Gophers men's basketball NCAA tournament outlook

February 25, 2017 at 4:00AM

NCAA tournament outlook

Marcus Fuller's projection: No. 6 seed

The Gophers' highest NCAA tournament seed was No. 1 in the Midwest Region when they reached the Final Four in 1996-97. Since that season was vacated the highest seeds officially were a No. 2 seed in 1982 and No. 6 seed in 1990. The latter was when they reached the Elite Eight before losing to Georgia Tech. The Gophers' victory Wednesday at Maryland put them as a No. 5 seed in some projections. I'm thinking the Gophers are a sixth seed now and basically have to finish 2-1 and win one conference tourney game to move up.

Key Numbers

Record: 21-7, 9-6 Big Ten

Ken Pomeroy (kenpom.com) rating: 32nd in nation

RPI: 15

Strength of schedule: 9

Quality wins: at Purdue, at Maryland, at Northwestern, Michigan, Arkansas

Bad losses: at Penn State

Top-50 RPI record: 6-5

Top-100 RPI record: 11-7

about the writer

about the writer

More from Gophers

See More
card image

He played 10 years of pro ball, six of them in the Mexican League, and coached at Park of Cottage Grove.

card image