Gophers head coach Ben Johnson reminded his players not to put too much stock in the actual Big Ten standings going into Saturday’s game against Washington.

“This was a team picked ahead of us,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “We can’t forget who we are, and you can never forget that perspective. We still have so much more to prove.”

The preseason media poll had the Huskies picked ahead of Minnesota because, well, everyone was picked ahead of the U. Johnson didn’t want his team to get comfortable after winning three of four conference games in the past two weeks while the Huskies had lost six straight games to fall into last place.

Johnson’s warning was warranted.

The Huskies led 40-30 at halftime, and while the Gophers came back in the second half, they fell short in a 71-68 loss at Williams Arena.

The Gophers beat two ranked teams at The Barn the previous two Saturdays, then lost to the basement dwellers this weekend. Minnesota (11-11, 3-8 Big Ten) now falls to within one game of Washington (11-10, 2-8). The conference’s bottom three teams won’t be invited to the season-ending Big Ten tournament.

Coming into Saturday, the Huskies had the toughest Big Ten schedule, with Minnesota right behind them, according to the KenPom.com ratings. That was another fact Johnson used to get his team’s attention.

Dawson Garcia tried to put the Gophers on his back, finishing with 28 points, but Minnesota doesn’t have enough offensive firepower outside of their all-conference senior forward. Only Femi Odukale also finished in double digits; the senior guard had 10 points.

Postgame, Johnson pointed to ball movement.

“We charted: (the ball) was stuck on one side, like, 10 times,” Johnson said. “That is far too many. … We are not good when the ball sticks. We’ve got to get player movement, body movement, ball movement. We’ve got to share it. I’ve got to look at the film, but I don’t think we did a great job of that.”

In the final minutes, Frank Mitchell was called for a foul when it appeared the Huskies shooter just fell down. At the other end, there were a couple of no calls despite contact on Garcia. Johnson is reluctant to talk about officiating, but his pregnant pause when asked about it was pretty loud.

“Those are, especially down the stretch, are tough,” he said. “They are tough. So … leave it at that.”

During the Gophers’ comeback, Garcia finished at the rim and was fouled, but Mitchell appeared to shout at Huskies guard Tyler Harris. Mitchell was issued a technical foul, which led to two Washington points. Johnson got in Mitchell’s face.

“That’s obviously something that you can’t do,” Johnson said. “It’s a momentum stopper. I talk a lot about playing with emotion and playing emotional. I think those are two different things.”

Huskies forward Great Osobor reportedly receives $2 million in NIL this year, which is more compensation than the entire Gophers roster. The 6-foot-8 senior transfer from Utah State finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Harris led the way with 23 points, including all four 3-pointers he shot.

In the first half, Garcia picked up two fouls and contributed five points in only 10 minutes. Parker Fox also picked up two early fouls and was on the court for only three minutes. Without Garcia, the U’s offense dried up.

Fox only played seven minutes in the game; he was apparently dealing with a back injury.

“He’s been battling through a lot,” Garcia said. “You guys know his past (two season-ending knee injuries). The fact that he puts his body on the line every single night for us, we love and respect him for that. It doesn’t go unnoticed, but sometimes you’ve got to pick him up, too. Injuries are a real thing.”