Games Of Note/Bubble Watch 2024

[cipsucks]

We beat Oklahoma State to win the Big 8 Tourney on a Sunday.  Of course, we went to a Thursday game.  Doesn't matter this year.  We win 2 games minimum whether its play-in, or sweet 16 or both.  It will happen this year!

[HuskerFever]

When do we need to start adding Wisconsin to this thread? 

[tcp]

1 hour ago, HuskerFever said:

When do we need to start adding Wisconsin to this thread? 

 

ouch! badgers need to be pointing on the little chart where they hurt....

[AuroranHusker]

2 hours ago, HuskerFever said:

When do we need to start adding Wisconsin to this thread? 

 

Amazing that 8-1 Wisky was in 1st place, then they lost 5 of 6, albeit the 1 win was the last game for OSU's Chris Holtmann, but I digress. Wisky is in the hemorrhaging mode, at 9-6, while our NU is 8-7. That's weird & wild stuff!

[hhcmatt]

15 hours ago, hskr4life said:

Honestly, the longer we go into the season, the more this thread is feeling like it’s moot!  We control our own destiny.  We don’t “need” to follow other bubble teams just yet and should we do what we need to, we won’t have to.

 

We have the big wins we didn't have in 17-18

[HuskerFever]

I was listening to some pundits talk about the bubble teams and one of them articulated it well in my opinion.

 

He basically said that all bubble teams are exactly that. Bubble teams. Every single one of them have a reason to be left out of the tournament. That's why they're bubble teams. The ones that stand out are the ones who have reasons to be IN the tournament. They all have flaws, but the ones that have a reason to be in the tournament are the ones that have quality wins on the resume.

We are that team. Just need to do some work to avoid or minimize the bad losses.

[Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty]

43 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

I was listening to some pundits talk about the bubble teams and one of them articulated it well in my opinion.

 

He basically said that all bubble teams are exactly that. Bubble teams. Every single one of them have a reason to be left out of the tournament. That's why they're bubble teams. The ones that stand out are the ones who have reasons to be IN the tournament. They all have flaws, but the ones that have a reason to be in the tournament are the ones that have quality wins on the resume.

We are that team. Just need to do some work to avoid or minimize the bad losses.

I think our fans are overrating our quality wins. Yes, the Purdue win stands out, though like it or not it comes with an asterisk of being at home.

 

Beyond that our best wins are average or even mediocre when compared to other bubble teams’ best wins. Most bubble teams have a great road win or two, which trumps our home wins vs Michigan State and Wisconsin. The committee loves to reference a team’s ability to win away from home. Unfortunately that’s a major knock against us unless we turn that statistic around these next few weeks.

 

I still think the target is pretty simple: 21 wins to feel decent; 22 to feel comfortably in.

[49r]

19 minutes ago, Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty said:

I think our fans are overrating our quality wins. Yes, the Purdue win stands out, though like it or not it comes with an asterisk of being at home.

 

Beyond that our best wins are average or even mediocre when compared to other bubble teams’ best wins. Most bubble teams have a great road win or two, which trumps our home wins vs Michigan State and Wisconsin. The committee loves to reference a team’s ability to win away from home. Unfortunately that’s a major knock against us unless we turn that statistic around these next few weeks.

 

I still think the target is pretty simple: 21 wins to feel decent; 22 to feel comfortably in.

 

Yeah that's what makes the Rutgers and Illinois games hurt so much.  We are a whisper away from 20-6 right now and feeling pretty comfortable.

[Vinny]

Road wins can apparently really shoot you up the NET rankings. I was looking at teams near us and McNeese State shot up by 15 spots this week with road wins against #354 and #267. They were absolute blowouts, but I imagine top 125 wins on the road by normal margins would could do wonders as well. If we snag two I think we could get off the bubble in the right direction, regardless of the B1G ten tourney results.

[HuscurAdam]

18 hours ago, cornfed24-7 said:

Only get to the finals? 

 

Winning when we get there obviously goes without saying. 

[hhcmatt]

1 hour ago, Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty said:

I think our fans are overrating our quality wins. Yes, the Purdue win stands out, though like it or not it comes with an asterisk of being at home.

