#10 Minnesota appears in the Big PWR Game of the Week for a second time. Buoyed by a road split last weekend, the Gophers probably need a better performance hosting #33 Michigan State to avoid falling back down to the bubble.
Getting swept could incite numerous “Time to get rid of the stupid PWR?” forum threads, as Minnesota would likely fall 8-9 places.
The runner-up, #22 Northeastern, could provide a shock in the other direction by appearing on the bubble if they sweep #6 Boston University.
Finally, #1 Minnesota State faces the biggest threat to its ranking in weeks with a series hosting #5 Michigan Tech. The Mavericks need a sweep to hold off #2 North Dakota.
Jim, six of the 12 remaining games have passed since your “Tournament Cutlines, Revisited” post went up. Has anything interesting happened in the data that changed any of the curves significantly one way or the other, or have the results of the past three weekends just shifted the curves according to the number of wins that each team has racked up?
As a Gopher fan, I’m mostly interested in Minnesota (does the ‘win 8-10 of their last 12 games’ notion still hold, even with some of the upsets to teams close to MN in the PWR out east?), but am curious if any of the less-likely results that occurred in the past three weeks have significantly changed the fortunes of any other teams?
Yep, I hope to have at least one more post this week that will cover a lot of that ground.
To get you an answer before the first game… yeah, it’s still about right for Minnesota. Winning 4 of the last 6 would be safest.
Then it depends who you draw and how it goes in the tournament. The single elimination format provides a bit more upside than downside opportunity, so it’s probably possible to win 3 and then get an at-large bid with a win or two in the conference tournament, a long shot to do it with just 2 regular season wins.