(Photo credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images)

Minnesota coach Niko Medved does not have to worry about giving a big pep talk to his team heading into this weekend.

That's because the calendar has flipped to 2026, and every game from now on will come against a Big Ten Conference opponent.

'It's on now,' Medved said. 'We're playing the best league in the country.'

Minnesota (8-5, 1-1) tips off against Northwestern (8-5, 0-2) on Saturday afternoon in an important league game in Evanston, Ill.

The Golden Gophers have won three in a row, including a 60-43 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday. Bobby Durkin scored 19 points to lead Minnesota.

Medved said he wanted his players to get better heading into a road game at Northwestern. Despite winning their last game by 17 points, Medved believes his Golden Gophers were too sloppy.

'When I say getting better, every team has got to continue to get better,' Medved said. 'The margins are really, really small. You never play perfect, but we don't have a lot of margin for error. We've got to play at a higher level for longer periods of time. I think we've been trending that way, but we're going to have to get to another level.'

Cade Tyson is Minnesota's top scorer with 21.9 points per game. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson ranks second with 13.2 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds per contest.

Meanwhile, Northwestern goes for back-to-back wins after pulling away for an 80-60 win over Howard on Tuesday. The Wildcats dropped their first two conference games against Wisconsin and Ohio State.

The only Big Ten player averaging more points than Tyson is the Wildcats' Nick Martinelli (22.8 ppg), who's trying to repeat as the league's scoring champ. Arrinten Page is next with 14.7 points per game to go along with a team-high 6.8 rebounds per contest, but he sat out the Howard game for violating team standards.

Wildcats coach Chris Collins says the stakes are high this weekend.

'Now we've got to get into our league and if we want to be relevant, Saturday becomes a huge game,' Collins said. 'We lost our last home game, and it's hard to win on the road in this league. We've got to come back and be ready to go Saturday afternoon.'

--Field Level Media