March Madness: Remembering the Gophers’ 1997 Final Four* Run
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Another year, another NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is happening without the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Unfortunately that has been a trend lately. The Gophers won the NIT last season but have only played in the NCAA Tournament three times since 2006. At least that’s better than Northwestern. (Is there a more incredible fact in college sports than the Northwestern men’s basketball team having never made the NCAA Tournament? They have not had a winning Big Ten record since 1968! Slightly above average power conference teams almost always make it. It’s not that high a bar to clear. Unreal.)
This was not always the case though. In 1997, Clem Haskins’ Gophers squad made a run to the Final Four. A run that technically does not count, but more on that later. I was ten years old at the time but I do remember watching them. I was curious how closely my memories coincided with reality, so I decided to take a look back at the Final Four run that (sort of) was.
Next: Lead Up to the Tourney