The Gophers men's basketball team will face Penn State for the third time this season Wednesday night in the Big Ten tournament opening round in Indianapolis.

The Gophers (13-16) fell to last-place in the standings with Sunday's 75-62 loss at Northwestern to end the regular season. Nebraska also finished 4-16 in the conference but owned the tiebreaker after beating Minnesota on Feb. 9.

The 11th-seeded Nittany Lions (12-16, 7-13) will face the 14th-seeded Gophers for the third time this season. They split the regular season series with each time winning on their home floor, including the Gophers snapping a five-game losing streak with a 76-70 win at Williams Arena on Feb. 12.

In their last meeting, Penn State won in a blowout 67-46 on Feb. 17 in State College, but the Gophers are 4-0 against the Nittany Lions in the Big Ten tournament.

"I'm not going to even bring that second game up," Gophers coach Ben Johnson said Monday. "As far as how we need to play on the offensive end, we've got a really good understanding of that. I think so much of it now is who wants to keep playing."

The winner of Wednesday's first round Minnesota-Penn State matchup will advance to play Thursday against sixth-seeded Ohio State in the second round.