MINNEAPOLIS - If there were any doubt which team was the early favorite to win the Big Ten, it was quickly erased on Saturday.
Though Michigan was the choice of nearly every preseason magazine, Minnesota hopped into the conference driver's seat after holding off the Wolverines, 70-64, in a noisy Williams Arena.
When the game was over, Michigan coach Steve Fisher and the rest of the Wolverines were left saying the same things they have all season: Michigan didn't do a great job on the boards and they didn't execute well on offense.
"We had difficulty rebounding against this team," Fisher said. "We gave up way too many offensive rebounds. We let them get a couple runs sparked by offensive rebounding by them and turnovers by us.
"That hurt us. You can't let that happen if you want to beat a good team, and Minnesota is a good team."
The Gophers are now 4-0 in the Big Ten (15-1 overall, their best start in 20 years) after Saturday's win and a 96-91 upset of Indiana in Bloomington - something hard to come by - last week. The last time Minnesota began conference play 4-0 was during the 1971-72 season , when it won the Big Ten.
"It's good to get a win at this point of the season," said Minnesota guard Bobby Jackson, who led all scorers with 20 points and - even at 6-foot-1 - snagged 11 rebounds.
"It shows that we can play with any team - Indiana, Michigan, whoever."
The Wolverines fell to 2-2 in the conference (11-4 overall), including a home-court loss to lowly Ohio State. While the Wolverines have some ground to make up, four games into the season, they are certainly not out of the conference race, even after a loss to the Gophers.
"I'm not going to sit here and say Minnesota is a better team than we are, 'cause they're not," Michigan forward Maurice Taylor said. "They just did the little things down the stretch to win this game. We have another game with them in Crisler and if anyone wants to judge who's the better team, we can judge then."
Michigan's biggest problem may have been trying to handle Minnesota's constant pressure. The Wolverines shot 40 percent from the floor but failed to execute their half-court offense when it mattered most, mostly due to the Gophers' aggressive and unrelenting defense.
Both teams finished the game with 43 rebounds, but Minnesota clearly had the early edge on the glass with nine offensive boards in the first half to Michigan's three.
"They're a real physical team," said Michigan center Robert Traylor who was in early foul trouble and picked up his fifth with 90 seconds left in the game.
"They outrebounded us down the stretch. No, they outrebounded us all game."
The game was relatively even except for a 21-5 Minnesota run sandwiched around halftime that left Michigan playing catch-up for most of the contest.
A Robert Traylor basket from the low post gave the Wolverines a 23-17 lead with just six minutes left in the first half. But Minnesota scored four-straight baskets including three 3-pointers, one each from Jackson, Sam Jacobson and Charles Thomas.
The Gophers had a 32-25 lead, when Brandun Hughes canned a three with 43 seconds left to bring Michigan within five. The Wolverines had Minnesota stymied on the next possession, forcing Jacobson to take an off-balanced 17-footer, but 6-foot-1 reserve point guard Russ Archambault snuck into the paint and put back Jacobson's miss as time ran out.
The Gophers scored the first two baskets of the second half to take their biggest lead of the game, 38-28.
"That run killed us," Hughes said. "That turned out to be the difference in the game now that you see the final score.
"We've just got to be strong and fight through rounds like that and step up our defense, which we didn't do today."
The Wolverines fought back little by little, narrowing the gap to 53-51 with a 9-0 run of their own capped by Hughes' putback of Travis Conlan's missed layup with eight minutes remaining.
The Gophers went back up by five behind two long jumpers from Jacobson. Taylor made two free throws with 3:13 left to cut the lead back to three, but the Wolverines couldn't get a defensive stop any time after.
The Gophers sealed the game when Jackson sank a twisting layup after a Hughes miss with 1:16 left to put the Gophers up 67-59.
"We weren't getting the shots we wanted down the stretch," Hughes said. "We didn't execute our half-court offense well at all. They stopped us when they needed to."
Jacobson finished with 15 points and Charles Thomas had 11 in only eight minutes including a spurt of eight in a row for Minnesota. Six-nine center John Thomas hauled in 11 rebounds.
Four Wolverines scored in double figures, lead by Louis Bullock's 16 and Hughes' 15. Taylor snagged 10 boards and both Traylor and Jerod Ward finished with eight.
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
Michigan forward Maurice Taylor battles with Minnesota center John Thomas for the ball during Saturday's contest. Thomas scored seven points and grabbed 11 rebounds in helping lead the Golden Gophers to a 70-64 victory. Taylor, meanwhile, had 11 points and 10 boards in 34 minutes of action. The loss dropped the No. 16 Wolverines to 11-4 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten, putting them in a third-place tie with Illinois, Michigan State and Ohio State. Minnesota is tied with Iowa for first place.