Field of 68 Projection (through Jan. 27)

An * denotes the conference leader in a multiple-bid conference or -- in the event of a tie -- the team with the best NET ranking. NET rankings (in parentheses) are through Jan. 27.

FIELD OF 68
America East (1): Vermont (76)

American (3): *Houston (7), Cincinnati (23), UCF (40)

ACC (8): *Virginia (1), Duke (3), North Carolina (9), Virginia Tech (10), Louisville (12), NC State (29), Florida State (33), Syracuse (48)

Atlantic Sun (1): Lipscomb (39)

Atlantic 10 (2): VCU (57), *George Mason (129)

Big East (4): Marquette (19), *Villanova (21), Saint John's (49), Seton Hall (64)

Big Sky (1): Northern Colorado (173)

Big South (1): Radford (110)

Big Ten (10): Michigan (4), *Michigan State (6), Purdue (11), Wisconsin (13), Maryland (22), Nebraska (25), Iowa (30), Ohio State (37), Indiana (41), Minnesota (51)

Big XII (8): Iowa State (14), *Kansas (16), Texas Tech (18), Oklahoma (24), TCU (28), Kansas State (34), Baylor (42), Texas (43)

Big West (1): UC-Irvine (127)

Colonial (1): Hofstra (45)

Conference USA (1): North Texas (99)

Horizon (1): Northern Kentucky (93)

Ivy (1): Yale (65)

MAAC (1): Rider (163)

MAC (1): Buffalo (20)

MEAC (1): Norfolk State (250)

Missouri Valley (1): Loyola-Chicago (122)

Mountain West (1): Nevada (17)

NEC (1): Robert Morris (231)

OVC (1): Murray State (53)

Pac 12 (2): *Washington (32), Arizona State (61)

Patriot (1): Lehigh (143)

SEC (7): *Tennessee (5), Kentucky (8), LSU (15), Auburn (26), Mississippi State (27), Ole Miss (35), Alabama (44)

Southern (1): Wofford (31)

Southland (1): Sam Houston State (185)

SWAC (1): Prairie View A&M (237)

Summit (1): South Dakota State (101)

Sun Belt (1): Texas State (95)

WCC (1): Gonzaga (2)

WAC (1): Grand Canyon (85)
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Last 4 In: Nebraska (25), Saint John's (49), VCU (57), Seton Hall (64)

First 4 Out: Utah State (38), Butler (50), Creighton (58), Temple (60)

Movin' On In: George Mason, Lehigh, Lipscomb, North Texas, Northern Colorado, Saint John's, Texas State, UC-Irvine, Yale

Movin' On Out: Bucknell, Butler, Georgia State, Liberty, Marshall, Princeton, Saint Louis, UCSB, Weber State

Non-Power 6 At-Larges (3): Cincinnati (23), UCF (40), VCU (57)

Gophers vs. the Field of 68: 4-3 (beat Washington, lost to Ohio State, beat Nebraska, beat Wisconsin, lost to Maryland, lost to Michigan, beat Iowa)
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If you're so inclined, follow me on Twitter @Fieldof68Freak

It's pretty crazy looking at the three dominant West Coast conferences (Pac 12, MWC and WCC) may have a combined 4 teams in the NCAA and the P12 could only end up having 1.

That's a lot of states, a lot of teams and a lot of mediocre basketball.

Go Gophers!!

BleedGopher said:

It's pretty crazy looking at the three dominant West Coast conferences (Pac 12, MWC and WCC) may have a combined 4 teams in the NCAA and the P12 could only end up having 1.

That's a lot of states, a lot of teams and a lot of mediocre basketball.

Go Gophers!!

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San Francisco and Utah State are both NCAA-caliber squads IMO, but neither one of them has a signature win or a decent amount of quality wins. San Francisco probably needs to beat Gonzaga along the way (already lost at home to Zags), and Utah State probably needs to beat Nevada on March 2 to have a legit shot.

Pac 12's absolute best scenario is Washington (that's good for the Gophers) and Arizona State win a lot of games, then someone else wins the Pac 12 Tournament.

