7th is not much of a goal. 7th was 7-11 last year, 6-12 in 2014-2015, 7-11 the year before that. In all three years 12th was last place.
2015-16: Ohio State was 7th out of 14 teams at 11-7
2014-15: Indiana and Illinois tied for 7th out of 14 at 9-9
2013-14: Minnesota was 7th out of 12 teams at 8-10
Northwestern was the last Big Ten team to finish 7th place with fewer than 8 wins (7-11) in 2009-10. Then it was Penn State in 2007-08.
bemidjigopher seems to be right with what he's saying. We haven't had a 7-11 team play on Wednesday in the conference tourney in the 2 years of the 14 team Big Ten, but it seems like it could and likely will happen eventually. It's weird to think that 5 years ago, 7th would put you in the 3rd quartile of the conference, but now it's in the top half. 7th place for the Gophers would almost certainly be at least 8-10, and possibly as high as 11-7 like Ohio State did last year. With a relatively difficult conference schedule, playing Wisconsin, Michigan State, Maryland, and Ohio State twice each, 7th place could put a solid tourney resume together for the Gophers, especially if they could beat Arkansas and Florida State out of conference.
I understand the 12th place projections for the Gophers, as Nebraska and Rutgers are really the only teams I'm pretty confident we'll finish ahead of, though I see 12th as being closer to a worst case scenario. 12th place has been 5-13 the past few years. Plus we were bad last year, have a tough conference schedule this year, and we're counting on big contributions from a handful of guys who haven't played Big Ten basketball yet. I could potentially see us being better than any of Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State, and Illinois, and maybe if we overachieve a bit, could beat out Ohio State, Michigan, or Maryland, though Maryland has a pretty easy conference schedule.
7th in a conference called the Big Ten doesn't sound good, but it would be our first top half conference finish in a good few years (depending on if you count Tubby finishing 6th out of 11 as top half), and would give us a good shot at a tournament bid given our schedule, which I think would all but guarantee Pitino is back for a 2017-18 season that could include hopes of contending for a Big Ten title. Hell if he takes last year's 8 win team and gets them to ~20 wins this year, maybe he gets Big Ten coach of the year consideration.