What happens if the Gophers beat Nebraska on Sunday?
Sunday's 5:30 p.m. CT tipoff between the Gophers and Cornhuskers in Nebraska is a monumental opportunity for Minnesota as they try to make their case to become an NCAA Tournament team.
As our partners at All Gophers have been saying for weeks, Minnesota's cupcake non-conference schedule and lack of Quad 1 wins has made it difficult to simply be on the tournament bubble. But that could change, starting with a Quad 1 opportunity Sunday in Lincoln.
What would a win for the Gophers over Nebraska mean?
Entering play Sunday, the top four in the Big Ten are Purdue (24-3, 13-3 Big Ten), Illinois (20-7, 11-5), Wisconsin (18-9, 10-6) and Northwestern (19-8, 10-6). Nebraska (19-8, 9-7) and Michigan State (17-10, 9-7) are next in line, followed by Minnesota (17-9, 8-7).
A victory in Lincoln would push the Gophers to 9-7 in conference play, good for fifth or sixth place depending on Michigan State's outcome earlier Sunday afternoon against Ohio State. What's more is that they'd sit just one game out of third place in the Big Ten.
And no matter what the data points like NET, KenPom, KPI and BPI say about Minnesota, the NCAA selection committee might have a hard time ignoring a Power 5 team with 10 or 11 wins in conference play. Beating Nebraska gets them one step closer to that possible scenario.
Not only would it be a Quad 1 win, it would be a road win against one of the most dominant home teams in the country. Victims inside Pinnacle Bank Arena this season include Purdue, Michigan State, Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Penn State.
The only team to win in Lincoln is Creighton, the national power that made the 60-mile drive and smoked the Cornhuskers by 29 points on Dec. 3.
Related: Minnesota may have at least 20 teams to jump to get on bubble
A loss would keep Minnesota in seventh place in the conference but more damaging would be the missed opportunity to pick up a Quad 1 win. It would leave them only two more Quad 1 opportunities: Tuesday at Illinois and March 9 at Northwestern.
Minnesota defeated Nebraska 76-65 at Williams Arena in their Big Ten opener on Dec. 6. The Gophers were down 15 points at the half after leading scorer Dawson Garcia was lost seven minutes into the game with an ankle injury, but they found a way to respond with a second half in which they pummeled Nebraska 52-26.
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.