It's been decades since Gophers basketball won more than one game in the NCAA tournament.
The vacated Final Four season is in our hearts but not in the record books. So you'll have to go back to the 1990 Elite Eight season to find the last Minnesota team to go on a run in the Big Dance.
Well, the Gophers might just have the talent to make it to the Sweet 16 this season, according to Athlon Sports college basketball preview magazine. The preseason annual has Minnesota earning a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament — and beating Harvard and Xavier before falling to eventual national champion Arizona in the Sweet 16.
The days of the Gophers hoops being slated as underdogs going into the season are over.
Athlon also projects Minnesota to finish runner-up to Michigan State in the Big Ten in 2017-18. Lindy's Sports already had the Gophers finishing third in the Big Ten behind the Spartans and Northwestern.
MARCUS FULLER
