Yet, Minnesota still hasn’t cracked the top-75 (not a typo) in either the NET (85) or KenPom (78) rankings. We’ve already discussed why they rank as low as they do and how, in theory, they can climb. But looking at the schedule, it’s nearly time to make theory into reality.

Related: Despite All the Winning, Gophers MBB Struggling in Rankings

The Gophers play their first of a four-game Big Ten stretch on Friday night vs the Indiana Hoosiers. By the time it ends on January 23, we (and the rankings systems) will have a much better idea of how good Ben Johnson’s 2023-24 squad really is.

Make that 7️⃣ wins in a row for @GopherMBB. 😤

Relive the best moments from the Gophers’ 65-62 win over Maryland! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/qZZWWkQKtY

— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) January 10, 2024

Friday, Jan. 12: Gophers @ Indiana Hoosiers (11-5)

The Minnesota Gophers are set to visit Bloomington, Indiana, marking only their third road game of the season. Much like the Gophers, the Hoosiers have had a solid start to their season but remain mostly unproven. They have an 11-5 overall record (3-2 in the Big Ten).

Indiana currently ranks No. 100 in the NET Rankings, 15 spots behind Minnesota. A victory on the road in Bloomington alone wouldn’t significantly impact the Gophers’ standing in the NET, but there are ways for them to help themselves.

First, it’s a true Big Ten road game, which the NET likes. But beyond that, the Gophers can play efficient basketball on both ends of the floor, which is also NET friendly. If they do that, there’s a good possibility they secure victory by 10 points or more, a margin the NET also holds as valuable.

Related: Gophers MBB Grabs Another Early Season Big Ten Win vs Maryland

But most importantly, they’d stack another win, which would give them a 4-1 record and their best start to conference play since 2008-’09, under Tubby Smith.

Monday, Jan. 15: Minnesota vs Iowa Hawkeyes (9-6)

Staying in the spotlight and securing strong NET and KenPom rankings involves winning the games you’re expected to, particularly when playing at home. The Gophers will face a very middling Iowa Hawkeyes squad at The Barn on Monday.

This is a should-win game for the Gophers, if they want to maintain their momentum early in conference play and, especially, if they want to climb the NET rankings Tuesday morning. The 9-6 (1-3) Hawkeyes currently rank 67th in the NET, giving the Gophers yet another opportunity to stack conference wins before the schedule really starts to test Ben’s inexperienced team.

Thursday, Jan. 18: Minnesota vs Michigan State Spartans (9-7)

The Michigan State Spartans may not have had the ideal start they hoped for, but there’s a reason why, at 9-6, they rank in the top-25 of the NET. They’ve had one of the toughest schedules in this year’s college basketball season, a slate that has included losses to Duke (#13 NET), Arizona (#2), Wisconsin (#12) and Illinois (#11). Even James Madison (#59), who beat the Spartans in their season opener, is now 15-1.

Related: Buy the Right Brand of Bacon in January and 100% Goes to Gophers NIL Fund

Michigan State has one victory against top-tier competition, beating Baylor (#14) back on December 16. Under the leadership of Tom Izzo, the Spartans currently hold a 1-3 record in the Big Ten and an overall record of 9-6. A win next week in East Lansing would see Minnesota start to skyrocket up the NET rankings.

Keep winning and March Madness will come calling

If the Gophers can sweep these next three games or at least win two of three, they will set themselves up for a massive border rivalry game on Jan 23 vs the #12 Wisconsin Badgers. Ben Johnson and the Gophers have a huge opportunity at the Barn on Jan 23.

They have some tremendous opportunities coming up and have chance to give themselves some more national attention. Winning conference is the key to boosting there ranking and March Madness resume.

Unless PJ Fleck was willing to change his best offensively, the Gophers’ Big Ten West hopes were as good as dead. So fans were begging to see something change on Saturday afternoon in Bloomington, Indiana against the Hoosiers.

