Getty Amir Coffey #5 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers dribbles the ball around Ryan Cline #14 of the Purdue Boilermakers.
As the calendars turn to March, the NCAA Tournament chatter is intensifying. In particular, which teams are looking to climb a few seed lines before Selection Sunday? One team in that discussion is Richard Pitino’s Minnesota Gophers, led by the outside-inside combo of Amir Coffey and Jordan Murphy
The Gophers enter a matchup at No. 24 Maryland Friday night (7 p.m. EST, FS1) with a 19-11 record, coming off a 4-point upset over No. 11 Purdue on Tuesday. In the best conference in college basketball (according to Ken Pomeroy), the Gophers need a win to reach .500 in conference play before the start of next week’s Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
They likely clinched a tournament berth with the triumph over the Boilermakers. Now, the objective is adding enough quality wins down the stretch to raise their seeding as high as possible.
Let’s take a look at the latest on the bracketology outlook for Minnesota, along with its resume and a few key wins and losses that stand out.
Minnesota NCAA Tournament Resume
The win over Purdue is the cherry on top of a decent resume. The Boilermakers rank No. 12 in the most recent NET rankings, meaning its the second top-15 triumph by the Gophers. The other is a Jan. 3 upset over Wisconsin at Kohl Center. Overall, they are 10-9 against the NET Top-100.
In the non-conference, the best gem is a 2-point victory over Pac-12 regular-season champion Washington in Vancouver back in November. The only bad losses are to 14-15 Boston College and 11-19 Illinois. The Illini were able to top Michigan State, so in retrospect, it’s acceptable.
Minnesota is 3-6 against the top-half of the Big Ten. Aside from the Purdue and Wisconsin wins, the Gophers outgunned Iowa 92-87 back on Jan. 27.
Minnesota Bracketology Breakdown
ESPN’s John Gasaway pegs Minnesota as one of his teams that has “work to do”
The temptation is to say a bid is now secure (the Boilermakers entered the game in Minneapolis at No. 11 in the NET rankings), but, at a minimum, Richard Pitino’s team will want to keep pushing. The game at Maryland will be no easy task, obviously, and a loss there leaves the Gophers at 19-12 and 9-11 in the Big Ten. The wins at home against Purdue and on the road at Wisconsin are beautiful, and Minnesota’s in much better shape than a week ago. That said, the bubble can shrink at any time and there’s still basketball to be played.
Gasaway’s ESPN partner Joe Lunardi bestows them with a No. 10 seed in the Midwest Regional in his latest Bracketology. This would send Minnesota to the Jacksonville pod for an opening round matchup with Cincinnati. In this scenario, the next opponent would be No. 2 seed North Carolina (given they get past Colgate).
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports also has the Gophers in the same spot, just with a different opponent. If they they topple projected No. 7 seed VCU, a matchup with the winner of North Carolina and Colgate still awaits.
Bracket Matrix aggregates 90 prognostications from across the internet. Minnesota averages out to a 10.32, which puts them as an 10-seed, with a smattering of brackets calling for a 11 seeds.
Realistically, the Gophers will be in the NCAA Tournament barring an early exit in the Big Ten Tournament. Even then, a First Four appearance looks like the floor. It’s hard to imagine they climb past the 8/9 seed line, meaning the best-case scenario pits them across a No. 1 seed.