First round "bye" conundrum

[rwmctrofholz]

I'm sitting here day dreaming about the Big Ten; as I'm prone do do.

 

My question to you is this:  A first round bye in in the Big 10 tournament is not out of the question.  Would Nebraska be better off to not get a bye and instead try and get an extra win under their belt to prop up the record a bit more instead of having the bye?

 

I recognize the fact that this question comes with a lot of assumptions.  

 

Your thoughts?

[Buglem]

A bye means we finished top four in the conference. That means we likely finished at least 11-7. That is a lock for the dance. I'd take the bye!

[Bugeaters1]

If they had a bye that would at least a four seed in the big 10 tourney and probally a ticket to the dance. Just my take.

[49r]

You finish as high as you possibly can.  No brainer.

 

If an extra win against Northwestern is going to make the difference between the NIT and the NCAA Tourney, well...I don't know how that's possible to be honest.

[HuskerFever]

We're going to win the tournament anyway, so why does it matter?

[kldm64]

That's not even a question as of course, you take the bye first round.  The goal is to win the conference tournament so the less games you play, the better.

[aphilso1]

That first round game is high risk/low reward.  We would likely be playing an Illinois or Northwestern team with nothing to lose.  Beat them, and you're not doing much to help your resume.  Lose, and that's a great way to take yourself out of the NCAA discussions.  I know a lot of people on this board look at the first round as an easy way to add to our win total, but I just don't see it that way.  I'm squarely in the "first round bye is a good thing" camp.

[CrazyforNUHOOPS]

No conundrum...finish as high as possible.

[AuroranHusker]

Finishing 4th place would be an amazing accomplishment when every prognosticator had NU at or near the bottom. And, being 4th would likely result in a matchup against the 5th team (high RPI), win that & a likely game vs. 1st team (very high RPI)... win-win, all-around.

[Chad A]

Agreed - finish Top 4 - with the current strength of Big Ten likely getting 6 teams maybe a 7th into tourney...

[uneblinstu]

If we finish tied with OSU, who would get the tiebreaker?

 

Honestly, I want whatever gets us a matchup with Iowa on the second day of the tournament.

[doc1394]

I certainly wouldn't lose to avoid a first round bye.

[HuskerActuary]

If we finish tied with OSU, who would get the tiebreaker?

 

Honestly, I want whatever gets us a matchup with Iowa on the second day of the tournament.

Still unknown who would win that tiebreaker. Here's the tiebreaker rules.

 

A. Two-team tie:

1. Results of head-to-head competition during the regular-season.

2. Each team's record vs. the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings (or in the case of a tie for the championship, the next highest position in the regular-season standings), continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

a. When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to their own tie-breaking procedures), rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.

b. When comparing records against a single team or a group of teams, the higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0).

3. Won-loss percentage of all Division I opponents.

4. Coin toss conducted by the Commissioner or designee.

[uneblinstu]

Basically, you want NU to get a top 4 seed and hope that whomever NU gets matched up with has spend a lot of energy to get through that first round game.

[uneblinstu]

 

If we finish tied with OSU, who would get the tiebreaker?

 

Honestly, I want whatever gets us a matchup with Iowa on the second day of the tournament.

Still unknown who would win that tiebreaker. Here's the tiebreaker rules.

 

A. Two-team tie:

1. Results of head-to-head competition during the regular-season.

2. Each team's record vs. the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings (or in the case of a tie for the championship, the next highest position in the regular-season standings), continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

a. When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to their own tie-breaking procedures), rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.

b. When comparing records against a single team or a group of teams, the higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0).

3. Won-loss percentage of all Division I opponents.

4. Coin toss conducted by the Commissioner or designee.

 

So, basically, we want MSU to win the league, then.

[Norm Peterson]

I'm sitting here day dreaming about the Big Ten; as I'm prone do do.

 

My question to you is this:  A first round bye in in the Big 10 tournament is not out of the question.  Would Nebraska be better off to not get a bye and instead try and get an extra win under their belt to prop up the record a bit more instead of having the bye?

 

I recognize the fact that this question comes with a lot of assumptions.  

 

Your thoughts?

If we finish in the top 4, we're in.  What we'd have to do to get a top 4 seed would be enough to be in the dance IMO.

[royalfan]

Not to mention, the goal in a conference tourney is to win the conference tourney.  The chances of doing that are helped quite a bit by having a bye.  And there is always the chance of the 12 seed winning in this league, setting up a nice situation in the quarterfinal. 

[uneblinstu]

Not to mention, the goal in a conference tourney is to win the conference tourney.  The chances of doing that are helped quite a bit by having a bye.  And there is always the chance of the 12 seed winning in this league, setting up a nice situation in the quarterfinal. 

Just ask Mizzou.

[uneblinstu]

BTW, with five games to go, we're still not eliminated from winning the whole thing...and hold the tiebreaker over MSU.

[PimpMario]

I just don't see top 4.  OSU Wisky and Iowa (2 of 3) would have to struggle mightily and we would have to win at least 3 but probably 4 of our remaining 5.  

 

Iowa holds the tiebreaker against us so we probably aren't catching them.  Maybe it could come down to the last game of the season, beat Wisky and get the 4 seed (with a tiebreaker over both Wisky and OSU).

 

But in that case we would probably have to play Wisky a few days later anyway.

 

I would say that if we get to 11-7 we are already going to be getting an 8 or a 9 seed.

 

We definitely want the bye, but our chances are so small of getting it.

[Bugeaters1]

I just don't see top 4.  OSU Wisky and Iowa (2 of 3) would have to struggle mightily and we would have to win at least 3 but probably 4 of our remaining 5.  

 

Iowa holds the tiebreaker against us so we probably aren't catching them.  Maybe it could come down to the last game of the season, beat Wisky and get the 4 seed (with a tiebreaker over both Wisky and OSU).

 

But in that case we would probably have to play Wisky a few days later anyway.

 

I would say that if we get to 11-7 we are already going to be getting an 8 or a 9 seed.

 

We definitely want the bye, but our chances are so small of getting it.

That's why you play the games. Who on here thought that the Huskers would catch a Hail Mary to beat No. Western.