Next 10 Games

[Norm Peterson]

The team might have their own view of must-win games and I'll leave that up to them.  From a fan's perspective, we have our own standards and hopes.  My goal is we do well enough that we're only thinking about seeding come Selection Sunday and not whether or not we got to the front of the bubble.  With that in mind, we have some important games coming up before we get a break against D-2 Southwest Minnesota State.  These next 10 games will either build our NCAA resume or make us really sweat the last half of the season.  Obviously, I'd love it if we could go 10-0 in this next stretch.  I think we NEED to win 8, though.  Here's kind of my view of what we need to do:

 

Seton Hall, home -- must win

Mo State, neutral -- must win

TTech/USC, neutral -- hope to win

Western Ill, home -- must win

Clemson, road -- acceptable loss 

Illinois, home -- must win

Minnesota, road -- acceptable loss

Creighton, home -- must win

Okie State, neutral -- must win

CSU-Fullerton, home -- must win

 

Nine or 10 wins in this stretch, we're thinking seeding as we go through the rest of conference play.  Seven or 8 wins, OK, but we've still got some work to do.  Six or fewer and we'll have to chop some serious wood in January and February.  Six or fewer and we're going to really regret some Ls come selection Sunday, some woulda coulda shoulda.  Some "like to have that one back."  Better option is take care of business, win 7 or 8 of these next 10 (preferably 8+), and feel like we're in good shape going into conference play in January.

[B-town hoopsfan]

Need to split the Clemson and Minnesota games at the very least. Minnesota didn’t look great vs Utah the other night, they have 3 or 4 freshman in the rotation. 

[Handy Johnson]

What B-town said, we should be able to get one of those road games and be rollin' come B1G time...

[hskr4life]

It's very likely that we could go into the Clemson match-up as two Top 25 teams squaring off.  Now that would be something. 

[Norm Peterson]

3 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

It's very likely that we could go into the Clemson match-up as two Top 25 teams squaring off.  Now that would be something. 

 

If we win out at home and win the CBE Classic, we should go into Clemson ranked.  Hopefully, they still will be as well.  But I think we'll have to be undefeated to still be ranked when that game rolls around.

[hskr4life]

Just now, Norm Peterson said:

 

If we win out at home and win the CBE Classic, we should go into Clemson ranked.  Hopefully, they still will be as well.  But I think we'll have to be undefeated to still be ranked when that game rolls around.

 

Agreed.  I am planning on doing just that.... I hope... 

[bigFRED]

If we beat seton hall this week I think we should be ranked by the next time the polls come out Monday

[AuroranHusker]

Win the next game.

Rinse.

Repeat.

 

 

[Norm Peterson]

Just now, noahjb24 said:

If we beat seton hall this week I think we should be ranked by the next time the polls come out Monday

 

Beat 'em bad.  Roll 'em like a cheap cigar.  Fifteen points or more and it'll be a statement win.

[tcp]

If we only get 6 wins in that schedule, then we're probably not a tourney team so I think the question is moot. 

 

I think 7 is the worst case, and that's if we have a bad night. 8 most likely, 9 possible because I think we're good enough to beat the Gophers in the barn. 

 

Clemson on the road strikes me as a bridge too far for now. 

 

 

[Art Vandalay]

We better not sleep on CSF, that is not a gimme. We win 7-8 and we are sitting good going into the second half. Think it is too early for must wins but last year taught me that might not be true

[rwhiston]

[Fullbacksympathy]

I honestly don't see a loss in the next 10 games.  I think our first loss will be @ Maryland.

[tcp]

28 minutes ago, Art Vandalay said:

We better not sleep on CSF, that is not a gimme. We win 7-8 and we are sitting good going into the second half. Think it is too early for must wins but last year taught me that might not be true

 

They'd better not sleep on anyone. Half those teams could beat them if they try phoning them in. I figure when you're prognosticating, you just surf the median--everything else being equal, how do the teams match up. Obviously if NU decides they all want to get addicted to meth for two months, they could lose most of those games. But that's not especially likely. 

[Norm Peterson]

10 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Beat 'em bad.  Roll 'em like a cheap cigar.  Fifteen points or more and it'll be a statement win.

 

Statement win.  And the statement is: "We're back, and this year we're not going to let them leave us out of the dance."

[B-town hoopsfan]

9–1 has gotta be the expectation after tonight. And that 1 is only there if roby doesn’t get his shit together. 

