Busting Brackets
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Bracketology 2020: Buy or sell Big Ten Basketball bubble teams?

By Austin Walther

MADISON, WISCONSIN - FEBRUARY 23: Ron Harper Jr. #24 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights dribbles the ball in the first half against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center on February 23, 2020 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MADISON, WISCONSIN - FEBRUARY 23: Ron Harper Jr. #24 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights dribbles the ball in the first half against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center on February 23, 2020 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 30: Marcus Carr #5 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 30: Marcus Carr #5 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Minnesota Golden Gophers – Sell

The fact that two out of the four teams are hovering around .500 is something else. There’s no quit in any of these Big Ten teams. They’re all making things interesting with home wins and staying right around the top-50 NET and KenPom. Minnesota had a top-10 team at home Wednesday night and blew it. The Gophers were up double-digits on Maryland at one point in the second half. Despite the ugly record, Minnesota was going to stay on life-support for one more day if they pulled it off against the Terrapins. They let their guard, missed free throws and now Minnesota sits under .500 with really no signature win remaining on the regular-season schedule.

The Gophers have two road wins and they both came in Big Ten play. One was to the struggling Ohio State Buckeyes at the time and the other to Northwestern. Two out of their next three are on the road, but beating Indiana and Wisconsin isn’t as good as taking down Maryland at home. That was their fifth home loss of the season. They too fell victim to DePaul early in the season. Minnesota got swept by Michigan State, lost a heart breaker to Iowa and fell by 12 to Indiana.

The beat down Minnesota put on Northwestern on the road propelled the Gophers back inside the NET top-50. I’m not sure how that win did such a thing, but it happened. KenPom and Sagarin both kept Minnesota inside the top-50 for the longest time. But now it’s time to throw away those numbers and judge a team based on its resume.

Next. Most competitive regular-season races. dark

I can’t imagine a team being under .500 still on the bubble at this point. But this isn’t any normal year and the Big Ten has so many good teams. The Gophers do have five top-30 wins. Despite how things have changed for Utah and DePaul, they’re still not outside the top-100. But I’m sure Minnesota would like to have those games back to at least help their record. They kept things interesting up until their fourth to the last game of the season, but it appears Minnesota’s bubble popped at home Wednesday night.

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