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Richard Pitino and the late-season collapse
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Another frustrating year is just about in the books for the Golden Gophers, one that saw them once again each a decent pinnacle in the middle of the season, reaching #16 in the nation at one point and projected as high a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament by some bracketologists. But from there it was painful erosion that saw them fall line by line in Bracketology until they were out of the Top 25 and out of the projected field.
It would be horrifying if it weren’t so predictable. But it got me thinking about just how bad the late-season swoons have been under Richard Pitino, a coach who has been roundly criticized for seeing his teams effectively get weaker over the course of a season, not stronger.
THE OVERVIEW
It s those guys again, just a little down the road and with a championship locked up this time.
The stakes for the Spartans remain high. They re the last at-large in the Bracket Matrix field, which hasn t yet been updated for them getting whooped yesterday. Bart Torvik s updated projections also have them as the last team to make it, though that means only a 22.3% chance of securing an at-large bid. They need a win on Sunday or they ll need to make some noise in the Big Ten Tournament to not be sweating out every one-bid conference s tournament.
Speaking of the BTT, Michigan is obviously locked into the one-seed, which means they re keeping an eye on Thursday s 8/9 matchup. MSU is currently projected as the nine-seed and would stay there with a win and/or an Indiana loss to Purdue on Saturday afternoon. If MSU loses and Indiana wins, however, the Hoosiers would jump the Spartans and knock them down to the ten-seed.