The Gopher women's basketball team fell short of making the NCAA tournament field, and will start their postseason on Friday night by hosting Northern Iowa in the National Invitation Tournament.
Under first-year coach Lindsay Whalen, the Gophers started out with 12 straight wins and were closing in on a top-ten national ranking.
Most of those non-conference wins were against lesser opponents, and the Gophers struggled early in their Big Ten schedule before finishing at 20-10.
They fell out of the rankings for good during a 1-7 stretch in January.
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Playing non-league games against teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Incarnate Word, and Coppin State hurt the Gophers' power rankings when it came to making a case for the NCAA tournament.
Tip-off on Friday night at Williams Arena is 6:30 p.m.
Northern Iowa wound up with a 20-12 record, losing to Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament semifinals.
Other Big Ten teams in the women's NIT are Northwestern and Ohio State.
The winner of Friday's game between the Gophers and Panthers moves to the NIT's second round to play either Cincinnati or Youngstown State.
The NIT reveals game sites for the second round after the first round games are complete.
