kleitus

nope. plus it keeps illinois in the "top 100" rpi's.

yeah, i'd say they're just a mite guilty of looking ahead....

@illinois

I was listening to the 590 guys, and they said that we might get in if we go 8-1 in the next 9 games. They said that might be enough, I had to chuckle to myself. That was winning the last 6 games plus 2 in the tournament. That would be another 2 top 25 RPI wins, and possibly 2 top 100 road wins. That probably gets us a 7 seed. We would be 14-3 in our last 17 games, in the 2nd toughest conference in the country. They claimed that the Big 10 was down this year. The top of the conference is down, but the bottom of the conference is up. Better than a 7 seed in those circumstances IMO... probably a 5 if we did that -- no joke. That would be winning 11 of our last 12, and 14 of our last 17, including 5-2 against teams in the RPI top 25 (win vs ohio state, michigan loss, msu win, wiscy would be a win, plus 2 wins in the big ten tournament as either a 3 or 4 seed -- which means we'd face 3 straight teams in the tournament with an RPI better than 25). That would jump our RPI into roughly the mid to low 20's... and a 1-2 seed jump over your RPI placing when a team is THAT hot isn't abnormal. This isn't the Ivy league we're talking about. This is the big ten and the selection committee knows it. We're in better shape than you think if we take care of business. Things get real interesting if we go 6-0. Don't expect it but let's not be so down on where we're at -- we're in pretty good shape.

That's a heck of an interview... he's basically asking the question... and it's very legitimate... asking what the results would be if some of those teams in the top 25 played our schedule. yeah we've had 3-4 ugly losses, but still. it's not like creighton or msu or michigan or osu haven't blown out other top 25 quality teams this year. i think villanova might run screaming if they have to play creighton in their conference tournament... and that's a fairly solid team.

Win the next 4 and we'll see. 18-10 and i think we may crack a poll at that point. Same if we go 5-1 and the last win is wisconsin. would be nice to crack the final one after making the sweet 16 ...

........ i stayed out of this thread because i didn't want to jinx it... wow... WOW

considering that if we're 10-8 we're probably AT LEAST 5th because we beat wisconsin at home? unless you think wisconsin will win either at michigan or at iowa. OSU could lose a couple more games easily too. EXTREME outside shot of catching iowa with that record (who has the tiebreaker so it's moot but still). we could easily finish higher than 6th if we go 10-8 is my only point.

if you look at the schedules involved, it's going to be pretty hard for minnesota, indiana, or northwestern or purdue to be better than 8-10 at this point. penn state and illinois aren't going to be that good. Minnesota is the only one that I think has a shot at better... and they play @nw, @OSU, @michigan and iowa at home. so yeah... 1-3 in those games shouldn't shock anyone. sure they could go 2-2 ... but that would leave them 9-9 if they win their other games. not likely... sorry. and we own the tiebreaker anyway. if we're 9-9 we're going to finish 6th -- straight out. 10-8 with a win over wisconsin and we're going to PROBABLY be better than that.

If miles leaves to go to another school, that probably means we made at least a couple sweet 16's i'll take that and smile... one thing at a time man...

shavon's night is one of those where you just start giggling because he's en fuego...

jeez shavon... did you eat your wheaties this morning?

you knew shavon would have a game like this sooner or later... but this is sweet so far. now we just need rey to go off in a big game...

well.. there's the shavon we grew to love last year...

So long as we're dreaming... if we win both games this week we'd firmly jump past "bubble" stage and control our own destiny for 5th in the conference... with our main competition (wisconsin) playing at our house the last game of the season. Our RPI would jump probably into the low 40's with a road win against the #9 RPI team. Beating MSU would be one of those 'one in a decade' or so games but hey... lol... since we're dreaming...

Look at the schedule. Yeah they've lost 8 in a row but jeez... there's really only one bad loss in there. @wisc @nw purdue MSU @OSU @Indiana Iowa Wisc Only truly bad loss in there was Purdue. Other bad loss is at georgia tech. Yeah you could argue they should have won at least one of the games against iowa and wisconsin or even northwestern but still. Can't take this one for granted. RPI in the 80's even with losing 8 in a row should tell you something.

I'm looking at our RPI just for kicks... we were 72 before today... right behind Indiana. Northwestern is at 91 with Illinois at 84. If we win against the Illini, we're looking at a decent jump higher by the time we're done playing MSU (road game against top 10 team should help regardless). Maybe 10-15 spots higher by the end of next week if we beat Illinois (i may be wrong, just seems right to me... obviously there are a lot of factors involved so if i'm full of it feel free to say so). Just interesting. An RPI in the high 50's/low 60's this late in the year is nothing to scoff at. Not sure entirely what that means, but it's definitely bubble discussion time IMO. It says a lot that the worst team in the big ten is still going to help us in the RPI so long as we take care of business.

has 6 in and one in the "first four out" in that one... minnesota is a 10, indiana first four out. it's interesting seeing that and looking at where we stand... we have a legit shot. given the schedules, i think it's fairly likely we end up ahead of both.

