All the Gophers men’s basketball team wanted was to give itself a chance to beat Purdue in the second half of Thursday night’s game. The opportunity was there with the Gophers leading the No. 20 Boilermakers by one point early in the second half,

The Gophers fell to 0-3 in the Big Ten after losing to Purdue 81-61 on Thursday night at the Barn. The Boilermakers big trio combined for 61 of their 81 points and they cruised in the second half for a comfortable Big Ten road win.

Walters served as defensive coordinator under new Purdue coach Barry Odom at Missouri. He held the same position at Illinois, and his success there made him a rising head coaching candidate. Walters also called the defense at Purdue for parts of both seasons as a head coach, with less-than-stellar results.

SEATTLE – Ryan Walters, the former Purdue coach, was officially announced as Washington’s new defensive coordinator on Friday by UW coach Jedd Fisch. Walters will replace Steve Belichick, who is reportedly joining his father Bill Belichick’s new staff at North Carolina.

Fletcher Loyer scored 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting and Braden Smith had 20 points, 10 assists and six rebounds as No. 20 Purdue pulled away from Minnesota for an 81-61 victory Thursday night. Trey Kaufman-Renn added 17 points for the Boilermakers (10-4,