Gophers' NCAA tournament outlook
Fourth seed still a possibility
Marcus Fuller's projection: No. 6 seed.
Sunday's loss at Wisconsin really didn't hurt them in NCAA tournament bracket projections. Advanced stats analyst Kevin Pauga's KPI ranking is being used by the tournament selection committee this week, along with RPI. Minnesota was a No. 4 seed and ranked ahead of Big Ten champion Purdue at 15th nationally in Thursday's KPI list. ESPN's Joe Lunardi (No. 6) and CBSSports.com's Jerry Palm (No. 5) both differed. No surprise there. I'm with Lunardi, picking the Gophers as a sixth seed after a loss. But another quality win Friday could get them closer to that No. 4 spot.
Key Numbers
Record: 23-8, 11-7 Big Ten
Ken Pomeroy (kenpom.com) rating: 33rd in nation
RPI: 27
Strength of schedule: 23
Quality wins: at Purdue, at Maryland, at Northwestern, Michigan, Arkansas
Bad losses: at Penn State
