Center Sophie Hart finds herself happily in the middle of matters for Gophers women’s basketball team

Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit had senior center Sophie Hart on her coach’s show this week.

For a couple of reasons.

Hart was coming off her best college game in Minnesota’s victory over Wisconsin: 16 points, 5-for-8 shooting, 6-for-6 on free throws, five offensive rebounds, four assists. She had also helped in shutting down Serah Williams, the Badgers' all-conference post.

But Plitzuweit also had news. The school had just been told that Hart — who entered the NCAA transfer portal after playing sparingly in five games as a sophomore at North Carolina State — had been given a waiver for an extra year of eligibility.

Visibly emotional, Hart said she was thrilled to have another year with the Gophers after this one.

But, just days later, Hart talked about how there’s no time like the present.

“We want to do something in March,” she said after scoring a career-high 18 points in the Gophers’ 13-point loss Thursday at USC. The Gophers were outscored 20-5 by the fourth-ranked Trojans over the game’s first 5 minutes, 57 seconds but outscored USC 64-62 over the final 34:03.

To be clear: For a Gophers team that is still 18-4 overall and 6-4 in Big Ten Conference play there are no moral victories. But the Gophers emerged from that game with the confidence they can compete with most teams.

Hart? She has another year to play, but she’s focused on the near future. Specifically, March.

“We want to make the [NCAA] tournament this year,” Hart said. “That’s our goal.”

And that’s what has motivated her to work so hard. Unhappy with her shooting and free-throw percentages, she spent extra time after practice working on both. Challenged to get to the point where she can be effective for longer stretches on the court, Hart has responded.

“She understands the game at a high level,” Plitzuweit said. “But [lately] she has done more of the action part of it, in terms of helping, defending. It’s cool when you see a player work and see results. With her it has happened in a short period of time.”

In her past five games Hart has averaged 11.8 points, shot 50.9% and made almost 80% of her free throws. In her past two games, against Wisconsin and USC, Hart has 34 points on 13-for-23 shooting and has made eight of 10 free throws. Ten of her 13 rebounds in those games have come on the offensive end.

Just as important: She has played back-to-back games with 29 or more minutes.

“The team needs me to be a post presence down low,” Hart said. “I was struggling with my shot early in the season, but I spent a lot of time in the gym. I know what the team needs of me.”

In Charlie Crème’s most recent bracketology update on ESPN — done after the Gophers lost to USC — the Gophers were in the NCAA field as one of the final four teams not needing a play-in first-round game. According to the NCAA’s own net rankings, the Gophers held steady at No. 28 after the USC loss.

But it doesn’t get any easier, not for the Gophers in general, and certainly not for Hart. Minnesota will conclude its two-game road trip to Southern California by playing No. 1-ranked UCLA on Sunday afternoon. After facing one national player of the year candidate in USC’s JuJu Watkins, the Gophers get a Bruins team led by another, 6-7 center Lauren Betts. UCLA (20-0 overall, 8-0 Big Ten) is the last unbeaten team in Division I.

Crème has USC and UCLA getting No. 1 seeds in the tournament, Ohio State getting a No. 3, Maryland a No. 4, Michigan State a No. 5, Oregon a No. 8, both Nebraska and Indiana a No. 9 and both the Gophers and Illinois getting 10 seeds. Crème has both Iowa and Washington with No. 11 seeds in play-in games.

The Gophers will have their hands full with Betts. She is second to Watkins in the Big Ten in scoring (21.0), third in overall rebounding (9.9) but first in offensive boards (4.6) and in blocks per game (3.0).

“She is really special,” Plitzuweit said. “Her size, her strength, her scoring ability, her speed in the full court. It’s impressive.”

After returning from California, the Gophers’ schedule remains competitive, with home games against Iowa and Indiana, a game at Ohio State and then back home against Oregon, all projected NCAA tournament teams.

2 p.m. Sunday at Pauley Pavilion

TV, radio: Big Ten Network, 96.7-FM

Update: The Bruins, the nation’s only Division I undefeated team, are first in the Big Ten in shooting (49.5%), shooting defense (33.5%), rebounding (43.4 per game) and rebounding margin (plus-16.3). They are second in scoring (82.4 points per game), scoring defense (55.0) and scoring margin (27.4). The Gophers are 18-4 overall, 6-4 in the Big Ten. UCLA is 20-0 and 8-0.