NCAA bubble? The Gophers are there, along with their next two opponents

Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit took some care to say that nothing about her team’s approach has changed. It is process and work, not results and outcomes.

“Because,” Plitzuweit said during a news conference Wednesday, “when you focus on the results and the outcomes, it’s really hard because you’re not locked into the things you need to do.”

But:

The Gophers (18-5 overall, 6-5 Big Ten) have reached the stretch run of the 18-game conference season. To this point, they have beaten the teams they were expected to beat but have yet to spring an upset. They have wins against Northwestern, Rutgers, Penn State, Illinois and Wisconsin (twice), with the win over the Illini probably the team’s best so far.

They have lost to Nebraska, Maryland, Michigan, USC and UCLA — all five ranked at the time, with USC and UCLA both ranked in the top four during the Gophers' recent trip out west.

Now Minnesota is home for two games, against resurgent Iowa on Thursday and always-dangerous Indiana on Sunday.

Neither opponent is ranked, but both are formidable. Iowa is coming off a home upset of USC on Sunday when a jam-packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena was treated to Caitlin Clark’s jersey retirement ceremony.

It’s time for a push for a team with the goal of an NCAA tournament berth.

“This team has a goal to continue to play and get to the postseason,” Plitzuweit said.

That’s what makes this week so crucial.

Charlie Creme is ESPN’s women’s basketball bracketologist. In Tuesday’s update, he listed the Gophers as one of the final four teams in the tournament without having to play a play-in game.

But he has Iowa and Indiana in the same four-team group. According to the NCAA’s net rankings, the Gophers are No. 29, Iowa No. 31, and Indiana No. 39.

“This stretch of the season, in the Big Ten Conference in particular, is going to be massive,” Creme said. “I can’t even put a measurement on it. These teams are playing each other; right now they’re on the right side of the cut line. But they have to keep winning.”

A caveat: Creme said this year is interesting in that there is a bigger-than-usual gap between the ins and outs in the NCAA tournament right now. There aren’t many teams pushing hard to get into the mix. “There aren’t a lot of teams with credentials to be moving up,” Creme said."

But these are still big games. Iowa (15-7, 5-6) rebounded from a five-game losing streak with three straight wins, including the upset of USC, the kind of signature win that can make a difference on selection day. Indiana (14-7, 6-4) has three victories over teams ranked at the time, something the Gophers don’t have.

Beating Iowa or Indiana wouldn’t be considered an upset or a signature win. But, Creme said, such wins would be quality wins.

“They need to be solid and win some of these games,” he said. “Minnesota is a team that has been in the 20s in the net rankings for a long time. But you look at their plate, and it’s kind of empty. They haven’t lost to anyone they shouldn’t have, which is something to say. But they haven’t elevated either. They’re going to have to win a few of these games for sure.”

The Iowa team coming to town is not as formidable as the one Clark led to consecutive NCAA championship game appearances. But under new coach Jan Jensen — the longtime assistant promoted when Lisa Bluder retired — they have many of the same pieces plus the addition of guard Lucy Olsen, who transferred from Villanova.

The Hawkeyes still play a similar style: up-tempo, looking for post Hannah Stuelke, with formidable scoring on the outside. Olsen is 10th in the Big Ten in scoring (16.4), but in her last three games — all Iowa wins — she has averaged 21.3 points, shot 60% overall and hit five of 10 threes with 5.3 assists. She outdueled USC’s JuJu Watkins on Sunday, scoring a game-high 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting.

Annika Stewart, who transferred from Nebraska to the Gophers for her final college season, knows what it takes to make the NCAA tournament.

“I’ve just been telling them to stay present,” she said. “Every practice matters, every possession matters. I’m just trying to be present myself and then preach out to the rest of the team. Our next games are important, but we’ve got to focus on what we can.”

7 p.m. Thursday at Williams Arena.

TV, radio: BTN; 96.7 FM

The Hawkeyes (15-7, 5-6 Big Ten) have won three straight, including an upset over then-No. 4 USC at home Sunday. The Gophers (18-5, 6-5) lost at USC and UCLA in a West Coast swing that ended in a one-sided loss to the No. 1-ranked Bruins on Sunday. Minnesota is 2-4 in its last six Big Ten games after starting the conference season 4-1. Grace Grocholski has scored in double figures in eight of nine games, averaging 15 points and shooting 39.1% on three-pointers. Amaya Battle has scored in double figures in 10 of 11 games, averaging 16.3 points in that time. Battle and Grocholski combined to score 33 of Minnesota’s 53 points Sunday at UCLA.