Who šŸ‘ƒa šŸŒ½ shucking on Sunday besides me?

W or L

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Nebraska is really good at home but we played well against them in the first matchup without Garcia (that was the game he got hurt in early, we fell behind by 15 in the first half and then blew them away in the 2nd half).

They are coming off three comfortable wins over the bottom teams in the conference, hopefully we catch them riding high and hand them their first home loss of the season.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Nebraska is really good at home but we played well against them in the first matchup without Garcia (that was the game he got hurt in early, we fell behind by 15 in the first half and then blew them away in the 2nd half).

They are coming off three comfortable wins over the bottom teams in the conference, hopefully we catch them riding high and hand them their first home loss of the season.
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Take the next step and vote yes, lest I harvest your vote
 







MUgopher32 said:
That wonā€™t be enough
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The reality is that to make the NCAA tournament this team needs to finish strong and most likely win or at the very least advance deep into the Big Ten tournament.

The way they are playing right now it is not crazy to think they might just be able to pull it off. More likely we are looking at an NIT bid this year with the hopes of taking that next step next year when the majority of the roster returns (fingers crossed) and keeps building on this season.
 



Gopherbbdude said:
I don't think its a bubble vs no bubble answer. 5 games.... win 3. I don't care which ones they win
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I feel like that still leaves them in no mans land/limbo state, with too much room for poking at them. Beating IU and Penn State, and then adding one of Illinois, Nebraska or Northwestern isn't going to do it. MAYBE Illinois. Unless they add to it with a huge finish in the conf tourney. I think they have to make it super hard for the Committee to say no, by winning 2 of 3 of NE, IL and Northwestern. They need to stack wins against teams that cause them to jump ~5 spots at a time in kenpom, net, etc.
 



Gopherbbdude said:
I don't think its a bubble vs no bubble answer. 5 games.... win 3. I don't care which ones they win
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If we win Sunday, the question if this poll, were on the bud for in my meaningless estimation. If we donā€™t then were not involved in that dialogue, yet.

Strike while the ironā€™s hot.
 








I believe they have 3 quad win games left to play. Win 2 of those plus a win or two in the Big 10 tourney and they might get an invite to the dance.
Gonzaga has to miss the tourney, so root for St. Marys to dethrone the Zags. And a few other auto qualifiers have to be the favorites.
 



dlnavra said:
Carrington shuts/slows down Tominaga, and make it hard for Mask to do his high/low game, and the Gophers can open some eyes as it would be a really big road win in a tough arena.
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Tominaga has been an absolute stud lately in every facet of the offensive game. Imperative that Carrington sit on his face for forty minutes.
 


They need to go 4-1 to get in the bubble before the tourney. Would need to go at least 1-1 to make it.

If they go 3-2, probably would need to win 3 at the BTT.
 

howeda7 said:
4-1 is required and @Illinois is rough, so Nebraska is kind of a must win for any real bubble discussion. I do think they can win @NW.
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Iā€™ve long said Illinois is a brutal match up for us, which I stand by.

But at same time their D is basically non existent these days. If we can somehow slow their big guards. Never knowā€¦
 

I think 4 total wins from here is in the really murky area where it depends on the mid majorsā€¦ I think 5 wins from here and we are somewhat comfortable on Selection Sunday.
 

Otis said:
They need to go 4-1 to get in the bubble before the tourney. Would need to go at least 1-1 to make it.

If they go 3-2, probably would need to win 3 at the BTT.
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We shouldnā€™t play weakling Wednesday, so each win should be quality.
 

This next game is important, but the most important game on the schedule is Illinois. We HAVE to win that game in order to make the tourney IMO.
 

If MN finishes strong their ā€œrecent formā€ should forgive their weak non-conf schedule to a degree in committeeā€™s eyes. Win either at NEB or ILL, and hopefully NW, take care of home games going into BTN tournament and roll the dice. Clearly MN is in a much better place than the first NEB meeting in the Barn--Garcia healthy, Payne is a beast, Hawkins playing more controlled, and our rotations have been established. Regardless of outcomes, there are really good teams in BTN and if we play well (look at last 7 T-GameScores (94,87,94,88,89,87,86), follow the current trend, I'll accept the outcomes and be very pleased with the program and its direction. NCAA/NIT is all good imo.
 

I may have made a mistake in being critical about the horrible non-conference schedule. It just hurts the odds to get into the tournament. It just pads stats. Both men's and women's basketball teams had horrible non-conference schedules.

Well, it's actually more complicated than that. We now know that from the men's team and also the women's team that reached past the bubble point (to #8) before star player Mara Braun's injury and little depth yet on the young bench, a rebuild.

It turns out the bad non-conference schedule is like not having any games. It doesn't hurt you. But it doesn't help you.

I've been listening and reading comments to reconsider my opinion.

What matters are the Big Ten games later. You have to win those. The non-conference games then are used however you like. You can use them as preseason practice games. If you are contending for a top-8 spot then you want quality wins in there. But for a bubble team, you want to avoid tough game losses and focus on winning the big games you can't avoid, the Big Ten games.

Now there are two sides to this. I was not happy to have lame games on the schedule. I also winced when stats were quoted early in the season. But there's more to it than that.

I still don't fully understand this dynamic. But based on both Gophers basketball teams, that strategy actually may have been smart. It seems that it worked.

My apology, probably, not certain.
 

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