Sunday’s 5:30 p.m. CT tipoff between the Gophers and Cornhuskers in Nebraska is a monumental opportunity for Minnesota as they try to make their case to become an NCAA Tournament team.
As our partners at All Gophers have been saying for weeks, Minnesota’s cupcake non-conference schedule and lack of Quad 1 wins has made it difficult to simply be on the tournament bubble. But that could change, starting with a Quad 1 opportunity Sunday in Lincoln.
What would a win for the Gophers over Nebraska mean?
Entering play Sunday, the top four in the Big Ten are Purdue (24-3, 13-3 Big Ten), Illinois (20-7, 11-5), Wisconsin (18-9, 10-6) and Northwestern (19-8, 10-6). Nebraska (19-8, 9-7) and Michigan State (17-10, 9-7) are next in line, followed by Minnesota (17-9, 8-7).
A victory in Lincoln would push the Gophers to 9-7 in conference play, good for fifth or sixth place depending on Michigan State’s outcome earlier Sunday afternoon against Ohio State. What’s more is that they’d sit just one game out of third place in the Big Ten.
And no matter what the data points like NET, KenPom, KPI and BPI say about Minnesota, the NCAA selection committee might have a hard time ignoring a Power 5 team with 10 or 11 wins in conference play. Beating Nebraska gets them one step closer to that possible scenario.
Not only would it be a Quad 1 win, it would be a road win against one of the most dominant home teams in the country. Victims inside Pinnacle Bank Arena this season include Purdue, Michigan State, Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Penn State.
The only team to win in Lincoln is Creighton, the national power that made the 60-mile drive and smoked the Cornhuskers by 29 points on Dec. 3.
Related: Minnesota may have at least 20 teams to jump to get on bubble
A loss would keep Minnesota in seventh place in the conference but more damaging would be the missed opportunity to pick up a Quad 1 win. It would leave them only two more Quad 1 opportunities: Tuesday at Illinois and March 9 at Northwestern.
Minnesota defeated Nebraska 76-65 at Williams Arena in their Big Ten opener on Dec. 6. The Gophers were down 15 points at the half after leading scorer Dawson Garcia was lost seven minutes into the game with an ankle injury, but they found a way to respond with a second half in which they pummeled Nebraska 52-26.
