Here's How They Sneak in to the NCAA Tournament...

bfast

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At Iowa (must win)

At Michigan

Nebraska (must win)

@Indiana (must win)

Michigan State

@Wisconsin (must win)

Iowa (must win)

@Purdue

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- The key is stealing a minimum one of the three above "non-must" games to get to 9-9 conference and 20 wins on the year. @Michigan, Michigan State being the only realistic steals (@Purdue game sure "L").

- Losing just one of the above "must win" games means you have to beat BOTH @Michigan and MSU to get to 9-9, 20 wins.

Bottom line:

- Steal both the @Michigan/MSU games & win the "must-wins" while only losing to Purdue? 21 wins, 10-8 in conference and a sure lock for the tournament.

- 20 wins, 9-9 in conference means that you will have to win a first-round game for sure (21 wins), and possibly a quarterfinal game after that (22 wins).

- Winning the B1G tournament is the only way to get in should the team finish with less than 20 wins, of course.

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Basketball can be weird and streaky. Stranger things have happened. As I said above, the only sure "L" on this slate is @Purdue. Gonna hold out hope until it's gone.
 

At 10-8 with a wins over Michigan and Michigan State, I am not sure the Gophers even end up in the "first 4 out for Lunardi, Palm, etc". The team will have two quality wins in conference play (Michigan and Michigan State) and two more from the non-conference slate (Providence and Alabama are both tournament teams as of now). Minnesota is all the way down at 84 in Ken Pom's rankings right now and have suffered two losses to his number 82 team in Northwestern and a loss to his number 88 team in Indiana. We are going to have some bad losses on the record and not enough quality wins.

I'd love to see things turnaround though. The performance on the court has been flat out unacceptable in 5 of the 7 games since the Lynch suspension. This team should have a minimum of two more wins post Lynch and should have had a minimum of 1 more win pre Lynch. Getting to 10-8 would be a real encouraging sign for this program regardless of whether they ended up in the NIT or NCAA's.
 


“I just hope we can win a game”

-Jim Mora
 

Create an elaborate plan to sneak in through the maintenance door at an NCAA first round site without being detected.
 


At 10-8 with a wins over Michigan and Michigan State, I am not sure the Gophers even end up in the "first 4 out for Lunardi, Palm, etc". The team will have two quality wins in conference play (Michigan and Michigan State) and two more from the non-conference slate (Providence and Alabama are both tournament teams as of now). Minnesota is all the way down at 84 in Ken Pom's rankings right now and have suffered two losses to his number 82 team in Northwestern and a loss to his number 88 team in Indiana. We are going to have some bad losses on the record and not enough quality wins.

I'd love to see things turnaround though. The performance on the court has been flat out unacceptable in 5 of the 7 games since the Lynch suspension. This team should have a minimum of two more wins post Lynch and should have had a minimum of 1 more win pre Lynch. Getting to 10-8 would be a real encouraging sign for this program regardless of whether they ended up in the NIT or NCAA's.

I think the implication EG#9 is that if we win 6 of our last 8 regular season games, our Ken Pom ranking will improve, in part because winning usually helps it, and we'd have to play much better than we have been to win 6 of our next 8 games. Oh, and then he also acknowledged that if we ONLY win 6 of our last 8, then we have to win 1 or 2 in the conf tourney. Again, more wins which would require better play, should all help that Ken Pom ranking.

And you don't mention the RPI? Is it official now that the RPI doesn't matter? Because at least one sports site still lists it, so I'd assume that it still mattered? But I hope I'm wrong, because I hate the RPI.
 

Create an elaborate plan to sneak in through the maintenance door at an NCAA first round site without being detected.

I honestly suspected your response was what this thread was going to be about, lol. Didn't think anyone out there still had hope, it's great to see that someone does, I love it. I'm normally the last guy to lose hope, but I guess not this year.
 

Win the conference tourney. Winning 8 of 9 could still the Gophers short of tourney profile as the conference is the worst in 50 years that i have watched.
 

Lol. Stop. We'll be lucky to win more than one more game.
 



There will be no NCAA tournament play for this horsecrap team. Not. A. Chance.
 

****UPDATED after 1/30 loss @Iowa****

Win every game except @Purdue from here on + 2 games in the B1G tourney.

9-9 in B1G + 2 tourney wins = 22 wins. 4 quality wins would then be: Providence, Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State (maybe a 5th picked up in B1G quarters). This 22 win resume (.500 or better in conference) is an "in" on selection Sunday.

