ATupe

No, actually I told many of my friends at the beginning of the season that Miles had to make the tourney this year. It's been long enough guys. Complacency is not the way to progress, I've always preached that to those around me. We had a golden opportunity to win a winnable game, and didn't do it. Call it what it is, a severely damaging loss that a great team doesn't lose. Now, the only way out to a season we all should expect is to win our next 4 and slip into the dance. It's not like we're expecting a 4 seed here, we'd be happy to slip in as team #68.

I'll drink when I feel like celebrating. And no, the NIT doesn't "do it" for me. It shouldn't you either.

The thing that couldn't happen happened. Now what? Let's say we come back and finish the season winning and finish 22-9. Play Michigan in round 1 and get beat. You're dead meat and we're celebrating an NIT birth. I don't do NIT brackets and we shouldn't be happy about that. We pissed down our leg today. We go 22-9 and beat Michigan, get beat by a T3 team. NIT. We go 22-9 and beat Mich and T3 team, then I think we're in. That would be 24-10. When you live life on the edge, you have to win ALL of the games against tier 2 and below teams. This was tier 3 fellas, this was exactly what the Dr. didn't order. This loss will sting for the rest of the year, but the fact remains that we haven't turned the corner to beat the good teams consistently. We didn't beat Kansas, we didn't beat Creighton, we pissed down our legs against Penn State, UCF, St. Johns and yes, Illinois. Do we really deserve it if we can't win ones like today when everything is on the line? This doesn't erase the progress, but it sure makes you wonder if we really have turned into a consistent winner or not. I'm trying to stay positive, but man, this will test your patience.

So you're saying if we stumble in one in the regular season, but make the B10 championship game, we're in. Duh! Winning out is by far a more attainable outcome.

A question for debate: If we make the "play-in" game and win. Does that count as breaking our NCAA tournament winless streak? I think we should have to win a game in the actual 64 team tournament to qualify as breaking the streak. What do you all think? Also, I've seen some on the board speculating that we can make it even if we lose a game down the stretch in the regular season. Let's make one thing clear, anything less than a win-out finish to the regular season and disregard my above question. It will be NIT time again. From everything I've been reading, that may not even be enough, we might have to get one in the B10 tourney too.

A win is a win. Ya Rutgers is bad, but we've blown these before. I'm happy

Now this was impressive to me. We played well on the road, had the lead slip, then overcame it. This team has progressed beyond other Miles teams now. We can win out. A few things that bothered me and we need to tighten up: 1) For the life of me, we don't defend a strong big man worth a crap. Our staff needs to coach how to FRONT THE POST! We get demolished inside by big guys with decent skill and we have to put a stop to that. 2) Evan T. played great, but we have to be careful on letting him shoot too much. His shot is below average and I just don't want us getting into the trap of him having a green light. All in all, great win and we're getting the job done. Let's go dancin'.

NU 77 Minn 67

Hey, it's been a while, I think it's cool that we're getting ANY votes.

I'll second that one.

The thing you forget about is the "eye test". I've served on selection groups before, albeit smaller level, and we always focused on what the team has done in the last qtr of the season. Nobody wants a team fizzling at the end. The committee may not officially say it, but this will play in our favor if we win out.

NU 66 Min 60

It's a tough call. The body of work clearly is unacceptable. He hasn't shown that he can consistently win in the conference, in post season, or against our main rival. That's gotta change. All of that being said, for the first time in forever it seems, I've seen his fingerprints on an improving team. I can't say that since the year we got hot and made the dance. If we make the dance, the only way I see him getting fired is if we can get our hands on something better, i.e. Hoiberg or Altman. If either of those two are a real possibility, we should absolutely make the move and get the long-term solution in here. Unfortunately, Miles hasn't proven that he's really learned how to win here and beat the teams we need him to beat.

I would agree under normal years. But man, with the B10 this lowly, you gotta raise your expectations. Finishing 14-4 in this B10 is like finishing 10-8 in years past. This is a tournament team with the schedule to allow us to be in charge of our destiny. If we win out the regular season, no way in hell do we not make it. We lose one, and we're wringing our hands over the poor performances at Penn State, UCF, St Johns, and not beating our in-state rival.

I think you stick with Gill. Taylor doesn't have enough upside for me. We get Gill going and we will be that much better. I have to say that I haven't been this excited about our team since Nee. We really showed something to me last night.