Did I hear out of the corner of my ear the other night on BTN that even 8 teams would be unprecedented? Hard to imagine they'd invite 10. During the meat-grinder conference schedule the wheat is going to get separated from the chaff, and no more than 8 will be left standing.
There will be about 9-10 B1G teams with 10 or more wins by the time the main block of conference play starts, meaning that pretty much every team with 8 or more regular season conference wins will be in the NCAA mix since there will be quite a few good wins to be had. Non conference performance for the league really plays a huge part in its perception and ranking throughout the year.
18-19 wins = on the bubble and depending on fantastic wins on your resume and/or more wins in the B1G tournament.
20+ wins = lock
I think we'll see either 8 or 9 B1G teams in the NCAAs.
Do we know for sure if Dupree is playing tonight? I'm assuming he isn't but haven't seen anything official.
Sounds to me like he's playing, per Pitino.
This is as much a March game for the Gophers as there is, go 0-3 and it will be tough to get into the NCAA, I just don't see this team closing out with a 10-5 record and a winning B1G season and I doubt 9-9 gets them in.
20 Big Ten games this year. To your point, though- this is the biggest game of the year. They need this one bad. They need the win. They need to hold the home court. They need the positive momentum. If they lose they will be playing under negative pressure in coming games and the anti Pitino crowd will amp it up.
The true anti Pitino crowd is very small. They are people that just do not like him, call him pee wee look a like, little Ricky. whatever. The majority want him to do well. Then there is the small group that think he is a coaching superstar. That is the part that is earned through tremendous achievements like conference titles, Big 10 tourney titles, NCAA runs. This is a critical game, we can not go to Madison 0-2. I remain faithful that getting Curry back, more practice to precision and better defense will bring success. And it has to. 9-11 WILL NOT get it done no matter how tough the conference is. Home court must be protected in every single game. Go Gophers
9-11 WILL NOT get it done no matter how tough the conference is.
There will almost certainly be a 9-11 Big Ten team making the NCAA Tournament this season. Whether that ends up Minnesota, who knows? But, there will be Big Ten teams with sub-.500 league records making the NCAA.
There will almost certainly be a 9-11 Big Ten team making the NCAA Tournament this season. Whether that ends up Minnesota, who knows? But, there will be Big Ten teams with sub-.500 league records making the NCAA.
Despite the early hype, I'm not at all convinced this conference will have 9 or 10 teams selected.
There will almost certainly be a 9-11 Big Ten team making the NCAA Tournament this season. Whether that ends up Minnesota, who knows? But, there will be Big Ten teams with sub-.500 league records making the NCAA.
That would mean 8 or 9 teams from the B1G in the NCAAs.
There will almost certainly be a 9-11 Big Ten team making the NCAA Tournament this season. Whether that ends up Minnesota, who knows? But, there will be Big Ten teams with sub-.500 league records making the NCAA.