Big Week for the Gophers!

Will the Gophers make the tourney?

  • Yes, they will sweep the week and win 2 in the B1G!

    Votes: 19 43.2%

  • Yes, win the week and take 1 in the tourney.

    Votes: 4 9.1%

  • No, will win the week and win 1 in the tourney but still go to the NIT.

    Votes: 3 6.8%

  • No, will win out and lose in tourney and go to NIT.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No, they will drop one of these last two games. Win 1 B1G and go to NIT.

    Votes: 16 36.4%

  • No, they will Pitino. No NIT

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Yes, they will win the B1G tourney!

    Votes: 2 4.5%
  • Total voters
    44
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Otis

Otis

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Sitting at 18-11, 9-9, the Gophers still have a chance to get into the discussion for the NCAAs.

Win out the regular season would put them at 20-11, 11-9, and get them a decent seed for the B1G tourney.

This would at least lock them into the NIT.

I find it hard, or at least rare that 11-9 teams from this conference don’t make the tourney! Those NET ratings give way too much weight to the non-conference. This team would be very entertaining in the dance and deserves more credit for their improvement if they pull out these next couple games.

Go Gophers!
 


Could see a bunch of those scenarios playing out so really didn't know which one to vote for :)

My gut says that in the end we will end up in the NIT but don't know exactly what path we take to get there. Would be very cool though if we found a way to get into the NCAA tournament, unfortunately that probably means winning out and getting to at least the final of the Big Ten Tournament which will be no easy task.

Regardless, will be fun to see how the next two weeks play out. Hopefully we have something to celebrate when it is all said and done.
 

Otis said:
Sitting at 18-11, 9-9, the Gophers still have a chance to get into the discussion for the NCAAs.

Win out the regular season would put them at 20-11, 11-9, and get them a decent seed for the B1G tourney.

This would at least lock them into the NIT.

I find it hard, or at least rare that 11-9 teams from this conference don’t make the tourney! Those NET ratings give way too much weight to the non-conference. This team would be very entertaining in the dance and deserves more credit for their improvement if they pull out these next couple games.

Go Gophers!
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Unfortunately, the brutal non-con schedule and a down big ten have made it incredibly unlikely to receive an at-large bid without winning the BTT.

We all knew how NET works, and so did the coaches. Now we're seeing the consequences, which is painful because I genuinely feel we are a better team than some Big Ten teams likely to get in.

I think we finish the season strong but ultimately come up short in Q1 firepower.

There's much to build on if we can keep the nucules together next year.
 

Getting to the NIT was my ceiling for this team. I feel this is attainable and I would have been pleased with that after watching them struggle during the NC season and early BIG. Now I believe they are a a top 64 tourney squad but they must finish strong to have a chance.

I picked going 1-1 with 1 BIG tourney W and the NIT.
 


Indiana is getting hot and Northwestern on the road on senior night is a major tall order this week. I’d love 2-0, but satisfied with 1-1 and hope the 10-10 gets us the 6th seed and go from there.

I’ve followed Hodger for too many years to doubt him. We’re not making the real tournament without winning the conference tournament.

It’s about a once per decade reality that .500 in the B1G isn’t sniffing the tournament but this is the year.
 

the only way that I can see for the Gophers to make the NCAA tournament is to go nuts in the B1G tournament - make the semi-finals or the finals. that would mean beating one of the top 4 seeds in the Quarter-finals.

as far as the NIT - I went and re-read the new qualifying procedure for the NIT.
32 teams. the top two B1G teams based on NET that do not make the NCAA will be guaranteed qualifiers. a total of 12 guaranteed qualifiers with 2 teams each from 6 conferences (B1G, ACC, Big East, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC). after those 12 schools are named, the NIT committee will select the 20 best teams available to complete the field. note - additional teams from the 6 conferences with automatic qualifications are eligible to be selected as at-large teams.

Gophers are currently 10th in the B1G in NET. #77 overall. right now I'd say they are on the bubble for the NIT. need to at least split the last two regular-season games and do something in the B1G tournament.
 





short ornery norwegian said:
the only way that I can see for the Gophers to make the NCAA tournament is to go nuts in the B1G tournament - make the semi-finals or the finals. that would mean beating one of the top 4 seeds in the Quarter-finals.

as far as the NIT - I went and re-read the new qualifying procedure for the NIT.
32 teams. the top two B1G teams based on NET that do not make the NCAA will be guaranteed qualifiers. a total of 12 guaranteed qualifiers with 2 teams each from 6 conferences (B1G, ACC, Big East, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC). after those 12 schools are named, the NIT committee will select the 20 best teams available to complete the field. note - additional teams from the 6 conferences with automatic qualifications are eligible to be selected as at-large teams.