 

Beyond that our best wins are average or even mediocre when compared to other bubble teams’ best wins. Most bubble teams have a great road win or two, which trumps our home wins vs Michigan State and Wisconsin. The committee loves to reference a team’s ability to win away from home. Unfortunately that’s a major knock against us unless we turn that statistic around these next few weeks.

 

I still think the target is pretty simple: 21 wins to feel decent; 22 to feel comfortably in.

 

That's still the difference between 2017-18 and now though if you're referencing my post; that would have been enough quality wins to get the 2017-18 team into the tourney and it's the reason none of us are watching FAMU games.

[Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty]

7 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

That's still the difference between 2017-18 and now though if you're referencing my post; that would have been enough quality wins to get the 2017-18 team into the tourney and it's the reason none of us are watching FAMU games.

I guess I’m not totally clear on what your point is. Yes, our resume right now is definitely better than 2018. We have six wins in Q1+Q2 compared to only one in 2018. That doesn’t mean it’s good enough to get in. Our 2018 team wasn’t even close to making it, nor should it have been.

[hhcmatt]

10 minutes ago, Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty said:

I guess I’m not totally clear on what your point is. Yes, our resume right now is definitely better than 2018. We have six wins in Q1+Q2 compared to only one in 2018. That doesn’t mean it’s good enough to get in. Our 2018 team wasn’t even close to making it, nor should it have been.

At the end of the day I'm on the same page that winning 21+ games should do the trick 

[hskr4life]

Didn’t get a full update out today but watch

 

FAU @ South Florida (didn’t realize that USF led that conference and they are a potential bid stealer.

 

Murray St @ Drake (could use drake to have another L

 

Northwestern @ Indiana (a NW loss puts us in a tie in the standings and may move us closer to them in bubble standings too)

 

Memphis @ SMU (Need to continue to see Memphis downfall

 

Seton Hall @ St John’s (ultimate bubble game)

 

Rutgers @ Minny (some are back on the Rutgers bandwagon)

 

Utah @ UCLA (UCLA is hot and Utah is not so a Utah loss knocks them down even more)

[hskr4life]

South Florida led by 25 and that’s down to 7

Edited February 18 by hskr4life

[Cookie Miller Wasn't Dirty]

Nice W for Northwestern. Our home win vs them is on the verge of becoming Q2A, which is NET 31-55. They’re 59 as of this morning. It’d be helpful if they can finish strong and solidify themselves as a 6 or 7 seed.

 

The loss for Indiana should contribute towards a less daunting environment for us Wednesday too.

[Norm Peterson]

To put road wins in perspective: There are currently 11 Big Ten conference teams with at least TWO conference road wins. Even Michigan has one.

 

Only tOSU and we have none.

 

Came close twice. Got blown out the other times. We have 3 more chances to pull the rabbit out of the hat and nab that elusive conference road win. It'd be nice to grab two.

[hskr4life]

Memphis isn’t just on the bubble… they are so far off the bubble, they may not even get in if they win out and lose the conference tournament championship game.

 

They look bad.

[cipsucks]

1 hour ago, Norm Peterson said:

 It'd be nice to grab two.

 

It happened in a Lincoln park years ago.  It happens again this year!  

[HB]

Gophers squarely in the hunt for a bid.   Our game with them in Lincoln could be very important....and it won't be easy.   Payne and Garcia will be a challenge.

[TourneyBound]

26 minutes ago, HB said:

Gophers squarely in the hunt for a bid.   Our game with them in Lincoln could be very important....and it won't be easy.   Payne and Garcia will be a challenge.

Totally agree. They are playing about as well as anyone right now 

[hskr4life]

Threatening to pass us in the standings as well.  Very important week coming up in Lincoln.  Win both, which we can, and we’re feeling really good heading into the final 3 games.

[hskr4life]

Y’all gotta see the quotes coming out of this Pitno press conference.  He went off!

 

 

 

[hhcmatt]

4 minutes ago, hskr4life said:

Y’all gotta see the quotes coming out of this Pitno press conference.  He went off!

 

Same energy

 

[hskr4life]

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