Finish Unbeaten and Win the BTT

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If we go without a loss the rest of the way, our RPI would sit around 12.

An early exit or a couple losses along the way pretty much put us in between 20-30 regardless of who it's against.

So at this point, a 3 seed is really as high as it can get.
 

If they did that, they get a 2 seed. Committee does take into account teams that are peaking. What would that be a 12 game winning streak?
 

Nah, I don't think a 2 seed is possible. 3 seed is the high water mark. Unfortunately, this debate will be one of fantasy, and we will never know who would've been right.
 

I think winning out + running the table in the B1G tournament gets us a 3 seed at best. It's clear the tournament committee doesn't think much of the B1G as they didn't include the consensus best team in the B1G among the top 4 seeds in their early rankings.
 



A nonymous said:
I think winning out + running the table in the B1G tournament gets us a 3 seed at best. It's clear the tournament committee doesn't think much of the B1G as they didn't include the consensus best team in the B1G among the top 4 seeds in their early rankings.
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Or they just weren't impressed by a Wisconsin team that didn't really have any great wins. Not sure they had a single top 25 win at that point.
 

Cayman said:
Or they just weren't impressed by a Wisconsin team that didn't really have any great wins. Not sure they had a single top 25 win at that point.
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Good to dream but the odds of beating Maryland and Wisconsin the last game are very low. It's more likely that Maryland kicks are butt. I hope I'm wrong.
 

A nonymous said:
I think winning out + running the table in the B1G tournament gets us a 3 seed at best. It's clear the tournament committee doesn't think much of the B1G as they didn't include the consensus best team in the B1G among the top 4 seeds in their early rankings.
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At the time the committee snubbed Wisconsin from the Top 16, they were a lot like Gonzaga, lots of wins, but nothing all that impressive.

Purdue is up to a #4 seed right now.

If Minnesota won out, the difference between them and Wisconsin when they got that Top 16 snub is...


Minnesota would have SIX conference road wins, TWO Top 25 ROAD wins, 8 or 9 Top 50 wins and possibly SIXTEEN Top 100 wins, and no bad losses, with a 12-6 conf record, and a 27-7 record.

Add to that they would have a 12 game win streak going on.


Our ROAD win over Maryland combined with a home win, would move us into the AP Top 25. Then another home win combined with a road win vs Wisconsin, would improve our RPI, and these 4 wins would also improve our Ken-Pom and Sagarin Ratings I'd think, and we'd move up into the Top 20 in the AP poll.

Now add probably a Top 50 win to get into the Semi's of the BTT, and most likely back to back Top 25 wins in the Semis and Final of the Big Ten tourney.

Those final 2 games would move our rpi up some more, and our AP poll ranking would probably jump up into the Top 15 and close to the Top 10.

In fact, beating both Wisconsin and Maryland, on the road, and then both of them again in the BTT, or one of them and another win over Purdue, would be FOUR signature wins, in addition to the one we have right now, all in the midst of a 12 game winning streak, would transform the Gophers into a very favorably viewed team. Sports commentators WOULD bring up the close losses to MSU and Wisconsin at home and the big lead they blew on the road vs PSU earlier in the conf season. They WOULD talk about our tougher than average B1G conference schedule. They would talk about how the Gophers struggled earlier in the season but came so close to having 3 more wins on their resume, and how they finally started to figure out how to win, and the Gophers would get the most respect out of any B1G team going into the tourney, and it wouldn't even be close. Because if you gave them those 3 close games. they'd be 15-3 against one of the toughest conf scedules, and Wisconsin would have an additional loss. Meaning Minnesota would be those 3 close games away from being EASILY the best team in the B1G this season.


They'd easily get a #2 seed.



But that is a whole mess of ifs. :)





The reason the leaders in the B1G have so far not been shown a lot of respect is because none of them have proven much so far this season. Which is exactly what Minnesota has and will have to do in order to win out.
 

KillmeNow said:
At the time the committee snubbed Wisconsin from the Top 16, they were a lot like Gonzaga, lots of wins, but nothing all that impressive.