 

Also root for clemson. We want them undefeated for that matchup 

[HuskerActuary]

5 hours ago, B-town hoopsfan said:

9–1 has gotta be the expectation after tonight. And that 1 is only there if roby doesn’t get his shit together. 

 

Also root for clemson. We want them undefeated for that matchup 

9-1 would be overperforming for sure. 8-2 sets us up just fine for Norm's goal of not being on the bubble come Selection Sunday. 7-3 would be disappointing.

[nustudent]

If we're 10-2 going to Maryland, I'll be tickled.   Think 9-3 should be the expectation with this squad at worst.

[hhcmatt]

Clemsom brought back almost everyone from a Sweet 16 team and we play them on the road, our first true road game. We will not be favored to win.

[kleitus]

We shouldn't be favored.

 

But if you asked me whether we'd lose both at the barn and at clemson...  right now I'd say we have good odds of splitting those games.

 

And right now... today... I think we beat Missouri state and usc/tech.  Tech hasn't been impressive and usc lost to Vanderbilt at home. 

 

it'll be almost a home game against either tech or usc.  These games are games we should win all things being equal.

 

What's that mean? We've got a pretty decent runway and it's on us to perform.

 

At this point I would be disappointed if we lost more than one game in this stretch.  But two would still put us is an ok position... just disappointing.

[uneblinstu]

1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

Clemsom brought back almost everyone from a Sweet 16 team and we play them on the road, our first true road game. We will not be favored to win.

We might not be favored to win, but clemson lost their 2nd and 3rd scorers of that team. That's 28 points and 11 rebounds.

[jayschool]

19 hours ago, tcp said:

Obviously if NU decides they all want to get addicted to meth for two months, they could lose most of those games. But that's not especially likely. 

That's the Missouri State game plan, I think.

[bball23]

2 hours ago, nustudent said:

If we're 10-2 going to Maryland, I'll be tickled.   Think 9-3 should be the expectation with this squad at worst.

THIS...would love to be 10-2 going into Maryland.  11-1....gravy on top!

 

@Clemson, @Minnesota and the neutral court games vs Texas Tech/USC/Okie State look to be the toughest "on paper"

 

Would LOVE to get these two games in KC, come home to beat W. Illinois and head to Clemson undefeated.

 

 

[hhcmatt]

1 hour ago, uneblinstu said:

We might not be favored to win, but clemson lost their 2nd and 3rd scorers of that team. That's 28 points and 11 rebounds.

 

Ah I missed Grantham  because he was out the last 3rd of the season.

There isn't a game on our schedule we can't win, this just happens to be one where I'm not expecting us to. 

[Norm Peterson]

On 11/14/2018 at 9:44 AM, Norm Peterson said:

The team might have their own view of must-win games and I'll leave that up to them.  From a fan's perspective, we have our own standards and hopes.  My goal is we do well enough that we're only thinking about seeding come Selection Sunday and not whether or not we got to the front of the bubble.  With that in mind, we have some important games coming up before we get a break against D-2 Southwest Minnesota State.  These next 10 games will either build our NCAA resume or make us really sweat the last half of the season.  Obviously, I'd love it if we could go 10-0 in this next stretch.  I think we NEED to win 8, though.  Here's kind of my view of what we need to do:

 

Seton Hall, home -- must win WON

Mo State, neutral -- must win WON

TTech/USC, neutral -- hope to win lost

Western Ill, home -- must win WON

Clemson, road -- acceptable loss WON

Illinois, home -- must win WON

Minnesota, road -- acceptable loss lost

Creighton, home -- must win WON

Okie State, neutral -- must win

CSU-Fullerton, home -- must win

 

Nine or 10 wins in this stretch, we're thinking seeding as we go through the rest of conference play.  Seven or 8 wins, OK, but we've still got some work to do.  Six or fewer and we'll have to chop some serious wood in January and February.  Six or fewer and we're going to really regret some Ls come selection Sunday, some woulda coulda shoulda.  Some "like to have that one back."  Better option is take care of business, win 7 or 8 of these next 10 (preferably 8+), and feel like we're in good shape going into conference play in January.

 

Update: We're still on track. I said we needed at least 7 of the 10 games. Split these last 2 and we get there. Win 'em both, and we're 8 wins in our last 10 and very much on track for the goals we hoped to reach. The ones we lost fell into the "acceptable" loss category.

 

It sucked HOW we lost at Minnesota, but that's not going to look like a bad loss on our resume at the end of the season.