Now, what if they still win 6 out of last 7 (4 quality wins I mentioned above) and only win ONE in the B1G tournament? 21 wins total. Probably a very close bubble burst at that point. Get your "big fat stacks of booster provided cash" out for the NIT.

B1G tournament win is definitely more likely than either of these scenarios, yes.
 

****UPDATED after 1/30 loss @Iowa****

Win every game except @Purdue from here on + 2 games in the B1G tourney.

9-9 in B1G + 2 tourney wins = 22 wins. 4 quality wins would then be: Providence, Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State (maybe a 5th picked up in B1G quarters). This 22 win resume (.500 or better in conference) is an "in" on selection Sunday.

Now, what if they still win 6 out of last 7 (4 quality wins I mentioned above) and only win ONE in the B1G tournament? 21 wins total. Probably a very close bubble burst at that point. Get your "big fat stacks of booster provided cash" out for the NIT.

B1G tournament win is definitely more likely than either of these scenarios, yes.

You’re obviously a true dyed in the wool fan. God bless you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 




****UPDATED after 1/30 loss @Iowa****

Win every game except @Purdue from here on + 2 games in the B1G tourney.

9-9 in B1G + 2 tourney wins = 22 wins. 4 quality wins would then be: Providence, Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State (maybe a 5th picked up in B1G quarters). This 22 win resume (.500 or better in conference) is an "in" on selection Sunday.

Now, what if they still win 6 out of last 7 (4 quality wins I mentioned above) and only win ONE in the B1G tournament? 21 wins total. Probably a very close bubble burst at that point. Get your "big fat stacks of booster provided cash" out for the NIT.

B1G tournament win is definitely more likely than either of these scenarios, yes.

Just wondering...is this girl a relative of yours?

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

There will be no winning out the rest of the conference schedule. Even Puff the Magic Dragon agrees with that. It is more than likely that we lose out the season, again.

We will be 3-15 (14-19) going in to the B1G Tournament and will finish 3-16 (14-20).

Pitino has lost control of his seniors and will not take control of this team. Enjoy the ride down the hill. There are no cushy landing spots at the bottom.

How this team was ever ranked 15th in the country during this season is mystifying.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Only way is to win big ten tourney. With this roster were not winning many gamers let alone any more games!
 

There will be no winning out the rest of the conference schedule. Even Puff the Magic Dragon agrees with that. It is more than likely that we lose out the season, again.

We will be 3-15 (14-19) going in to the B1G Tournament and will finish 3-16 (14-20).

Pitino has lost control of his seniors and will not take control of this team. Enjoy the ride down the hill. There are no cushy landing spots at the bottom.

How this team was ever ranked 15th in the country during this season is mystifying.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Come on this team was ranked because we beat 2 teams that are going to tournament. This team if healthy would have beat Indiana at home by plenty to be 14-3. Well on our way to making tourney. I know that seems like a year ago but unfortunate circumstances.
 

Come on this team was ranked because we beat 2 teams that are going to tournament. This team if healthy would have beat Indiana at home by plenty to be 14-3. Well on our way to making tourney. I know that seems like a year ago but unfortunate circumstances.

Do you really know if pitino has lost control of his seniors or you just saying because were not winning anymore? The only senior he could possibly lose is mason. Do you think he's lost konate who can't catch a cold? Would it even matter if he lost konate? Mason has been erratic but I think he's just frustrated and trying to do too much. Mason scored like 24 against northwestern so not sure how much pitino has lost his seniors. Mason in different role now which I'm sure he feels like he has to score 40 every night. Not sure if pitino has lost him. I doubt it.
 

There will be no winning out the rest of the conference schedule. Even Puff the Magic Dragon agrees with that. It is more than likely that we lose out the season, again.

We will be 3-15 (14-19) going in to the B1G Tournament and will finish 3-16 (14-20).

Pitino has lost control of his seniors and will not take control of this team. Enjoy the ride down the hill. There are no cushy landing spots at the bottom.

How this team was ever ranked 15th in the country during this season is mystifying.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Unbelievable. Even you weren't talking down the team when they were ranked 15th.

AT THAT TIME, with everyone but Curry on the team and healthy, they looked like a Top 20 team.

If they weren't playing the best Defense ever, they were scoring a lot of points. I remember checking their stats around that time and UMn was at or near the Top in the B1G in several categories, including a defensive category or two. May not have been "defensive efficiency", but.... I may have to try and look it up. Otherwise people like you will go around trying to rewrite history to manipulate it to fit your agenda.
 

