The Gophers' mission over the next 7 games. ...

[SelectionSunday]

is simple. The next 7 are all about one thing, avoiding the "bad loss". Winning the next 7 (Brown, Morgan State, Saint Joseph's, Northern Illinois, South Dakota State, Penn State, at Iowa) will do nothing to impress the Selection Committee, but the Gophers simply must win all of these games. Their resume will be weak heading into the Big 10 season (only the Butler win is likely to stand out), but win these next 7 and that at least gets them to 11-3, 2-0 and back into the (NCAA) conversation entering the beef of their schedule.

Avoid bad losses; that's all it's about right now until we play at Purdue on January 5th. The margin for error is nearly nonexistent. Let's beat the mighty Brown Bears on Saturday and take it from there.

 

[Reserve]

The margin for error is nearly nonexistent. Let's beat the mighty Brown Bears on Saturday and take it from there.

That's the position they've backed themselves into. Now, they're going to have to steal a few they shouldn't win.

Maybe this is the year they take down Michigan State?

 

[SelectionSunday]

"Now, they're going to have to steal a few they shouldn't win."

Amen to that.

We're not going to get to the NCAA simply by beating up on Indiana, Iowa, Penn State and (to a lesser extent) Northwestern (who IMO is a much better team than the Gophers right now). There will need to be some top-shelf wins (preferably a couple on the road), especially vs. the likes of Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and now (it appears) Wisconsin (who we only get at home).

And one thing that absolutely must happen is the Gophers must protect their home court as if their (NCAA) life depends on it. Going 6-3 (like they did last season) at The Barn will not cut it this season. They need to deliver the goods at home, and that means losing at most 2 games at The Barn.

 

[Blizzard]

and now (it appears) Wisconsin (who we only get at home).

After the Gophers lost I was seriously rooting for Wisconsin. Every Big 10 game is now critical for us. I keep on thinking Wisconsin lost 6 in a row last year and still made it, and still made it, ...

 

[Blizzard]

SS-

What's the situation with Michigan? Are they in essentially the same boat as we are?

I keep on trying to give myself some consolation in thinking that for as bad as things are here they're probably worse there.

 

[Section201]

thinking back

After the Gophers lost I was seriously rooting for Wisconsin. Every Big 10 game is now critical for us. I keep on thinking Wisconsin lost 6 in a row last year and still made it, and still made it, ...

thinking back on that, it is rather amazing. add 6 losses in a row to two to the Gophers and you have to wonder how they did it!

It should give us hope.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Michigan's an excellent comparison, but I'd have the Gophers ahead of them at this point. They don't have any wins that can be considered good yet (Creighton went 0-3 in Orlando) and they've also lost at home. The difference is, in terms of the nonconference, the Wolverines still have 2 more opportunities for quality wins (at Kansas, UConn at home), we don't. Win either of those and it'll certainly be better than our Butler win.

 

[Reserve]

thinking back on that, it is rather amazing. add 6 losses in a row to two to the Gophers and you have to wonder how they did it!

It should give us hope.

It's tough not to compare this year to last year. We all said we wanted the Gophers to play a tougher schedule instead of beating up on cupcakes. Well, I think we are and we're taking our lumps for it. I'm mostly hoping, that in the Wisconsin case, they were giving the nod on SS because they played a few extremely tough non con opponents. We certainly aren't playing the UConn's, Dukes, or however else they played last year, but, in the end hopefully the Miami's, Portlands, and A and M's will look to be reasonably good for our RPI.

PROVIDED WE KEEP UP OUR END OF THINGS AND WIN SOME GAMES!!!

It's frustrating to watch them lose.

 

[Reserve]

thinking that for as bad as things are here they're probably worse there.

I would imagine their expectations were as high as ours if not much higher for this year.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Mostly meaningless RPI data. ...

through Wednesday:

8. Wisconsin
12. Purdue
33. Northwestern
57. Minnesota
65. Ohio State
110. Michigan State
180. Illinois
211. Penn State
216. Michigan
227. Iowa
271. Indiana

To date Wisconsin has played the toughest schedule among Big 10 teams, Penn State has played the easiest. Gophers' SOS is next after Badgers.

Big 10 currently ranked the #6 conference, behind (in order) Big East, ACC, Big 12, SEC and Atlantic 10.

 

[howeda7]

"Now, they're going to have to steal a few they shouldn't win."

Amen to that.

We're not going to get to the NCAA simply by beating up on Indiana, Iowa, Penn State and (to a lesser extent) Northwestern (who IMO is a much better team than the Gophers right now). There will need to be some top-shelf wins (preferably a couple on the road), especially vs. the likes of Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and now (it appears) Wisconsin (who we only get at home).

And one thing that absolutely must happen is the Gophers must protect their home court as if their (NCAA) life depends on it. Going 6-3 (like they did last season) at The Barn will not cut it this season. They need to deliver the goods at home, and that means losing at most 2 games at The Barn.

They will now likely need 11 wins in BT play to get in. Even if 6 of those are Iowa, Indiana and PSU, they will have to get some wins over OSU, Wisconsin and Michigan at the very least if they're going to get to 11 wins.

 

[Mulligan]

Am down about the last three games but am still hopeful. However, Selection is right; we simply can't afford any losses in the next bunch of games. Hopefully, we're just going through a period where things aren't clicking. Most teams hit a rough stretch during the season. Maybe this is ours? I mean we shot 59%, 50%, and 47% on free throws the last three games. There are all sorts of other problems but, man, you've got to think that free shooting can't continue, and Tubby will correct some of the other problems. Maybe getting back home against lesser teams will give us a chance to get things corrected. Don't know about Portland State, but Texas A & M and Miami are decent teams out of good conferences and, as badly as we played, we were right there with a chance to win.

The way the Big Ten is shaping up is both a good and bad news thing. After the ACC match-ups, the conference does look tougher. The good news is that it gives the Gophers a chance for some wins that will impress the selection committee come tournament time. That's down the line, however. Right now getting some cohesiveness on offense; establishing a couple of go-to players; and improving our offense during this next stretch of games will make us a team more ready for the Big Ten season.

 

[Frink]

Looking way ahead.

A lot will happen over the next few months but it seems like this might be a year where we might need the opportunity provided by the conference tournament.

 

[GVBadger]

through Wednesday:

8. Wisconsin
12. Purdue
33. Northwestern
57. Minnesota
65. Ohio State
110. Michigan State
180. Illinois
211. Penn State
216. Michigan
227. Iowa
271. Indiana

To date Wisconsin has played the toughest schedule among Big 10 teams, Penn State has played the easiest. Gophers' SOS is next after Badgers.

Big 10 currently ranked the #6 conference, behind (in order) Big East, ACC, Big 12, SEC and Atlantic 10.

I find it hard to believe that the Big Ten is 6th. Once the conference games start, it does not move much. Hopefully there is still time to improve it.

Then again, even when the conference is first or second in RPI the pundits still say it sucks, so what it the difference.