the Louisville game was a bucket of water right over the head. The Cardinals were clearly the better team that day, and one wonders whether they would have been the better team most days. The beat the Gophs in what I remember being a workmanlike fashion.

The '94 team was the pinnacle of the Lenard years, mainly because they still had McDonald and Carter. There were high hopes of the Gophers reaching the Sweet Sixteen, as they had in '89 and '90. Once they got that far, as everyone knows, anything can happen. The rodents were a 6 seed playing the 3-seed Cardinals, and like I said, most people I knew expected the Gophs to dust them off. They got off to a good start, but Louisville overtook them and held them at bay in the 2nd half. The thing I remember most was the scouting report on the Cardinals being that they couldn't shoot the '3' very well. Lo and behold, they killed us from behind the arc. Then they got in that round of 16 game and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

 

[Rouser]

ARCO game

I actually scalped tickets to the '94 game. I was attending UC Davis at the time so I decided to drive the 20 minutes to Arco and check it out.

The Gophers had a great chance to win the game but Voshon passed up a wide open 3 very late in the game and he decided to pass to the basket but everyone else was expecting a shot and the pass went out of bounds. It was a good game though.