Well, it took a quarter and a half but, finally late in the 2nd quarter, PJ put the ball in Morgan’s right hand and gave him the opportunity to win or lose the game. And guess what happened? Tanner Morgan played some of the best football we’ve seen from him since 2019.

Full game #Gophers thoughts:

– That was Tanner Morgan's best game of the season
– That was one of the most boring second halves of football that I have ever watched
– Indiana had 92 yards on its first drive of the game, it finished with 154 — Minnesota's defense is VERY good

— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) November 20, 2021

Gophers take control

With the game tied 7-7 late in the 2nd quarter, Minnesota’s defense forced an Indiana punt that left 3:50 for the Gopher offense to work before halftime. When Morgan ran out onto the field for that drive, he was 4/9 for 37 yards so far on the day. By the time it ended, the score was 14-7 and Tanner was up to 6/11 for 93 yards.

Then, instead of playing it safe and milking out the rest of first half clock, Indiana went to the air and threw an interception that left 23 seconds for the Gophers, who would start the drive at Indiana’s 31-yard-line. Last week’s PJ Fleck would have run the football a couple times and gladly accepted the free field goal handed to him by the Hoosiers.

But not today. In contrast to what we’ve come to expect from the Minnesota Gophers head coach, Fleck put the ball in Morgan’s right hand (again) and trusted his QB and wide receivers to make plays. And make plays they did. Tanner went 3/3 on the drive and it ended with yet another ridiculous Chris Autman-Bell jump ball TD.

????@chrisautmanbell just brought this thing in for the @GopherFootball TD. ???? pic.twitter.com/6xRdLBe1bd

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 20, 2021

Early aggressiveness pays dividends

Just like that, the Gophers were up 21-7 entering halftime and Morgan was 9/14 for 124 yards and 1 TD. Oh, and the game was over. The (2-9) Indiana Hoosiers don’t have the offensive fire power to comeback from a two-touchdown lead against a defense like Minnesota’s.

After a few more nice throws by Morgan found Dylan Wright, Brevyn Spann-Ford and Chris Autman-Bell (for another TD) in the 3rd quarter, Fleck was able to run, run and run some more late in the second half, just the way he likes to close games. But the Gophers were in that position (up 28-7) because PJ allowed Tanner Morgan to win him the game in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Being aggressive early paid dividends later.

The catch was great, but we want to focus on the absolute dime from Tanner Morgan. ????@T_morg2 // @GopherFootball pic.twitter.com/mEKzRhFMMT

— Minnesota on BTN (@MinnesotaOnBTN) November 20, 2021

Fun fact: They aren't 50-50 balls when thrown to CAB. ????@chrisautmanbell // @GopherFootball pic.twitter.com/FHahzY6oVO

— Minnesota on BTN (@MinnesotaOnBTN) November 20, 2021

When the final dust settled in Bloomington, the Gophers climbed onto the bus with their Big Ten West dreams still alive and celebrating a 35-14 thumping of the Hoosiers. While his final passing stats (14/20, 194 YDS, 2 TD) won’t show it, the maroon and gold won this game thanks to Tanner Morgan.

Same formula vs Wisconsin

We’ve never begged for this Minnesota Gophers squad to throw the ball 40-50 times per game. We just want Fleck to trust Morgan when needed. Today, that’s what happened and it paid off.

The formula needs to be the same if the (7-3) Gophers are going to beat Wisconsin next week, to close out the regular season at Huntington Bank Stadium. If they can upset the Badgers and Iowa trips up vs Nebraska, Minnesota will represent the West in the Big Ten Championship game.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

Last night was an embarrassment for Richard Pitino and the Minnesota Gopher basketball team. Needing at least 5 of their last 6 to finish the regular season with dance shoes on, Indiana at The Barn was on the easier side of that upcoming stretch; which still has #9 Maryland at home, Wisconsin at the Kohl Center, and the Hoosiers back at their place on the docket.

But winning wasn’t part of last night’s Gopher game plan. The shooting was terrible (surprise, surprise) and the effort and defense faded to close out the 2nd half. The Gophers looked like a defeated team; not just in last night’s must-win game, but for the season.

