Fun Facts: Iowa-Minnesota

Here's a Fun Fact: You don't have to drive to Minneapolis today. Unless you do. In that case, consider it fun that you're going to a vibrant city.

Enough happy talk. It's time for Fun Facts.

1. Minnesota is 0-4 in the Big Ten. The last time the Gophers opened league play with four losses was all the way back in ... the 2011-12 season. They won their fifth conference game.

2. In the KenPom.com rankings of Monday, Iowa was 45th and Minnesota was 46th.

3. This is Iowa's third true road game. It's 2-0, with both wins against ranked teams (North Carolina, Ohio State).

4. Through Sunday, Minnesota was second in the nation in steals (11.4 per game) and forced turnovers (18.6). West Virginia leads the nation in both categories.

5. Iowa has players from England (Gabe Olaseni) and Germany (Dominique Uhl). Minnesota has players from Canada (Maurice Walker), Senegal (Gaston Diedhiou) and Mali (Bakary Konate).

6. Through Sunday, Iowa was eighth in the nation in free-throwing shooting at 76.7 percent. Minnesota was 310th at 64.2 percent.

7. Iowa is tied for first place in the Big Ten loss column. The Hawkeyes, like Indiana, are 2-1. Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin are 3-1.

8. Carlos Morris is Minnesota's leading scorer at 12.9 ppg. His nickname is 'Squirrel.” 'Everybody calls me Squirrel,” said Morris in this St. Paul Pioneer Press story. 'My granddaddy gave me that name, and it just stuck throughout. He just said I move like a squirrel. It's kind of getting me out there a little bit. Everybody's kind of crazy about that name.”

9. Morris is from Apalachicola, Fla., a town better known for oyster-fishing than basketball.

10. In last year's Iowa-Minnesota game in Williams Arena, the Gophers shot 61.2 percent from the field, 57.9 percent from 3-point distance, and 82.7 percent from the foul line. They won, 95-89. Iowa made 10 three-pointers that night, and it was an afterthought.

11. Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery's first season as a Division I assistant coach was 1982. That was the year Minnesota Coach Richard Pitino was born.

12. At 32, Pitino isn't the youngest D-I head coach. Bashir Mason of Wagner is 30, Wes Miller of UNC-Greensboro is 31, and Jamion Christian of Mount St. Mary's is 32, born five months before Pitino.

13. The last Gopher to be selected in the NBA draft was Kris Humphries in 2004. He's still in the league, with the Washington Wizards. But he's better known for being in a 72-day-long marriage with Kim Kardashian.