Big Ten Tournament Bracket Released and Path for Gophers Could be Worse…

The Big Ten Tournament bracket was just released and the Gophers (12-seed) will kick off festivities on Wednesday night, 5 PM CT, vs Northwestern. All games in this tournament will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.

Just like they did today vs Nebraska, Minnesota has dominated lesser competition all season. They’re problem… they haven’t played much “lesser competition” this season.

That’s why they are two games below .500 and still have a KenPom Ranking of 29. Indiana is 19-12, on the bubble to dance, and ranked 40 in KenPom. So, I expect the Gophers to dominate Northwestern just like they did earlier this season.

Then, our tournament hopes (both NCAA and NIT) could fall on a win vs Iowa on Thursday. That’s right, even with their high KenPom and NET ranking, the Gophers are in danger of missing the NIT Tournament.

Who knows what could happen if the Gophers were to upset Iowa. They are in the middle of the bracket so the best teams wouldn’t match up until Saturday… Illinois would be our quarterfinal game if we make it that far.

Hell, if we shoot like we did today vs Nebraska, we’ll win the whole damn tournament and dance when it’s over… but that won’t happen. A couple wins so we can watch Dan Oturu and Marcus Carr mop up the NIT would be nice, though.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan