Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved felt slighted Wednesday after Minnesota lost 67-63 to Wisconsin on Wednesday night. His angst came out immediately in the opening statement of his postgame news conference in Madison, Wis.

“You know how much we still don’t have enough respect when we still spell it N-I-C-O, right? One day we will get it right,” Medved said, holding up his name card at the podium inside Kohl Center. “At least I can tell that joke here.”

Medved, a Roseville native, has lived the Border Battle rivalry as an undergraduate and graduate student at the U, a student manager with the program and then as an assistant coach. Another chapter is being written in his first season as head coach; and it’s not off to a great start.

Medved continued: “What would I expect in Madison, right?”

Medved’s team is down on its luck. The Gophers have been playing without four scholarship players since late November and its leading scorer, Cade Tyson, was out Wednesday. The wing, who averaged 20.1 points per game, injured his ankle in the 76-57 loss to then No. 7-Nebraska on Saturday and is considered game-to-game.

The Gophers’ regular rotation went down to six players on Wednesday, and Max Gizzi, who had played only 10 minutes all season, came off the bench to give teammates a break. He contributed three minutes.

Minnesota still showed character taking a 35-17 lead at the half, but were outscored 50-28 in the final 20 minutes. After a 3-1 start to Big Ten play, Minnesota has lost six straight games to fall to 3-7 in league play and 10-11 overall.

Langston Reynolds played all 40 minutes Wednesday. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson and Bobby Durkin, who scored a team-high 20 points, each played 38 minutes. Isaac Asuma played 36 minutes while in foul trouble.

Badgers guard John Blackwell made a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left to extend Wisconsin’s lead to 65-61. It was reminiscent of his buzzer-beating trey to beat Minnesota 78-75 at Williams Arena on Jan. 13.

With the two losses to Wisconsin this season, the Gophers have now lost 11 consecutive games in the rivalry. It’s the longest losing streak in the series since Minnesota lost 10 in a row to the Badgers from 1912-16.

While Medved has only two rivalry losses attached to his name, he has leaned into the program’s defeats to the Badgers that weren’t on his watch.

When Minnesota’s losing streak in the rivalry stood at nine two weeks ago, Medved made sure his players were “keenly aware” of the number and challenged them to break it.

Barring a rematch in the Big Ten tournament, that task will continue into the 2026-27 season and the spelling used on a certain placard in Madison will be under scrutiny.

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