The Minnesota Golden Gophers have almost zero shot to make the NCAA Tournament at 11-12 and 4-8 in the Big Ten. However, they may have just drastically increased Wisconsin's resume with their huge win over Michigan State last night. The Gophers went from NET 84 to 72 overnight. Which means that Wisconsin's road victory over Minnesota in the barn is now a quad-1 win, and the home victory is a quad-2.
This is incredibly important for the Badgers as they need more quad-1 wins on their resume. They've flirted back and forth with one or two all season, depending on how the opponents land in the NET rankings. The only for sure quad-1 win is the big victory over Michigan. Now, they have a second with Minnesota.
Minnesota's win over Michigan State gave Wisconsin another quad-1 win
Related: Did Utah’s blockbuster trade just complicate John Tonje’s NBA path?
There's no way that the Golden Gophers were trying to help their rivals' resume, but it's hilarious that Minnesota's signature victory may end up being what helps propel Wisconsin into the tournament and with a higher seed.
Wisconsin currently has two quad-1 wins and five quad-2 wins on the season. As of yesterday, before Minnesota's victory over Michigan State, it was one quad-1 win and four quad-2 wins. Thanks, Gophers, for the assist.
As of now, the Badgers aren't considered a lock but are a "most likely in" team. They continue to be forecasted as a nine or ten seed in the NCAA Tournament, but with a lot of room to jump up as the schedule gets tough down the stretch.
The Badgers will have seven more quad-1 opportunities in the final nine games, starting with Saturday's game against Indiana. The Badgers need to pull a few of those out and really improve their resume. However, the Gophers gave them a nice assist to start with a new quad-1 win.