If you want to be picky, I'd say root for minnesota. Why? because we own the tiebreaker.

honestly don't think it matters at this point... can we root for chaos? in theory we could finish as high as tied for 4th.... if OSU ends up 10-8 (not unlikely as they've got some rough games left) and we go on a tear after the MSU game. I think they end up 11-7 though. I suppose we could dream of winning out but if that happens we can pick up our collective jaws off the floor and smile. We have to take care of business. period. that's what we have to root for.

i did a little research into schedules in the big ten... just to play into this a bit. Here's the teams immediately ahead of us in the standings that are not in the top 4 of the big ten ... and a projection. upsets happen but still... it gives you an idea : Northwestern (5-6) These guys probably have the easiest schedule besides ours... good news is if we take care of business at home we knock them behind us. And yes... this schedule is anything but easy. @MSU (loss) Minnesota (tossup) @OSU (loss) Indiana (tossup) @Neb (probable loss) PSU (win) @purdue (tossup) Figure 3-4 (they've pulled out some doozies and teams tend to play down to them... so i'll say they win their home games although who knows... this team is hard to predict). I'll say they beat purdue on the road and indiana at home and lose to minnesota just to pick something. 8-10 in the big ten. Indiana (4-5) Very tough schedule here... there's really only one gimme (PSU at home). I gave them OSU and nebraska at home (because it's their barn and well...). Beyond that there's a bunch of tossups. Purdue and indiana don't like each other. Iowa at home isn't a gimme. @minnesota (this game is today... loss... hope i don't look like an idiot later lol) PSU (win) @purdue (tossup) Iowa (tossup) @nw (tossup) @wisc (Loss) OSU (win) Neb (win) @michigan (loss) to be consistent, i say they lose to NW and split between purdue and iowa. that leaves them 8-10 in the big ten. Minnesota (4-6) These guys aren't in as good of a position with one more loss already... anywho... Indiana (again... this game is later today... win... hope i don't look stupid lol) @wisconsin (loss) @nw (tossup) Illinois (win) @OSU (loss) Iowa (tossup) @michigan (loss) PSU (win) Figure split the tossups. since i already had NW losing to them I'll say they beat NW and lose to Iowa. That leaves them 8-10 in the big ten with the possibility of 9-9 barring some outlandish wins. Purdue (4-6) This schedule is brutal. I'm serious when I say you might as well count out Purdue. @OSU (loss... this is tonight hope i don't look totally stupid lol) indiana (tossup) MSU (loss) @NEB (loss) Michigan (loss) @Iowa (loss) @Wisconsin (loss) NW (Win) One tossup that I gave to them earlier because I didn't want to be that brutal to anybody. Figure roughly 6-12 in the big ten. I'm going to ignore PSU and Illinois because well... we take care of business and they won't catch us. That leaves two teams... and this is where it gets VERY interesting) Nebraska (4-6) Illinois (win) @MSU (loss) PSU (win) Purdue (win) @Illinois (tossup... because they're terrible but it's a road game) NW (win) @Indiana (loss) Wisconsin (tossup... because it's a home game) Once again... split the tossups (which isn't outrageous) and you're looking at 9-9. But let's take a step back here... and say we're 8-9 (lost at illinois) going into that last game. Not a horrible scenario... but it gives us a chance to lose one game we shouldn't which I feel is very reasonable. That leaves the other team : Wisconsin (5-5) You want to talk a brutal schedule? Here it is. MSU (tossup) Minnesota (win) @michigan (loss) @iowa (loss) Indiana (win) @psu (tossup) Purdue (win) @Nebraska Ok I stretched a VERY little bit... with the game @psu... because psu plays pretty well at home. If they split the tossup games they're going to be 9-8 going into that last game in lincoln... and that game will be for FIFTH place in the big ten. In other words, if MSU wins tomorrow, it's a big deal for us. And keeping in mind that they could EASILY lose to Indiana or Minnesota somewhere in here -- even at home -- and those two teams are most likely not going to do better than 9-9 either. Just interesting... it's ok to dream... right? lol

don't buy it unless we win 2 in tournament and play the third REALLY close... RPI too low, even if we are in toughest conference

What that says to me is that we're looking at about 5% chance at an NCAA bid... not impossible but not good odds. 18 wins plus 1 in the tournament puts us probably in the low 40's. 2 puts us at 20 wins and that's going to be hard to keep out with 10 wins or more in the toughest conference in the country. Hey, I can dream right?

it's the start of a team like that... i think you need a couple years of recruiting like that to be a final 4 type team. just my opinion.

I was going to say Miles' Merry Men but it was a bit sexist... and reminds me a little bit too much of Men in Tights.