Gophers return to ESPN.com's Power Rankings

[SelectionSunday]

#22 this week.

For what it's worth, #32 in RPI rankings as of Friday morning. Assuming they win out nonconference schedule, Gophs should be positioned well heading in to Big 10 season. Let's hope UNC, West Virginia and Virginia continue to improve, and pull for a few others (Akron, Siena, WKU & Wofford) to win/contend in their respective leagues, as expected. Am very confident the UNC and West Virginia wins will remain top-50 wins all season, so that's a nice starting point for seeding purposes (assuming we don't completely gag during Big Ten season).

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/powerrankings/_/season/2011/week/5

 

[josh087]

The UNC and WVU games will be huge if they're in the top 50 RPI at the end of the year. In a weaker-than-normal ACC I would expect UNC to still be there, especially with their big win against Kentucky. The Big East is tougher, especially with teams like Notre Dame and UCONN performing better than expected, so it could be a challenge for WVU, although SOS will help.

Looking at the BT Schedule, the Gophers play OSU, MSU, and PUR twice, but Illinois and Wisconsin only once. Let's assume all of these teams are in the RPI top 50. While this could be beneficial win total-wise, since they only play ILL and WIS once, the Gophers will need to rack up some wins against those top teams in the league to strengthen their resume, especially if WVU doesn't perform well in the Big East.

If we go 4-4 in the tougher games in the league (winning the home games), that would be potentially a 6-4 record against the RPI top 50 at the end of the regular season, more than worthy for an NCAA bid if they don't tank against the Iowas and Penn States of the world.

However, let's say they lose all of those games on the road, and OSU and MSU come into the Barn and win - then you're looking at a 4-6 RPI top 50 record. While not terrible, especially considering two of those wins would be road/neutral, it might put us in the dreaded bubble territory.

SS - what is your take on Northwestern and where they will be in terms of RPI. Did the Ga Tech win help any?

 

[SelectionSunday]

Northwestern

Northwestern clearly needs to do the lion's share of its damage in the Big Ten. Its NC schedule doesn't give 'em much wiggle room, though a win over St. John's on Dec. 21 (if they both advance to the title game) in the Holiday Festival @ MSG certainly would help some. The Ga Tech win might end up looking decent, perhaps Creighton to a lesser extent, too.

NW needs to beat 3 or 4 of the big boys in the Big Ten, but just as importantly they can't afford many slip-ups vs. the dregs of the Big Ten, certainly not as many as they had last season (Penn State twice, Indiana, Iowa).

 

[Rosemountian]

People are way to low on GT, they had the one terrible loss to Kennesaw state, but don't the other three teams they lost to have like two losses between the three of them?