How high could Gophers be seeded in NCAA Tournament?
Minnesota's 75-73 upset win over No. 2 seed Purdue has the Gophers in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and possibly on the rise in the NCAA Tournament.
Entering this week's conference tournament, Minnesota was projected as a 10 seed by ESPN's Joe Lunardi and CBS Sports' Jerry Palm. After beating Penn State on Thursday and knocking off Purdue Friday, the Gophers are moving up.
Lunardi now has the Gophers seeded 9th and Palm has also boosted their projected seed to No. 8.
If Minnesota loses to Michigan in their Big Ten semifinal game Saturday (2:30 p.m. on CBS), it's looking more and more likely that they'll enter the NCAA Tournament seeded somewhere between 8-10.
If they beat Michigan it'll be hard for the bracketologists to keep them anywhere below an 8 seed.
Lunardi's four 8 seeds currently are Iowa, Washington, Central Florida and Syracuse, and the Gophers beat Iowa and Washington during the regular season.
They might be able to push even higher if they upset Michigan and go on to beat Michigan State or Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament championship game on Sunday.
One thing is certain: getting a 8 or 9 seed means the Gophers would likely face one fo the four No. 1 seeds if they advance out of the first round.
Selection Sunday will tell all, but the Gophers are a rock-solid lock for the tournament and their stock is on the rise.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.