I feel like the consensus is 2 wins is all that’s needed, not 3. A win over IU and say Rutgers in the BTT should be enough
My mentions are very divided and I’m not sure why this is being discussed in my mentions, but hey. Seems like MSU would be in great shape if it can get a win over UM to me. Long wait if not.
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Yeah I imagine a win over Michigan would nearly seal it. That’d be a win over 3 top 10ish teams. Not many bubbles teams have ever been able to claim that. Anything less and it will be close but possible if they win 2 others
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Is there some Minnesota connection that I’m totally missing with Musselman? Why on earth would he be interested in the Gophers?
I guess they’d have a realistic shot in that scenario. Still need 1 win against us to make it a sure thing 
I think he spent time in Minneapolis growing up because his dad coached the T-Wolves
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Yeah I feel like MSU is in that precarious spot where either 3 wins gets them in, but 2 wins leaves them right on the bubble/probably off of it?
As of right now they’re the 2nd to last team in on BracketMatrix, in on 58/100 brackets. All of those brackets were updated after Thursday but before today, so they account for MSU’s win Thursday but not their loss today. I’d think that after the loss to Maryland, MSU would be just on the outside looking in.
A win against Indiana would probably sneak them just on the right side of the bubble, but a home win over Indiana could potentially fall to Q3 territory before selection Sunday so that might not help as much as one would think. Then if you say Michigan beats them twice, I would think that counteracts any benefit from a win over IU and knocks them back out of the field. Then a first round BTT victory probably gets them back in, and a 3rd loss to Michigan puts them probably directly on the cut line, potentially the last team in or out.
MOV’s will probably matter too, since MSU’s NET is pretty bad compared to other bubble teams. So they’ll need to win big and lose close as much as they can. And any win over Michigan probably secures a spot. But if they go 2-3 down the stretch, they are as bubbly as a bubble team can get IMO, and once a few bids are inevitably stolen/other bubble teams make conference tourney runs I think we’d see MSU fall on the wrong side in this scenario.
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Hid dad coached the Gophers in early ‘70s. Won a B1G title too.
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His dad was the head coach at Minnesota from 1971-75 before getting out ahead of the posse (over 100 NCAA violations). I covered basketball for the Michigan Daily during his last year, and interviewed him after a game. To say he was an ass would be extremely disrespectful to asses.
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and was held significantly responsible for one of the worst sport’s brawls ever
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He took a lot of blame for creating a team culture that led to a brutal end-of-game brawl in 1972 between Minnesota and OSU that sent three OSU players to the hospital. Look up Luke Witte for details.
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His dad Bill was a legendary coach of the Gophers in the early 70s. He coached legends including Dave Winfield, Mychael Thompson, and Flip Saunders. He actually won the Big Ten once.
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Interesting to see Iowa’s win in Columbus ranked as the best win of the McCaffery era.
Love the quote after the win at MSU in the article given Iowa’s finish that year.
Big Ten tourney is going to be really interesting. I feel like Iowa and Illinois think this is a special year and they want to prove the regular season was incorrect.
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Footage of the brawl:
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Fran after a big W. Basically the same guy. 
Interesting list. Only two tournament games and both in the round of 64. Man…
I think that 2016 MSU game at Breslin would probably be the best game in itself, but I suppose this one makes sense for the overall context of the season.
Sorry, late response but my source was the 73 Gopher fans I know texting me immediately when it broke…half of which asked if I thought Beilein was a possibility…
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I posted this back in January based on my Butler experience. This season is going exactly to script for Holtmann. He will cobble together a coherent team out of all kinds of misfit parts and hit their ceiling super early, then everyone else catches up.
https://forum.umhoops.com/t/mid-january-thoughts-on-the-big-ten/9510/2?u=naptownjazz12
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Immediately after watching the game for the first 7-10 minutes it seemed like they looked tired. I don’t see it being an excuse they were playing their 4th game in 8 days. They were in a terrible position 2 weeks ago and have got themselves in position to extend their tourney streak. The last 4 games MSU has been riding Henry/Langford/Watts/Brown a lot because they are still going with a bunch of different bigs. What helps them is they have a reeling Indiana coming in who seems to lack any motivation right now.
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Agree that they might be tired, even that pointing it out would be legit. Izzo’s lack of grace, refusal to ever acknowledge the other team. . . less appealing.
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