Are Minnesota's NCAA Tournament at-large chances over in November?

The Gophers are carrying a three-game losing streak into December.

Nov 3, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Niko Medved looks on during the second half against the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

If the goal is to make the NCAA Tournament, fans of Gophers men's basketball will probably have to wait another year to see their team go dancing in March.

After a pair of blowout wins over Gardner-Webb and Alcorn State, Niko Medved's first season back home in Minnesota has been trending in the wrong direction. After a blowout loss at Missouri, they had to grind out a pair of wins at home over UW-Green Bay and Chicago State. They've since added three straight neutral-site losses to San Francisco, Stanford and Santa Clara.

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The Gophers had an opportunity to pick up their first top 100 win of the season at the Acrisure Invitational in Palm Springs, California, over Thanksgiving. They began the trip banged up without starting big man Robert Vaihola, and they added insult to more injuries with a hard-fought four-point loss to the Cardinal, a wire-to-wire defeat against Santa Clara and another injury to starting point guard Chansey Willis Jr.

"The program is where it is right now, but I know this from being here, man, when we get this thing going, and we're gonna get this thing going — this thing is gonna rise," Medved said after Friday's loss to Santa Clara. "These Gopher fans are special, and I know that because of my history with the program... Listen, it's hard, I get it. Stay with these guys, we're gonna fight, we're gonna battle, and better days are ahead."

Love this response! #Gophers Niko Medved's message to MN fans who made the trip to Palm Springs:

"I saw so many Gophers fans cheering us on. The program is where it is right now. But I know this from being here, when we get this thing going, we are going to get this thing… pic.twitter.com/jU1xtEFTAy

— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) November 29, 2025

Minnesota will now carry a 4-4 record into its first Big Ten game of the season on Wednesday, December 3, against Indiana. The Hoosiers have started the season 6-0 under first-year head coach Darian DeVries, with notable wins over Marquette and Kansas State.

The Gophers' second December Big Ten game will be on the road against No. 1 Purdue, before wrapping up nonconference play against Texas Southern, Campbell and Fairleigh Dickinson. If things continue trending the way they have been, they're projected to be 7-6 before the calendar flips to 2026.

Minnesota hasn't played in the NCAA Tournament since the 2018-19 season. Nobody expected Medved to break that streak in year one, but their chances of building an at-large resume are essentially over. Last year's big dance featured two at-large teams with fewer than 20 wins, Texas and Baylor. The Gophers would have to win 13 Big Ten games to reach the 20-win mark, which is something they haven't done since 1996-97.

In the modern transfer portal era, expectations for how fast a program rebuild should take have completely changed. Minnesota fans are going to need to find some patience because the program seems far away from consistently competing against Power Conference teams.