Minnesota vs Northwestern Basketball Predictions & Best Bets

Minnesota is on the road playing Northwestern at the Welsh-Ryan Arena stadium on Saturday, 1/28/2023 @ 12:00pm EST. Northwestern -12.5 was the opening favorite and current line is Northwestern -12.

Welsh-Ryan Arena will host the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Northwestern Wildcats on Saturday. The game will be played in Evanston, IL, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Indiana defeated Minnesota on Wednesday, 7-12 SU and 8-10-1 ATS. There have been four straight losses for the Gophers and seven of the last eight Big Ten games. A 14-5 SU record and an 11-8 ATS record helped Northwestern defeat Nebraska on Wednesday. Three of the Wildcats' past five games have been wins and five of their last eight games have been wins in the Big Ten.

Although Minnesota is dealing with injuries, it is still fighting

In addition to a disappointing loss to Michigan, the Golden Gophers also suffered a close one to Indiana. The team lost by eight points, dropping them to last place in the conference standings. In the end, Minnesota lost to the Hoosiers on Trayce Jackson-Davis' go-ahead basket. Despite Dawson Garcia's (14.9 PPG) and Pharrel Payne's (7.2 PPG and 4.7 RPG) absences, only seven scholarship players remained. The Gophers shot 22-for-64 from the field (34.4%), and 5-for-25 from distance (20%). A 45-39 margin of victory was also achieved in the area of rebounding.

It is the right time for Northwestern to round into form

As of mid-February, Northwestern is just three games behind conference leader Purdue in the Big Ten title race. It was Northwestern's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2016-17 after Wednesday's win at Nebraska. After outscoring Nebraska 43-30 in the first half, the Wildcats never looked back, winning their seventh consecutive game. The Cavaliers shot 29-for-56 from the floor (51.8%) and had nine offensive rebounds to outrebound the Huskers 35-23. Only three points separated Northwestern from the loser. Northwestern led by as many as 23 points.

The Northwestern Wildcats seem to be destined for greatness. There is still time for the Wildcats to impress the selection committee with more victories in the upcoming weeks. To achieve this, they must defeat teams like Minnesota at home, which is why they believe they will win convincingly.

There are two key players missing from Minnesota's lineup, and the team has been through the ringer without any success. A game-ready Wildcats team itching to prove its mettle would require an uncharacteristic performance from the Gophers. Undermanned Minnesota will have problems dealing with Northwestern's lockdown defense. This game could see the offensively-inept Gophers struggle to score more than 55 points.

Minnesota Highlights

With a power ranking of 334, Minnesota is ranked #350 in offense (scoring an average of 62.21 per game), #115 in defense (allowing an average of 66.95 points to be scored against them per game) and are 7-12 (9-10 ATS) this season.

Northwestern Highlights

Northwestern Wildcats has a power ranking of 158 and are #239 for offense (scoring an average of 69.26 per game), #17 for defense (giving up an average of 66.95 points per game) and 14-5 (11-8 ATS) overall. Minnesota went 1-2 (1-2 ATS) in their last 3 matchups against Northwestern.

Curated Picks & Predictions

• From the lines set by Sportsbooks, they predict the score to be MINN 74.75, NWEST 50.75.
• The SportsJaw community predicts Minnesota Golden Gophers to cover (51%)
• OddsShark predicts Northwestern will win, minnesota will cover, and the total will go over.
• 59% picked Minnesota Golden Gophers on Covers.com
• Our ScoreCaster predicts Golden Gophers 68 to Wildcats 71.

Staff Prediction

Our prediction: Golden Gophers 68 to Wildcats 71.

Written by SportsJaw Staff
Categorized as NCAAB Predictions