ESPN Bubble Watch

[gophersfan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bubblewatch

Minnesota [22-9 (9-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Gophers came into the Big Ten tournament having lost six of their last nine games, but they kept themselves alive in the bubble discussion by beating Northwestern 66-53 on Thursday. Minnesota might still has some work to do after struggling down the stretch and finishing 9-9 in Big Ten play. A victory over No. 1 seed Michigan State in Friday's quarterfinals would be more than enough to get the Gophers into the NCAA field. They have five RPI top-50 victories, having beaten Louisville (neutral court), Illinois (home), Wisconsin (home and road) and Ohio State (home). Along with sweeping fellow Big Ten bubble team Wisconsin, Minnesota split games against both Ohio State and Penn State, but lost twice to Michigan. The Gophers are 5-7 against RPI top-50 foes and 9-9 against the top 100.

Who the hell is this guy on ESPN.com. i do not see a need to beat Michigan State. it would be nice. but i feel we still in even if we lose tomorrow.

 

[BornandRaisedGopher]

It;s being done by Mark Schalbach. He covers college football and basketball for ESPN. He writes a lot more about football. Guess he needed something for him to do today.

 

[cncmin]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bubblewatch



Who the hell is this guy on ESPN.com. i do not see a need to beat Michigan State. it would be nice. but i feel we still in even if we lose tomorrow.

He's calls a win over MSU "more than enough", which suggests that a loss to MSU wouldn't necessarily knock us out. That said, he also has us in the "have some work to do" area, along with PSU and Wisc. I feel that those are all fair assessments; if the Gophers win Friday they are definitely in, but a loss puts them on the good side of the bubble, but you never know what can happen (a whole bunch of conference tourney upsets is one bad possibility).

That said, unless Penn State beats Purdue, there is no way PSU jumps Minn., so theoretically Minn. would be the 7th team from the BT if all goes as expected in tomorrow's games.

 

[howeda7]

That blurb is still basically the same as it was for the last several days. All they've done is update the first sentence.