How close are the Gophers to the NCAA Tournament bubble?

Minnesota has found an identity, but does it have a chance to go dancing this March?

Jan 3, 2026; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Niko Medved gestures to his team against the Northwestern Wildcats during the second half at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images

Despite losing starters Chansey Willis Jr. and Robert Vaihola for the season, Gophers men's basketball has looked like a different team since coming back for the Acrisure Invitational in late November. After picking up three losses in a row, they've rattled off six wins in their last eight games, but what does it mean?

"I think we were still maybe a little bit rattled with some of the injuries... all of a sudden, you kind of knew right away, the team was going to look a lot different than what we had planned back in the fall," Niko Medved said last week. "We've had to change a little bit about how we've practiced based on numbers, but they've come in every day focused, ready to get better."

The Gophers debuted at No. 142 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings when they initially released on Dec. 1. They've climbed up nearly 60 spots to No. 83 as of Monday morning. The NET is the top metric used to determine at large resumes for the NCAA Tournament, so it's a huge turnaround in terms of putting themselves back in the discussion as March is right around the corner.

Subscribe: Sign up to receive the free Gophers On SI newsletter

Each win is put into quadrants with the team's ranked 1-30 counting as a Quad 1 win at home, 1-50 on a neutral floor and 1-75 on the road. Each game is placed into Quad 1, Quad 2, Quad 3 or Quad 4. Minnesota is 1-1 in Quad 1 games, 2-4 in Quad 2, 0-1 in Quad 3 and 7-0 in Quad 4.

For example, Tuesday's game at home against Wisconsin will be a Quad 2 game for Minnesota because the Badgers are ranked No. 40 in the NET, as of Monday morning.

Another important analytical metric is from KenPom.com. The Gophers dropped as low as No. 114 on Dec. 1, but they've climbed all the way back to No. 86 in the country, as of Monday morning. For reference, the lowest-rated at-large team in last year's NCAA Tournament was Utah State at No. 61.

After splitting games against Iowa and USC, Minnesota jumped to No. 86 in KenPom, its highest rating since Nov. 17!

The Gophers have another huge week with No. 38 Wisconsin on Tuesday at home, and No. 7 Illinois on the road on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/GMlu8418iA

— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) January 12, 2026

The fortunate thing for Minnesota is that it will have plenty of opportunities to improve its resume in Big Ten play this winter. The most important thing will be taking care of business at home. Notable games against No. 10 Nebraska and No. 12 Michigan State are games they will have to win in order to keep climbing.

The Gophers are currently 10-6 and 3-2 in Big Ten play. A Quad 3 loss against San Francisco will be hard to overcome, and they might have to get to at least .500 in conference play to work into the NCAA Tournament discussion, which is something they've only done once since 2009-10.