Bracketology 2021: Creighton, Loyola-Chicago, Arkansas among big winners

Minnesota

The Big Ten has a slew of Tournament teams in the conference that continue to beat each other up on a week to week basis. It’s easy to look at some of those mid-majors we highlighted earlier and decry on how they’d struggle in a tough league like the Big Ten. At the same time, it’s easy to look at a below .500 mark in a conference like the Big Ten and immediately judge a team one way or the other.

These Golden Gophers had been struggling but righted the ship this week. They took care of business without too much drama Monday against Nebraska (having a much easier time with the Cornhuskers than #6 Illinois had on Friday). Then, they got payback on #24 Purdue with their victory on Thursday, getting a total of 40 points from Marcus Carr across the two games.

Minnesota is 13-7, with that less than stellar 6-7 mark in Big Ten play. However, they now have five ranked conference wins at home. The Golden Gophers have played a murderous schedule. While it’s fair to say that they shouldn’t have lost their home game to Maryland (they have a chance at revenge on Sunday), it’s hard to tell them to regularly go on the road and upset top 25 teams.

Looking ahead, the schedule has winnable games. Minnesota could most certainly get to or above .500 in conference play, especially if they keep playing like they have this week. Minnesota will be a Tournament team and could work their way up the bracket boards with a solid final few weeks before the conference tournament in Indianapolis. It doesn’t matter if they’re 6-7 in conference, this team can win games.