The Minnesota Golden Gophers take on the Northwestern Wildcats. Check out our college basketball odds series for our Minnesota Northwestern prediction and pick. Find how to watch Minnesota Northwestern.

The Northwestern Wildcats are close to making the NCAA Tournament. They might be in according to some bracketologists, but they might want to win one more game just to be absolutely safe. Keep in mind that Northwestern has been hit by injuries late in the season. If there's a perception that the Wildcats are a dramatically worse team without their injured players, and those players are not available for the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee could face a complicated choice which might put Northwestern in a little bit of trouble. Stabilizing on the final day of the regular season — the last game before the Big Ten Tournament next week — would relieve a ton of fears and anxieties in and around the Northwestern program. The Wildcats are so close to making back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in school history, but they don't want to think they have it made. They need to win this game and put the matter to bed. Then they can go to the Big Ten Tournament knowing they have done the job and won't face overwhelming pressure on a neutral court. Winning this game at home offers the simplest and safest path to the NCAA Tournament.

Here are the Minnesota-Northwestern College Basketball odds, courtesy of FanDuel.

College Basketball Odds: Minnesota-Northwestern Odds

Minnesota Golden Gophers: +5.5 (-102)

Northwestern Wildcats: -5.5 (-120)

Over: 140.5 (-110)

Under: 140.5 (-110)

How To Watch Minnesota vs Northwestern

Time: 9:00 pm ET / 6:00 pm PT

TV: Big Ten Network

Stream: fuboTV (click for a free trial)*

Why Minnesota Could Cover the Spread

The Golden Gophers have covered a lot of spreads this season. The team remains one of the very best spread-based winners in college basketball. You have made a handsome profit if you bet the same amount of money on a Golden Gopher spread cover in every game so far this season. You're over plus-10 in terms of wins versus losses against the spread. When you then take into account Northwestern's recent injury-caused slide and the fact that Minnesota beat Northwestern earlier this season in the first of the two scheduled meetings between these teams, there are a lot of reasons to recommend Minnesota against the spread in this game.

Why Northwestern Could Cover the Spread

The Wildcats are at home on senior day in front of a juiced-up crowd, playing to make sure they don't stumble late in the season and improbably miss the NCAA Tournament. The home crowd should help. What should also help is that Minnesota has actually played very poorly the past two games. A team which has been covering a lot of spreads has not covered against Penn State or Indiana, and those games were at home. Now Minnesota has to go on the road and find a winning formula. It's hard to trust the Gophers right now, given how ugly their two recent games have been. Minnesota has a reputation in 2024 of being the team which can always be counted on to cover a spread, but nothing about the past week of play indicates the Gophers will live up to that identity here in this game.

Final Minnesota-Northwestern Prediction & Pick

This is a tough game to call. Neither side is playing well. Stay away and wait for a live play.

Final Minnesota-Northwestern Prediction & Pick: Northwestern -5.5