The NCAA Women’s basketball tournament field will be announced on ESPN at 6PM on Monday night. With the Minnesota Golden Gophers making it to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament and almost knocking off Big Ten Champion Ohio State in the round of four, it seems that the Gophers have moved off of the far edge of the bubble and should be relatively comfortably in the tournament. Minnesota finished the season with a 23-8 record including a 12-6 record against Big Ten opponents. They currently have an RPI of 40. They have four quality wins—over Iowa twice, Michigan and Maryland. They don’t have a single “bad loss” which is a loss against a team with an RPI of 200 or less. The Gophers worst loss of the season was at the San Diego Toreros who have an RPI of 164.
Unlike the men’s tournament where you can throw a rock and find another person doing bracketology, there are limited options for the women’s tournament. However, I found three bracketologists who have predicted who and where the Gophers will play in the NCAA Tournament. The examples are below:
Charley Creme—ESPN.com
Creme is the women’s equivilent of Joe Lunardi in the ESPN stable. He is the most active bracketologist on the women’s side and keeps his brackets the most updated. His most recent updated bracket as of 9:15 Thursday morning has the Gophers as a #9 seed playing #8 seed Villanova Wildcats in Louisville. The winner would then presumably get #1 seed Louisville Cardinals in the second round on their home court.
While Creme has had Minnesota near the top of his last four in list in recent days, the Gophers are off of this list as of the most recent bracket and are safely in the tournament.
CollegeSportsMadness.com
College Sports Madness is a website that covers college football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball and softball. Their most recent bracket was issued on Monday. Their bracket also has the Gophers as the #9 seed in Louisville against a Big East team, but in this case its the Marquette Golden Eagles.
RealTimeRPI.com
RealtimeRPI.com calculates the real time rpi’s for both the men’s and women’s college basketball teams. They then create a bracket for both tournaments based upon their data. Their most recent bracket was updated at Midnight on Thursday. They have the Gophers as a #9 seed as well. They project Minnesota to play #8 seed Buffalo Bulls from the MAC in Waco, Texas. The winner would presumably get #1 seed Baylor Bears in the second round on their home court.
As we said earlier, the Women’s NCAA selection show will air at 6:00 PM Monday on ESPN. If you want to see where the Gophers will end up...with the Gophers, they will be having a watch party at Williams Arena!
Join the #Gophers for #SelectionMonday at Williams Arena as the team learns its postseason destination!
— Minnesota WBB (@GopherWBB) March 7, 2018
Doors open at 5:15 and the Selection Show starts at 6.
Full details: https://t.co/dCwsIKzyt1 pic.twitter.com/d3DiG9mHw9
From the press release from the U:
The event will be free for all who would like to attend, with doors set to open at 5:15 p.m. and the selection show scheduled to air at 6 p.m. on ESPN. The Gophers are projected to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
Join head coach Marlene Stollings and the Gophers in watching the NCAA Selection Show on the center-hung video board that will be lowered to a height that is easily viewable. Fans will be directed to sit in sections 105-107 located directly behind the scorers’ table.
Following the selection show, fans are invited to stick around for the Marlene Stollings Radio Show, which will be broadcast live on 93.3 ALT FM from Williams Arena beginning at 7 p.m.
We will have a full recap of the Gophers finding out who they will play and where they are headed Monday night here on TDG.