March 20, 2008
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NCAA Tournament Bracket ABCs, Thursday Update
by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor
Despite a win in the WCHA Final Five play-in game, Minnesota is far from out of the woods when it comes to the NCAA tournament.
You can use CHN's You Are The Committee tool to see for yourself, but there are a number of scenarios where Minnesota is squeezed out due to Pairwise machinations. They all include Minnesota losing the next two games, to Colorado College in the semis, then to either Denver or North Dakota in the consolation game. That is certainly feasible.
The scenarios also include Vermont winning the Hockey East tournament.
If Vermont or Boston University wins the HEA tournament, it will squeeze someone out. But if that team is BU, it is more likely to squeeze out Notre Dame than Minnesota.
But a scenario where Miami and Michigan play in the CCHA final with Notre Dame winning the consolation game, Vermont winning Hockey East, with Minnesota losing two games the rest of the weekend, seems to drop the Gophers out of the tournament.
