Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved is doing whatever he can to help keep his shorthanded rotation in Big Ten games this season — mixing in zone defenses and playing at a slower offensive pace than he did during a successful run at Colorado State. The recipe was recently coming up one pos session short in back-to-back losses, 78-75 to Wisconsin on Tuesday and 70-69 in overtime to Southern Cal on Jan. 9. But the formula fell much shorter in a 77-67 loss to No. 13 Illinois on Saturday at State Farm Arena in Champaign, Ill. Medved’s zone defense stifled the Illini and helped Minnesota (10-8, 3-4 Big Ten) force a 34-34 tie at halftime, but Illinois (15-3, 6-1) used an 18-7 run to create breathing room at 74-62 with 3:24 remaining in the game. “We kind of had the mindset that we were going to change defenses a lot (Saturday),” Medved said on the KTLK-AM postgame show. “I thought we did that fairly effectively. Again, I thought our first-shot defense was pretty good. … I thought the zone was really effective for us, at times, but it can be harder to rebound out of the zone. That was kind of the give and take.” With a huge front court, the Illini were third in the Big Ten with 13.1 offensive rebounds per game and added up 17 on Saturday. That led to 16 second-chance points. Illini’s 7-foot-2 center Zvonimir Ivisic was especially problematic for the Gophers. Without the ability to counter with center, Robert Vaihola, who is out for the year with a knee injury, Ivisic had 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Also without starting guard Chansey Willis Jr., Minnesota was led by forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson. He scored Minnesota’s opening 11 points, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range, and had 17 points in the first half. He finished with 22 points on a career-high five made 3-pointers. “I thought he was really, really good,” Medved said on the radio. “The way they were covering our action allowed him to get some clean looks. He knocked it down and played aggressive. He really got us going with some confidence there and some shots go in and we were able to get a couple of stops.” Niko Medved’s zone defense worked Saturday like he did at late in the first half of the Badgers game on Tuesday. The Illini missed 10 straight shots and went seven minutes without a point. The U took a 32-26 lead during that stretch. Opposing teams are making their own defensive adjustments against Minnesota, primarily putting their center on point guard Langston Reynolds. They don’t respect his 3-point shooting and want to take away Medved’s trademark go-to backdoor cuts. USC used the same scheme with success a week ago Friday. Hanging around in the final 90 seconds, the Gophers missed their last five shots and the comeback attempt was snuffed out. “We gave ourselves a chance,” Medved said. “But ultimately couldn’t drill enough shots and come up with enough rebounds to get the job done.” Related Articles Hearing boos, ex-Gopher Braeden Carrington notes: ‘I gotta talk back’ Gophers lose to Badgers on last-second shot Gophers coach Niko Medved points out long losing streak to Badgers As Gophers fans boo refs, coach Niko Medved takes high road Gophers fall in overtime, 70-69 to Southern California ...read more read less