Purdue is up to a #4 seed right now.

If Minnesota won out, the difference between them and Wisconsin when they got that Top 16 snub is...


Minnesota would have SIX conference road wins, TWO Top 25 ROAD wins, 8 or 9 Top 50 wins and possibly SIXTEEN Top 100 wins, and no bad losses, with a 12-6 conf record, and a 27-7 record.

Add to that they would have a 12 game win streak going on.


Our ROAD win over Maryland combined with a home win, would move us into the AP Top 25. Then another home win combined with a road win vs Wisconsin, would improve our RPI, and these 4 wins would also improve our Ken-Pom and Sagarin Ratings I'd think, and we'd move up into the Top 20 in the AP poll.

Now add probably a Top 50 win to get into the Semi's of the BTT, and most likely back to back Top 25 wins in the Semis and Final of the Big Ten tourney.

Those final 2 games would move our rpi up some more, and our AP poll ranking would probably jump up into the Top 15 and close to the Top 10.

In fact, beating both Wisconsin and Maryland, on the road, and then both of them again in the BTT, or one of them and another win over Purdue, would be FOUR signature wins, in addition to the one we have right now, all in the midst of a 12 game winning streak, would transform the Gophers into a very favorably viewed team. Sports commentators WOULD bring up the close losses to MSU and Wisconsin at home and the big lead they blew on the road vs PSU earlier in the conf season. They WOULD talk about our tougher than average B1G conference schedule. They would talk about how the Gophers struggled earlier in the season but came so close to having 3 more wins on their resume, and how they finally started to figure out how to win, and the Gophers would get the most respect out of any B1G team going into the tourney, and it wouldn't even be close. Because if you gave them those 3 close games. they'd be 15-3 against one of the toughest conf scedules, and Wisconsin would have an additional loss. Meaning Minnesota would be those 3 close games away from being EASILY the best team in the B1G this season.


They'd easily get a #2 seed.



But that is a whole mess of ifs. :)





The reason the leaders in the B1G have so far not been shown a lot of respect is because none of them have proven much so far this season. Which is exactly what Minnesota has and will have to do in order to win out.
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I disagree.

Three seed would be the best we could get.
 



KillmeNow said:
At the time the committee snubbed Wisconsin from the Top 16, they were a lot like Gonzaga, lots of wins, but nothing all that impressive.

Purdue is up to a #4 seed right now.

If Minnesota won out, the difference between them and Wisconsin when they got that Top 16 snub is...


Minnesota would have SIX conference road wins, TWO Top 25 ROAD wins, 8 or 9 Top 50 wins and possibly SIXTEEN Top 100 wins, and no bad losses, with a 12-6 conf record, and a 27-7 record.

Add to that they would have a 12 game win streak going on.


Our ROAD win over Maryland combined with a home win, would move us into the AP Top 25. Then another home win combined with a road win vs Wisconsin, would improve our RPI, and these 4 wins would also improve our Ken-Pom and Sagarin Ratings I'd think, and we'd move up into the Top 20 in the AP poll.

Now add probably a Top 50 win to get into the Semi's of the BTT, and most likely back to back Top 25 wins in the Semis and Final of the Big Ten tourney.

Those final 2 games would move our rpi up some more, and our AP poll ranking would probably jump up into the Top 15 and close to the Top 10.

In fact, beating both Wisconsin and Maryland, on the road, and then both of them again in the BTT, or one of them and another win over Purdue, would be FOUR signature wins, in addition to the one we have right now, all in the midst of a 12 game winning streak, would transform the Gophers into a very favorably viewed team. Sports commentators WOULD bring up the close losses to MSU and Wisconsin at home and the big lead they blew on the road vs PSU earlier in the conf season. They WOULD talk about our tougher than average B1G conference schedule. They would talk about how the Gophers struggled earlier in the season but came so close to having 3 more wins on their resume, and how they finally started to figure out how to win, and the Gophers would get the most respect out of any B1G team going into the tourney, and it wouldn't even be close. Because if you gave them those 3 close games. they'd be 15-3 against one of the toughest conf scedules, and Wisconsin would have an additional loss. Meaning Minnesota would be those 3 close games away from being EASILY the best team in the B1G this season.