Do you really know if pitino has lost control of his seniors or you just saying because were not winning anymore? The only senior he could possibly lose is mason. Do you think he's lost konate who can't catch a cold? Would it even matter if he lost konate? Mason has been erratic but I think he's just frustrated and trying to do too much. Mason scored like 24 against northwestern so not sure how much pitino has lost his seniors. Mason in different role now which I'm sure he feels like he has to score 40 every night. Not sure if pitino has lost him. I doubt it.
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Amen! Exactly. And isn't Mason playing injured, maybe not a big injury, but not at 100%?
 

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Amen! Exactly. And isn't Mason playing injured, maybe not a big injury, but not at 100%?

At 20+ games into the season (plus all the practices going back to October) I'd be willing to bet that most players in the country are at least a little dinged up. Roll an ankle in practice, awkward landing on an elbow, take a hard screen in the hip, old knee injury starts to flair up, etc. It's D1 basketball. It's a physical game. A 5 month season is a grind.
 

Every team is banged up this time a year but i have no problem seeing the Gophers have had it worse. Klime, look up defensive efficiency over 5 years. One really good year , last year. The only numbers that really matter are the OE and the DE. Look over 15 years and the team that do well are the only team that do these things well. If your in the top 10 in defense your a title contender . It only matters what you average each possession on offense and what you give up. The number of possessions mean very little.
 

Come on this team was ranked because we beat 2 teams that are going to tournament. This team if healthy would have beat Indiana at home by plenty to be 14-3. Well on our way to making tourney. I know that seems like a year ago but unfortunate circumstances.

Even with Coffey and Lynch, I think we'd be 6-5 in the B1G, still squarely on the bubble. We'd have won the Indiana game, and probably 2 out of @Maryland, Northwestern and @Iowa. We'd still have lost at NW and to Purdue and OSU.
 

Even with Coffey and Lynch, I think we'd be 6-5 in the B1G, still squarely on the bubble. We'd have won the Indiana game, and probably 2 out of @Maryland, Northwestern and @Iowa. We'd still have lost at NW and to Purdue and OSU.

You very well may be right.
 

At 20+ games into the season (plus all the practices going back to October) I'd be willing to bet that most players in the country are at least a little dinged up. Roll an ankle in practice, awkward landing on an elbow, take a hard screen in the hip, old knee injury starts to flair up, etc. It's D1 basketball. It's a physical game. A 5 month season is a grind.

Yeah sure bizzle22, maybe most players are a little dinged up, but ALL 6 of the Gopher's Top 6 are either TOTALLY OUT, not even practicing but playing in games, or a little dinged up.

Curry? OUT ALL YEAR
Lynch? OUT REST OF YEAR
Coffey? OUT for over half a dozen games, including the last game. How many has he played since Lynch went out? And was he even being allowed to practice in between games??? Did he come back for 1 game and aggravate his shoulder again? What percentage was he playing at even? So he could almost be considered as OUT as well, since basically the same time as Lynch went out.
McBreyer? Has been out for several of our losses, and lately hasn't even been practicing and is wearing a foot boot inbetween games??? Come on.
The injury Mason is playing with only needed surgery in the offseason, so yeah, comparable to an awkward landing on an elbow or a rolled ankle?? Maybe a little more of a ding that those kinds of things.
Murphy is the only guy out of the Top 6 that might fit your description of being your average "a little dinged up".

Add to all of this, that they just finished up a 5 games in 11 days stretch, 3 of which were on their east coast road trip. They won the one game, and 3 of the other 4 they had a lead at half time, even a double digit lead in the one game, but with such a short bench and playing so many games in so few days, they simple got gassed and lost all 3 of those leads and games to teams with more players and far more healthy players.


An Iowa fan at another board, without any prompting referred to having beaten "The Crippled Rodents".


Fans of other teams don't start identifying your teams as "Crippled", unless the # of injuries and the extent of those injuries are well known and unique to that team.



I can't say I ever remember another team, at least not another Gopher team, that ever had to deal with so many players not being able to play, for such extended periods of the season, and now all at the same time.
 

We're right on the edge of the Wednesday abyss. We've got to get above that line. I think this team will finish strong as Coffey and McBrayer get healthier. From there, you just hope you avoid Purdue until the final. Gaston, Fitzgerland and Konate roll out a new hack-a-haas strategy and we win vs. a less motivated Purdue.
 




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