I know this is based on "tournament today" with no anticipated results, but really tough to see Nebraska in after the devastating week they had in losing games and Copeland for the year. Indiana could make a run, I suppose, but not looking good for them, either. Is there a possibility any other B1G teams could jump them? Could Northwestern vault into the tournament on their outstanding close losses to Michigan? The "nine teams in" mantra may fall on deaf ears to the committee if these sinking teams don't right the ship quickly (and hopefully not at our expense).

Holy Man, here's how I'm seeing it as of today.

Most likely scenario is Big Ten gets 8, perhaps 9 bids.

In the end I think 1 or 2 of Indiana, Gophers, Nebraska, and/or Ohio State make it. I like our odds if we complete sweeps of Nebraska and Wisconsin, and don't slip up at home vs. Hoosiers.

Gophers NET ranking improves to #51 after win over Iowa

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings

Jerry Palm has Gophers as #8 seed vs. Saint John's in Jacksonville

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/

Palm and I currently differ on 1 team. He has Temple in the field, in their place I have Texas.

Not sure if shared, but this website is helpful to find a bracket you might like.

http://www.bracketmatrix.com/

We differ on three.

I have Temple, Creighton, and Belmont in.
Seton Hall, Indiana, and NC State out.

We aren't too far off from each other though. Those latter three are all in my first four out. Creighton and Belmont among my last 4 in.

Why does Seton Hall get in? I'm not going to pretend like I know any better, but just was wondering what the logic is behind that?

Lakers612 said:

Why does Seton Hall get in? I'm not going to pretend like I know any better, but just was wondering what the logic is behind that?

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I'll let SS speak for himself, but I could see the reasons being:

- strong schedule (#21 in SOS)
- 6 Q1/Q2 wins (which ranks them #26 in that stat)

I have them as my first team out.

bizzle22 said:

I'll let SS speak for himself, but I could see the reasons being:

- strong schedule (#21 in SOS)
- 6 Q1/Q2 wins (which ranks them #26 in that stat)

I have them as my first team out.

Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining. That makes sense. Is there a website that cleanly lays out every team's Quad wins and losses?

Edit: Found one https://herosports.com/ncaa-tournament/college-basketball-net-rankings-ahah

The one team that jumped out to me was Texas. They have 4 Quad 1 wins like us, but are 4-5 overall in Quad 1 games and 1-3 overall in Quad 2 games (the Gophers are 4-3 in Quad 1 games and 1-2 in Quad 2 games). Despite the similarities (Gophers have two less losses in Quad 1 games and one less loss in Quad 2 games), Texas is ranked 8 higher than the Gophers (43 vs. 51).

bizzle22 said:

I'll let SS speak for himself, but I could see the reasons being:

- strong schedule (#21 in SOS)
- 6 Q1/Q2 wins (which ranks them #26 in that stat)

I have them as my first team out.

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If you saw them against Villanova yesterday, they made the Gophers look like world beaters against Illinois. The Pirates were terrible and completely unmotivated in a huge game for them. They have a good resume but can't keep it up if they cave like they did yesterday. As of now, I would be surprised to see them in the field.

SelectionSunday said:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/

Palm and I currently differ on 1 team. He has Temple in the field, in their place I have Texas.

Click to expand...

Reasonable. Doesnt seem like it should be asking too much for the order of big ten teams in brackets to somewhat match their order in the conference standings.

I have absolutely no idea what the computers see in Nebraska 13-7 (3-6) at #18 Kenpom and #25 NET.

No wins vs. ranked teams. Best win is Seton Hall or Creighton. Lost to Gophers. RPI 66.

fmlizard said:

I have absolutely no idea what the computers see in Nebraska 13-7 (3-6) at #18 Kenpom and #25 NET.

No wins vs. ranked teams. Best win is Seton Hall or Creighton. Lost to Gophers. RPI 66.

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Yea Nebraska being that high is just nuts to me and Gophers ranking behind such teams as Nebraska and Washington just doesn't make any sense to me after the Gophers win vs Iowa yesterday. All rankings systems have problems but the NET irks me way more than any other metric just doesn't come close to measuring up to the "eye test" of teams I have watched this year. I will also say I was at the game on Sunday and the Gophers I thought were by far the better team in that game and could have run away with it if not for missing 5 free throws in a row during a key part of that game.