They'd easily get a #2 seed.



But that is a whole mess of ifs. :)





The reason the leaders in the B1G have so far not been shown a lot of respect is because none of them have proven much so far this season. Which is exactly what Minnesota has and will have to do in order to win out.
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This is a great exercise in thought but probably futile. I would estimate the chances of the gophers running the table the rest of the way through B1G regular season + BTT at about 2.5%. Does anybody really think this team has the look of a 2 seed? That should tell you enough about their chances.
 

Just start rowing who knows where they end up...
A 5-8 seed and we are sitting pretty.
 

Wally said:
Just start rowing who knows where they end up...
A 5-8 seed and we are sitting pretty.
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Where is Aaron Rodgers when the Gophs need him. I think they could run the table, only 1-2 games this year have they been out of it in the closing stretch. The freshman are just now settling into playing at this level. If Springs can get his shooters touch back they could be clicking.
 

Shame on me!

Wally said:
Where is Aaron Rodgers when the Gophs need him. I think they could run the table, only 1-2 games this year have they been out of it in the closing stretch. The freshman are just now settling into playing at this level. If Springs can get his shooters touch back they could be clicking.
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I have day dreams every now and then about the Gophers winning the next four games. I have never really even considered the possibility of them winning the Big Ten Tournament. But if they won the next four games...I think the only team in the conference they would not have beaten is Michigan State. The season is already very impressive. Let's hope we sneak past Maryland and can keep talking about the possibility. It's a unique team...we have 7 guys who in any given game can make you go wow! And to a degree take the game over. Unfortunately, we can go seemingly hours without making a free throw, getting a breakout or even scoring as well. Through all this we either win close or lose close almost every night we play. Pretty fun!
Pretty difficult to know what we might do though...
 



A nonymous said:
This is a great exercise in thought but probably futile. I would estimate the chances of the gophers running the table the rest of the way through B1G regular season + BTT at about 2.5%. Does anybody really think this team has the look of a 2 seed? That should tell you enough about their chances.
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2.5 % eh?


Well, I chat with cbb fans from all over the country everyday, and very few of them felt that Wisconsin has done anything to deserve their high AP ranking. NONE of them felt Wisconsin deserved a Top 4 seed and so none of them were surprised in the least when the NCAA selection committee snubbed Wisconsin on their first Top 16 listing.

Looking at Wisconsin's Resume, they have only a 2-4 record vs Top 50 rpi rated teams. Minnesota has 5 Top 50 wins.

Minnesota can beat Wisconsin. And Minnesota has 4 conf road wins so far this season, so we can win on the road.

We've already beaten Purdue on the road, so if we meet them in the BTT, we can beat them. That leaves only Maryland. They have a 6-3 record vs the Top 50 of the rpi, including a win vs Notre Dame. They have a bad loss, but that was a long time ago. They can be beaten, but not sure whether we match up well against them or not, that's not my area of expertise. So not sure if we are one of the teams that can beat them or not? But we'll find out really soon.

And the thing is, if we can beat them on the road, then why wouldn't we be able to beat them on a neutral court?

I'm not predicting that they will win out. But I don't think their chances of doing so are as low as 2.5%. I'd give it closer to a 10% chance. Then again I'd only give Maryland about a 20% chance and Purdue about a 15% chance of winning out, and I'd give Wisconsin about a 5% chance of doing it.
 

I don't really see us winning several in a row. We won 5 in a row, but we seemed to have lady luck more on our side on these 5 games than the 5 previous.

So many of these close games are coming down to a basket or two. Hard to believe that it's the skill and talent forcing that to happen vs lady luck to the point that we could win 5-8 more.
 

