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Bracketology 2021: Houston, Marquette and Texas among biggest winners

By Tristan Freeman

AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 08: Head coach Shaka Smart of the Texas Longhorns reacts as his team plays the Oklahoma Sooners at The Frank Erwin Center on January 08, 2020 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 08: Head coach Shaka Smart of the Texas Longhorns reacts as his team plays the Oklahoma Sooners at The Frank Erwin Center on January 08, 2020 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images) /
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Bracketology Marcus Carr Minnesota Golden Gophers (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

Winner – Minnesota Golden Gophers

With all the major programs being lumped in the previous section, there aren’t too many other options to be considered. So I looked for a team that has flown under the radar so far but was able to get through this week with a couple of close calls.

Coming into this season, Minnesota, even after getting all of those transfer waivers, was viewed as a team in the bottom half of the Big Ten. That kind of finish might not be good enough for head coach Richard Pitino, who is viewed as someone currently on the hot seat. Considering how strong the Big Ten is at the top through the middle, it’s going to be a tough task for the Gophers to land one of those NCAA Tournament bids.

That’s not to say that they won’t get some big wins along the way. Marcus Carr is having an All-American campaign early on, averaging 26.5 ppg and 6.0 apg through the first four games. Utah transfer Both Gach (15.5 ppg and 4.3 apg) has been impressive as well. The rest of the cast has to improve to help them out, which is why the past couple of games have been relatively close.

One of them was against LMU, which happened to be the second time they’ve face one another. The first matchup wasn’t close but this week went down to the wire, with the Gophers winning by just three points. And this weekend, they had to deal with a feisty North Dakota squad that keep it close the entire way. It was a 76-67 win that felt even closer than that.

The reason why Minnesota is a “winner” this week is that they avoided that disastrous “bad loss” that would’ve had a huge effect on both their resume and Coach Pitino’s seat. Assuming that there will be plenty of losses in league play, winning as many non-conference games as possible to boose their overall record will be important.

They have an important home game against Boston College in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and will need to win that as well but so far, so good for the Gophers.

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