In what is the first of roughly 92 "bracketology" updates from ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the Gophers are projected as No. 9 seeds in the NCAA men's basketball tournament before the season even begins.
They would face No. 8 seed Memphis in the West Region in Portland, which would be a pretty nice matchup for the Gophers right now considering Memphis just lost an exhibition tuneup to a team called Christian Brothers. (That's apparently a school in Memphis, though we like to believe the Tigers were knocked off by five dudes with hockey sticks from Warroad).
Lunardi has eight Big Ten teams making the field — these seven in addition to the Gophers: No. 1 seed Wisconsin, No. 5 seed Ohio State, No. 6 seed Nebraska, No. 6 seed Michigan State, No. 7 seed Michigan, No. 8 seed Iowa and No. 10 seed Illinois.
That tells us a few things: Lunardi thinks Wisconsin is really good and a lot better than anyone else in the conference; Lunardi thinks the league as a whole is quite good; and Lunardi thinks the Gophers are in the bottom range of those good teams.
While we can't condone that kind of Wisconsin love, it's hard to argue with any of it. Then again, we might gain some more clarity and accuracy once some actual games are played.