First things first, the gophers have to win 1-2 more games to get in. (This is MN sports, folks. Our teams never make it easy on us.) Secondly, we want a decent seed and, more importantly, we want the team to peak at the right time. Winning out would be peaking too early. This is not a top four seed team. Next year, it will be. A 2-2 or 3-1 finish with 1-2 wins in the BTT and no injuries sets up nicely for the tourney.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

KillmeNow said:
2.5 % eh?


Well, I chat with cbb fans from all over the country everyday, and very few of them felt that Wisconsin has done anything to deserve their high AP ranking. NONE of them felt Wisconsin deserved a Top 4 seed and so none of them were surprised in the least when the NCAA selection committee snubbed Wisconsin on their first Top 16 listing.

Looking at Wisconsin's Resume, they have only a 2-4 record vs Top 50 rpi rated teams. Minnesota has 5 Top 50 wins.

Minnesota can beat Wisconsin. And Minnesota has 4 conf road wins so far this season, so we can win on the road.

We've already beaten Purdue on the road, so if we meet them in the BTT, we can beat them. That leaves only Maryland. They have a 6-3 record vs the Top 50 of the rpi, including a win vs Notre Dame. They have a bad loss, but that was a long time ago. They can be beaten, but not sure whether we match up well against them or not, that's not my area of expertise. So not sure if we are one of the teams that can beat them or not? But we'll find out really soon.

And the thing is, if we can beat them on the road, then why wouldn't we be able to beat them on a neutral court?

I'm not predicting that they will win out. But I don't think their chances of doing so are as low as 2.5%. I'd give it closer to a 10% chance. Then again I'd only give Maryland about a 20% chance and Purdue about a 15% chance of winning out, and I'd give Wisconsin about a 5% chance of doing it.
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The difference with Maryland, Purdue and Wisconsin vs. Minnesota is that those teams don't need to be perfect to win a conference championship. I realize the title of this thread is "go unbeaten and win a BTT" but the other teams don't need to go unbeaten in the regular season to potentially secure a 3 or 4 seed - its likely we do. But I think we could get a 4 seed if we win 3 of next 4 and compete for the BTT. Again, highly unlikely but it is fun to dream about and really, when is the last time that we even had the opportunity to realistically dream about this? 25 years? I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
 

watertown 1987 guy n said:
The difference with Maryland, Purdue and Wisconsin vs. Minnesota is that those teams don't need to be perfect to win a conference championship. I realize the title of this thread is "go unbeaten and win a BTT" but the other teams don't need to go unbeaten in the regular season to potentially secure a 3 or 4 seed - its likely we do. But I think we could get a 4 seed if we win 3 of next 4 and compete for the BTT. Again, highly unlikely but it is fun to dream about and really, when is the last time that we even had the opportunity to realistically dream about this? 25 years? I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
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Just an honest question, I agree that the difference is that those 3 don't need to be perfect to win a conference championship and it seems that Minnesota would have to be, but that is only the Regular Season Conf Title. And my question is, why is that?

In some degree I do understand that its because our Gophers lost close games they could have or should have won, vs MSU and UW at home, and then the road game vs PSU. But I also wonder if its partly because when looking at the conference schedule, we have to play the Top 5 out of 6 teams, not including us of course, EIGHT times, including 5 times on the road. Meanwhile they only get to play the bottom 8 teams 10 times.


But if the Gophers somehow rise to the challenge and win all 4 of their remaining conf regular season games, how on earth could they not be seen as a favorite to win the BTT???

Finishing up on a 9 game win streak with 2 of the last 4 games being road wins vs 2 of the top 3 teams in the conference, with a road win vs the other one of those 3 already in the bag? By then their not winning the Big Ten Regular Season Title won't be held against them, analysts will just assume that it took time for the team to figure things out, like how to win close games, etc..


The Maryland road game coming up will probably be the most difficult game remaining for the Gophers until they get to the NCAA tourney, so it won't take long for us to know whether all of this dreaming and whether all of these questions and scenarios in this thread were just a fun way to pass the time or not.

