NCAA Tournament 2013 bracket predictions: Experts split on how far the Golden Gophers will go

Depending on who you talk to, the Golden Gophers could be headed home after playing UCLA or play another game in the NCAA Tournament.

By Michael Preston@RM_Preston Mar 20, 2013, 7:20pm CDT

Despite being the 11-seed against the sixth-seeded UCLA Bruins in the NCAA Tournament's South region, the Minnesota Golden Gophers are actually favored. Vegas lists them as a three-point favorite against one of the Pac-12's five contributions to the tournament field.

As you'd expect in a game in which the lower-seeded team is actually favored to win, the decisions are split as far as what will happen on Friday night let alone beyond that into the third round. Eschewing the feelings of Las Vegas, a majority of CBS Sports' experts believe it's UCLA who will emerge victorious in the second-round game, with Jeff Goodman being the only one to disagree.

Chris Dobbertean at SB Nation believes the Golden Gophers should count themselves very lucky. Thanks in large part to the broken foot that Jordan Adams suffered in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, Dobbertean believes the Golden Gophers will advance past the Bruins. But because they'll likely run into the best team out of the SEC in the Florida Gators in round three, they'll play their final game in the tournament just a couple days later.