How to Watch Northwestern Men's Basketball at Minnesota: Preview, Predictions, TV
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The 13-17 Northwestern Wildcats are playing for a Big Ten Tournament seed Saturday night, their regular season finale for 2025-26.
Sporting a paltry 5-14 conference record, Northwestern is currently the Big Ten's No. 14 seed. Why it's still even called the Big Ten, having absorbed some Pac-12 teams at this point, is anyone's guess.
But we digress.
Sporting a 14-16 overall record, Minnesota has gone 7-12 in the Big Ten. The Minnesota Golden Gophers are two conference games clear of the Wildcats.
Game Preview
The Golden Gophers are reeling after a 77-47 blowout loss to the Indiana Hoosiers, after letting Indiana nail 10 triples.
From WAYYYY downtown. 👌
— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) March 5, 2026
📺: @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/qfajy0OgJy
The Wildcats handled the Hoosiers, 72-68, late last month. But their luck ran out earlier this week, when C.J. Cox's 21 second-half points helped the Purdue Boilermakers rally to best Northwestern, 70-66.
Northwestern X-Factors
This game could down to the two programs' most prolific senior scorers.
Minnesota guard Cade Tyson paces the Golden Gophers with 19.7 points on .494/.819/.429 shooting splits. Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli is the nation's sixth-leading scorer, averaging 22.7 points on a .501/.813/.421 slash line.
Prediction
My money (figuratively speaking) is on Martinelli pulling off the W.
His 1687 career points rank seventh all-time in program history, just two points behind 5-foot-10 former All-Big Ten guard Michael Thompson's total. He'll be hard-pressed to catch up to Evan Eschmeyer's 1,805 and crack the top five.
Final Score Prediction: Northwestern 63, Minnesota 55.
How to Watch, Listen
- Matchup: Northwestern (13-17, 5-14 B1G) vs Minnesota (14-16, 4-13 B1G)
- When: Saturday, March 7
- Where: Williams Arena, Minneapolis, MN
- Time: 8 p.m. CST
- Watch: Big Ten Network (TV)
- Listen: WGN Radio 720 AM, SiriusXM Channel 388, The Varsity Network
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An Evanston native, Alex Kirschenbaum is also a proud Northwestern alum. He has written for Bleacher Nation, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Hoops Rumors, Trailers From Hell, Men's Journal, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others. Alex knows Zach Collins has given the Bulls some good years, but he'll never forgive the then-Gonzaga center for that very obvious goaltend against the Wildcats during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.