If they lose the Maryland game, well, no one is going to freak out, in fact most people are probably expecting we'll lose.

BUT... if they somehow pull that one off, that will change everything. That will open up everyone's eyes and for the first time this season, for the first time in a long time, everyone will look at the Gophers are a real contender to do something in the Big Dance.
 

jamiche said:
First things first, the gophers have to win 1-2 more games to get in. (This is MN sports, folks. Our teams never make it easy on us.) Secondly, we want a decent seed and, more importantly, we want the team to peak at the right time. Winning out would be peaking too early. This is not a top four seed team. Next year, it will be. A 2-2 or 3-1 finish with 1-2 wins in the BTT and no injuries sets up nicely for the tourney.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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You and I must be the same age. All this winning out talk has me worried about the possibility of the reverse happening. We talk about beating two of the top three teams in the conference on the road without acknowledging the challenge of the two home games. Penn State and Nebraska are not pushovers and won't go away quietly. There are no assurances and no foregone conclusions. We're not quite playing with house money yet, but a win tomorrow night would make that happen. The Gophers are not good enough to look past anyone or just grab a raw talent victory against any team in the B1G this year.

Winning the tourney is a tall order on any front in needing to win four games in four days (most likely). I don't think we have enough bodies to compete that long, but I have been impressed with their stamina playing with such a short bench.
 

"The Gophers are not good enough to look past anyone or just grab a raw talent victory against any team in the B1G this year." Agree. We have to play near the peak of our abilities to easily close out a game, if not we end up in very close games down the stretch and from there it becomes a "ref's" coin toss. A lot of games like that this year.
 

Holy Man said:
You and I must be the same age. All this winning out talk has me worried about the possibility of the reverse happening. We talk about beating two of the top three teams in the conference on the road without acknowledging the challenge of the two home games. Penn State and Nebraska are not pushovers and won't go away quietly. There are no assurances and no foregone conclusions. We're not quite playing with house money yet, but a win tomorrow night would make that happen. The Gophers are not good enough to look past anyone or just grab a raw talent victory against any team in the B1G this year.

Winning the tourney is a tall order on any front in needing to win four games in four days (most likely). I don't think we have enough bodies to compete that long, but I have been impressed with their stamina playing with such a short bench.
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Hey guys, we're just having fun speculating. And just so you know, my name is not Richard Pitino, and I'm not any of the members of the coaching staff, nor am I one of the players or even one of the players friends or family members.

So my talking about outside possibilities and 2.5 or 5 or 10% chances of running the table, are not going to negatively affect the team and how it plays. My guess is Pitino and the players all take each and every game, one at a time, and have realistic expectations and are not getting full of themselves or anything.


And as a fan, I've already stated my support of Pitino and these players, no matter how they finish out the season. They could lose their next 5 games in a row and I'd be in here talking about how I hope we can win an NIT title, so that the young players on the team can get more games under their belt, and how this year reminds me more of 1996 than 1989 like I thought before. lol

And I'd be arguing with all the bandwagon jumpers who would start calling for Pitino's head.


So yeah, we already lost to PSU this year, so we could again, same argument I made about our playing Purdue in the BTT if we do. And our 0-13 squad beat Maryland last year, so Nebraska could easily bring their A game and beat us, too. And those are the 2 easy games.



Guess my whole point, other than having fun speculating about it, is that none of the teams we are going to meet between now and our last game in the BTT are unstoppable forces. They all have weaknesses and have shown that they can be beaten, more than once. The B1G is weak at the top this year, so its just as likely that Nebraska and PSU can come into Williams Arena and beat the Gophers as it is that we can go into Maryland and Wisconsin and get wins on those team's home courts.

And come BTT time, if we have to play 4 games, that will be tough, as we lack some depth. But maybe we'll only have to play 3, and maybe by the title game our opponent will be a team without a ton of depth as well? We just don't know.
 

Run the table baby, here we come...
 


That's one of four games I expect we won't be favored in...
 

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