Gophers are currently 10th in the B1G in NET. #77 overall. right now I'd say they are on the bubble for the NIT. need to at least split the last two regular-season games and do something in the B1G tournament.
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"The top 4 seeds" is a little misleading. The top 2 seeds clearly have performed better than the rest of the conference but the likely third and fourth seeds aren't that much different from the next three or four teams.

I think they're in the NIT right now, not on the bubble, but they'll have little chance of being an automatic qualifier (unless Iowa slips into the NCAA tournament and gives the conference 7 teams selected). They certainly can't afford to backslide on their NET ranking.
 



For the Gophers to make the NCAA tournament they don't have to be considered just a top 64 team, they have to be considered a top 36 at large team.

They are nowhere near a top 36 at large team even if they win all of their remaining games, but fail to win the BTT. It wasn't just the bad non-conference schedule, they missed too many opportunities for signature wins during the B1G season.

The NIT is a step in the right direction, and if they return everyone, we should be back in the NCAA tournament next season.
 





GopherOhana said:
will be interesting to see who plays for northwestern. 3 key players injured but i don't know their return
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Ty Berry (one of their original starting wings) is definitely out for the year. Ryan Langborg (another starting wing) has missed a couple games; Collins claimed after the Iowa game that if it was a tournament-style scenario, he could've played.

Matt Nicholson (their starting 5) had some kind of foot/ankle area non-contact injury against Iowa - the kind that raises speculation of an Achilles pop (*Amending this* - I should've read their board first, but there is commentary on NW's Rivals site that it's a fractured metatarsal for Nicholson). Don't know if there's been any official word since, but he could very well remain out too. Also, Buie took a hard fall on his left wrist at one point and got it taped up a fair bit during a timeout.
 
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I believe they can win both games to finished the year. Their turnovers have dropped immensely from the beginning of the year and they’ve been a lot better from the line as of late. If they play good defense and the hot shooting continues may even win a couple games in the tournament. An NCAA bid would be awesome but would be OK with an NIT anything to get more games and more practices going into next year
 

Holy Man said:
Indiana is getting hot and Northwestern on the road on senior night is a major tall order this week. I’d love 2-0, but satisfied with 1-1 and hope the 10-10 gets us the 6th seed and go from there.

I’ve followed Hodger for too many years to doubt him. We’re not making the real tournament without winning the conference tournament.

It’s about a once per decade reality that .500 in the B1G isn’t sniffing the tournament but this is the year.
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Unfortunately based on the scenario generator that was posted, I think if we lose to NU we are almost locked in to the 8 seed. We really need to win both games.
 

I was thinking win the last 2 of the regular season and the first 2 in the tourney. I just don't see us beating Purdue or Illinois. Not that we can't, I just don't see it. So based on not really having any statement wins, NIT it is.
 

Gophers7633 said:
View attachment 30397

Gophers showed some of the best improvement in the month of February among P6 teams. Thought that was pretty neat to see. I'm not surprised given the outcomes of those games. That Iowa game still stings.
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Wisconsin in their own turd colored class with the largest fall.
 

Ski-U-Ham said:
I was thinking win the last 2 of the regular season and the first 2 in the tourney. I just don't see us beating Purdue or Illinois. Not that we can't, I just don't see it. So based on not really having any statement wins, NIT it is.
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will be interesting with NIT's new selection rules. Gophers won't be Top 2 NET in big ten not in the NCAA Tourney. That would likely be NW, OSU and/or IOWA

hoping the gophers can get the NET to where the make the next 20 in the selection process
 

Rocksoldier said:
I believe they can win both games to finished the year. Their turnovers have dropped immensely from the beginning of the year and they’ve been a lot better from the line as of late. If they play good defense and the hot shooting continues may even win a couple games in the tournament. An NCAA bid would be awesome but would be OK with an NIT anything to get more games and more practices going into next year
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Yes, I think they have a fair chance of doing what you describe.

I would also say that I think the NIT should be a better tournament than it's been in recent years now that they've the dropped automatic qualifiers from the one-bid conferences. They had as many as 13 or 14 of them in some years and that diluted the overall quality of teams in the tournament. Now, you're probably not going to see the same magnitude of NET ranking disparity between #1 and #8 or #2 and #7 in a bracket.
 

Nobody has Gophers as a bubble NCAA Tournament team. Gophers won zero big games this year. They would have to get top wins (plural) in the tournament, and nobody would ever project that.

They had too many terrific, close games that ended in an L.

I'm not saying they can't. Those are the odds.


It's more an NIT bracketology thing.


NIT Bracketology, March 4

The final two spots in this NIT bracket came down to essentially six teams: St. Bonaventure , Rutgers , Loyola Chicago , Yale , Indiana and...
www.nitbracketology.com www.nitbracketology.com

thebarkingcrow.com

NIT Bracketology

The bracket below is our best current prediction of the final NIT bracket. It is predictive of where things will end up. It is not a reflection of where things currently stand. (Update: With select…
thebarkingcrow.com thebarkingcrow.com
 

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