2013 Iowa vs Minnesota/Illinois

[unl]

How did Minnesota and Illinois get into the dance last year with 8-10 conference records?  Was it mainly based on RPI or key wins/losses?   Or who was hot at the end of the year? Iowa had a pretty solid year (a hawkeye fan I work with had pretty good conversations about it last year) but got stuck with NIT. 

[doc1394]

If I remember right, Iowa had a pathetic out of conference schedule. Not really sure about Minnesota, but I think they were doing really well in the beginning of the year and then limped to the end, but their beginning was strong enough to get a bid 

[throwback]

I believe Iowa's RPI was in the mid-50s - Illinois and Minny were pretty comfortably in it seems to me, must've been in the low 30s? Maybe even high 20s.

 

With conferences getting bigger and bigger and teams playing unbalanced league schedules, it's tough for the NCAA selection committee to rely on conference standings when determining bids. 

 

As their NIT run showed, Iowa probably deserved an NCAA bid last season, but their non-con schedule was awful from an RPI standpoint and it cost them. I don't think we'll ever have to worry about that problem with Coach Miles, as he seems to have the formula figured out pretty well.

[royalfan]

We have to remember our Big 10 schedule is about as easy as it could be.  That will hurt us. 

[ajb5856]

We have to remember our Big 10 schedule is about as easy as it could be. That will hurt us.

Right now our conference only SOS is #1 most difficult for B1G teams according to KenPom. Yes, it eases up quite a bit down the stretch but I would doubt our conference SOS falls outside the top half of the conference despite the ease of our remaining games (compared to the start).

[Lincoln Gopher]

How did Minnesota and Illinois get into the dance last year with 8-10 conference records?  Was it mainly based on RPI or key wins/losses?   Or who was hot at the end of the year? Iowa had a pretty solid year (a hawkeye fan I work with had pretty good conversations about it last year) but got stuck with NIT.

For Minnesota, it was strength of schedule and wins over top 50 and top 100 rpi teams. They were ranked as high as 8th in the polls at one point, only loss in the non conference was to Duke, beat Memphis, Stanford and Florida state. Then they folded down the stretch as they did many a time with Tubby as their coach. Also beat #1 Indiana in conference.

[Shuttlesworth]

Losing to us in February was the dagger to Iowa. That gave them their 3rd loss outside the Top 100 in a year where they finished 63rd in SOS. They also finished the year with only five wins in the Top 100.

For comparisons sake, we currently have one loss outside the Top 100 and are 14th in SOS. We also already have four wins in the Top 100, including two in the Top 50. Our 2013-14 résumé closer resembles the 2012-13 Minnesota and Illinois than it does 2012-13 Iowa.

[unl]

So, you could say NU would have to go 9-9 and run through a couple games in the conference tournament to have a shot.  While there were a couple nice wins against name opponents (Indiana, Ohio State, maybe you could say Gulf Coast as far as a name brand), we lack several top 50/100 wins. 

 

I'm not sure we will ever look back and say "I don't think the Penn State and Michigan losses were important".  Still though, lots to play for with realistic games.  Winning out at home will put us closer.

[royalfan]

 

We have to remember our Big 10 schedule is about as easy as it could be. That will hurt us.

Right now our conference only SOS is #1 most difficult for B1G teams according to KenPom. Yes, it eases up quite a bit down the stretch but I would doubt our conference SOS falls outside the top half of the conference despite the ease of our remaining games (compared to the start).

 

Well, keep in mind we don't play ourselves and we are one of the bottom teams, so that factors in.  But when we play the other 5 worst teams all twice and only play 1 of the top 3 teams twice, I would say it is as easy as it could possibly be and it will not help us when evaluated with other members of league.