nustudent

Give me Kyle. And I agree that Morgan seems more like a role player behind Mast. Which surprises me considering Minnesota's need now since they lost Payne

The Minnesota mod on their 24/7 board was saying we had an influx of NIL funds and we were making some major offers. Morgan had basically committed to Minnesota and our offer got the visit.

The thought of Bluejay fans speeding down I-80 from Lincoln trying to take their Drink the Rhule Aid t-shirts off while putting their sweater vests on in the car while driving 80MPH entertains me.

I understand that. But at the same time, the portal affects everyone a little different. And forcing them to do something they don’t want to do doesn’t mean much. It’s a mediocre level of basketball in the grand scheme of it. The team that wins the NIT won’t be left out.

The idea that I like is you forfeit a chance at the postseason the following year if you turn down the NIT bid. That’ll keep the fringe teams like St Johns in.

Wasn't there an MTE that we are supposed to be in the Carolinas next year?

This is my concern about replacing Rice and Wilcher. It's not that their talent is irreplaceable, but most transfers aren't coming in to be rotational players, especially talented transfers.

The limited length and athleticism that you pointed out. Generally, guys who lack those don't set the world on fire right away. Doesn't mean that it can't be overcome, but it generally takes time.

I'm not so much concerned as to what position he pays as to the overall development. He strikes me as a guy who might need a year. Those types haven't been kind to us.

Having all 3 go to Wisconsin would suck. Better than them being Jesuit though.

I’m not a huge fan of his……but moving on when you already have at least 4 spots open would seem foolish. I think he’s very replaceable. But you don’t tell him no if it’s an option.

We really need a 4. But if you can add a Pike, you make Gary work at the 4

Relative to our past quarter century and preseason expectations, it was great

I’ll take a William Kyle from SDSU and Saint Thomas if Gary or Williams moves on

7th or 8th from being out. Not seed

I'm not too worried about it. I've always expected them to be in. On average, we're about 7th or 8th in across all the brackets. I think several others near and behind us will play themselves out.

I don't think we need to get to 21 to get in because we'll need the win. I think we need to get to 21, because it's avoiding a bad loss. All home games are Quad 3 at this point. And it's very possible Michigan (and a slight chance at Indiana) end up as a Quad 3 road game as well. One of our stronger selling points is that we are undefeated against Quad 3 and Quad 4 teams. That's a bigger feather in our cap than some people think/realize. Going 4-2 down the stretch does several things for us. Some officially count as metrics, some are more optics (like finishing strong)....but in no order... -You go above 20 wins and are 10+ games over .500 at 21-10 -You finish +.500 in conference play at 11-9 -You seemingly avoid any bad (Quad 3/Quad 4) losses. -You add another road win to the mix. -You finish the regular season above .500 in your last 10 -A NET rating likely in the 40s and certainly no lower than where we are now (53rd). -Likely Improvements in other ratings, some of which we are already sitting well in (KPI, KenPom, SOR, etc) It's possible we can still miss the dance at 21-10 in the scenario. But it would take some pretty remarkable (and probably unrealistic) events down the stretch from other bubble teams or some massive upsets in the conference tournaments from what would otherwise be one-bid leagues to force us out. At 20-11, a lot of those things above don't apply.

While other teams can log some big wins as opposed to us...the odds that we finish as strong or stronger is in our favor too. Our schedule is pretty favorable. We really should expect to go 4-2 at worst, especially if we are truly an NCAA team. Take Wake Forest for an example....they play Duke twice, Clemson, @Virginia, @Va Tech on top of some other easier games. They can take a big jump if they win some of those, but they could very easily go 1-4 in those 5 games and 4-4 down the stretch too. Providence is another. St. Johns, @ Xavier, @ Marquette, Nova, UCONN. Those are 5 tough games. If they win 3 of those on top of beating Depaul and @ Georgetown, they will be sitting good. No shame in losing to Marquette or UCONN, but more than 1, maybe 2 losses to the other 3 and they'll be hurting. Ole Miss as well. @Kentucky, @Miss St, South Carolina, Bama, @Georgia, A&M. They get Missouri twice. But they probably need to win 3 of those 6 games. That won't be easy for them. Kansas St can do us a huge solid too in a few weeks by winning at Cincinnati. Hurts the Bearcats and possibly gets KSU back into Quad 1 range for us.

If they keep winning, they could get to a Quad 1 loss/Quad 2 win status for us which will help. Basically become what we thought we'd have with Indiana.

Win. We need the Quad 1 win.

Bart Torvik has them going 3-6 in their final 9. His NET forecast has them finishing at 113. So they'd stay a Quad 2 road game. That being said, it wouldn't surprise me if they finish worse than that.

For the time being. If MIchigan continues their plummet, that could be a Quad 3 game. And while I don't think they will plummet that far, Indiana has a relatively difficult final 7-8 games. If they crater...they could get close.

This. 21-10 with 0 Quad 3/4 losses is going to be very hard to keep us out. Lot of other bubble teams didn't have front loaded conference schedules like we did either, so they'll pick up some losses along the way too.

If we do that...we'd have 2 road wins and 1 neutral site win (before the Big 10 tournament). And all metrics that are actually criteria are solid. If the committee is going to make stuff up, we can't control that. And let's not pretend that other teams in our seeding area/bubble (10-12 seeds) are exactly dynamic on the road either.

I don’t think we have to do anything remarkable to make it. Just win what we should. Take care of business at home. Win at Michigan. That avoids any quad 3 losses and puts us at 21-10.