There’s a lot wrong with this basketball team right now and it’s clear they have lost all confidence in their shooting, which eventually impacts the psyche that surrounds the rest of the game.

They also lack depth everywhere, especially in the post and at PG. Marcus Carr and Daniel Oturu might as well have invisible shock collars that deliver 1000 volts if they breach the painted boundary where it’s rumored breaks and water exist…

That leads to (a lot) more minutes for somebody who should never be allowed to touch, let alone dribble or shoot a basketball, during 40 minutes of a live major-college basketball contest… Alihan Demir.

If you aren’t sure where Alihan Demir came from, it’s Drexel University, where he played for his second two years of college eligibility. He played his Freshman season at somewhere called Central Wyoming College, where he supposedly dominated.

While at Drexel, his numbers were good too, averaging nearly 15 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Watching his film from then, he can shoot, rebound, and looks like an incredible passer too… He is clearly one of the better players on the floor… which leads to a conclusion we already knew was obvious…

It’s more crystal clear than ever, and take notes NDSU football fans, how massive the gap is between high-major college sports, and what is played at lower D-1 levels.

Sure, you can show up with your best game of the season, when given ONE opportunity, like smaller basketball teams who make it into March Madness OR NDSU football going in for their Daytona 500 to start the season vs a sleepy Iowa Hawkeyes team…

…but if you mix low-tier D-1 talent amongst the best in the world of that age group, the cream always rises to the top and the sticky residue that nobody wants falls to the bottom.

And that’s exactly what has happened for much of the season, while Alihan Demir has been on the floor. It’s easy to see when you watch…. He isn’t as fast, tall, or athletic as everyone else and he doesn’t overshadow those deficiencies with additional skill or basketball smarts.

He’s dropped from splits of | 15 / 6.4 / 2.5 | at Drexel, down to | 7.2 / 4.8 / 1.5 | in his only season here in Minnesota. I guess that will happen when you go from a “strength of schedule rating” (according to sports-reference.cbb.com) of -2.5 at Drexel to 11.85 (toughest in the country) here.

When someone sticks out this badly with his poor play, you don’t even need the numbers. Check my TL from last night, because it was obvious. He had turnovers, was missing assignments and (like always — and like everyone else) missing shots.

Can we cut Alihan Demir?

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) February 20, 2020

Richard Pitino should be fired just for playing Alihan Demir this entire game.

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) February 20, 2020

His missed shots are so much uglier that others, though. I’ve seen more of his 3-pointers go in via the bank, than shots that hit nylon, or even rim, first. Alihan Demir just isn’t very good. It’s not even his fault. I’m sure he works very hard…. facts are just facts.

The blame for this blog about how bad Alihan Demir is, belongs on the shoulders of Richard Pitino. Last night, he just continued to take Jarvis Omersa and Isaiah Ihnen off the floor, to be replaced with Demir.

Omersa brings energy, toughness and effort that is unmatched by anyone on the floor, including Alihan. He can’t shoot worth a shit and he’s not a very good dribbler… but neither is Demir, and Jarvis isn’t awkward and unathletic, to boot.

Ihnen might not play the PF naturally, but the basketball world is changing. The kid is 6-9, with a 7-4 wingspan and will knock down outside shots when left open. He needs help with offensive aggressiveness and I’m sure he’s raw on defense but what Freshman coming over from Germany wouldn’t struggle with those things?

Again, Ihnen isn’t the perfect option… but he’s better than Alihan Demir.

I’m sure Richard Pitino promised certain things to the Grad-Transfer when he was combing the market last offseason, and Pitino seems like a man of his word… but we had certain expectations for Alihan when he was brought in to start next to Dan Oturu, too.

Richard gives him 26 minutes per game, easily living up to whatever playing time promises he made… and in return has been provided with absolute garbage for that time.

Put him on the bench, see what you have in the youngsters, and let’s move on from this Drexel experiment.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan