Are our non-conf, early season, D1 teams...

[Ian Pike Hammer]

helping us out, strength of schedule wise? Who's winning, who's losing?

Not much help here, I'm afraid. Only Ia. St. is thriving at 14-5, 4-3 in league play. The others:
Oregon, not too bad, 11-6, 3-2 in a very weak Pac-12 conference
UConn sits at 11-8 for the year, 2-4 in conf.
Pitt is 12-7, 2-4 in league

Not much help there.

 

[BVHawk95]

helping us out, strength of schedule wise? Who's winning, who's losing?

Not much help here, I'm afraid. Only Ia. St. is thriving at 14-5, 4-3 in league play. The others:
Oregon, not too bad, 11-6, 3-2 in a very weak Pac-12 conference
UConn sits at 11-8 for the year, 2-4 in conf.
Pitt is 12-7, 2-4 in league

Not much help there.

Pitt is a net positive, considering they were atrocious recently and have turned it around this season. They took down then #11 FSU just a week or so ago.

UConn is a push since they were expected to be average. Oregon a net negative due to the Pac-12 being garbage and them underachieving.

Overall, though, it's not necessarily a horrible non-con SOS. Definitely not the weakest we've had.

 

[Stanzi]

The committee will rely on the NET rankings so here's where the notables currently stand:

Iowa State: 15
Oregon: 69
UConn: 88
Pitt: 59

Everyone else is rubbish.

 

[Hawkalum2002]

Oregon is 2-3 in conference, not 3-2. The only P6 team we've beat, B10 included, that's above .500 in their conference is ISU. Of the top 42 teams in the NET Rankings, only two have a worse OOC SOS than Iowa.

 

[Adam]

The committee will rely on the NET rankings so here's where the notables currently stand:

Iowa State: 15
Oregon: 69
UConn: 88
Pitt: 59

Everyone else is rubbish.

The 4 listed are considered good wins no matter how they finish the season. All 4 are recognizable basketball brands. It's not like beating UNC level clout, but people will look at those wins and give them more credit then they may realistically be worth.

 

[ssckelley]

helping us out, strength of schedule wise? Who's winning, who's losing?

Not much help here, I'm afraid. Only Ia. St. is thriving at 14-5, 4-3 in league play. The others:
Oregon, not too bad, 11-6, 3-2 in a very weak Pac-12 conference
UConn sits at 11-8 for the year, 2-4 in conf.
Pitt is 12-7, 2-4 in league

Not much help there.

Hard to believe how low those early season tournament wins over Oregon and UConn are turning into. Before the season started I was just hoping Iowa would go 1-1.

Of the top 42 teams in the NET Rankings, only two have a worse OOC SOS than Iowa.

But the problem isn't those 4 games, the problem is the other crap teams Iowa scheduled.

This goes back to my gripe I made before the games against Western Carolina, Savannah State, and Bryant. Those are worthless games to play and they kill your SOS. They will always schedule these cupcake games but just don't schedule the worst teams from the worst conferences. Schedule the decent teams from the worst conferences.

 

[Adam]

Hard to believe how low those early season tournament wins over Oregon and UConn are turning into. Before the season started I was just hoping Iowa would go 1-1.

But the problem isn't those 4 games, the problem is the other crap teams Iowa scheduled.

This goes back to my gripe I made before the games against Western Carolina, Savannah State, and Bryant. Those are worthless games to play and they kill your SOS. They will always schedule these cupcake games but just don't schedule the worst teams from the worst conferences. Schedule the decent teams from the worst conferences.

To me the topic is irrelevant. The recipe for a B1G team to make the tournament is pretty simple. Finish top 5 in the B1G and win your ACC and Big East crossover games. Get into a good preseason tournament where you at least get to play 2 P6 schools. That's pretty much a guarantee to be in. This season for Iowa has the ingredients to make tournament stew. The kids just need to keep laser focused and close out the remaining season to finish top 5 and we are dancing. It's that simple.

 

[ssckelley]

To me the topic is irrelevant. The recipe for a B1G team to make the tournament is pretty simple. Finish top 5 in the B1G and win your ACC and Big East crossover games. Get into a good preseason tournament where you at least get to play 2 P6 schools. That's pretty much a guarantee to be in. This season for Iowa has the ingredients to make tournament stew. The kids just need to keep laser focused and close out the remaining season to finish top 5 and we are dancing. It's that simple.

I see your point but seeding is important as well and all of this typically weighs into the committee decisions. Perhaps this year Iowa will be a shoo in but there have been seasons where Iowa was a bubble team.

This year they've got the new NET system, so maybe it won't be as big of a deal but I have my doubts.

 

[Adam]

I see your point but seeding is important as well and all of this typically weighs into the committee decisions. Perhaps this year Iowa will be a shoo in but there have been seasons where Iowa was a bubble team.

This year they've got the new NET system, so maybe it won't be as big of a deal but I have my doubts.

I see your point as well. I just think it might be over analyzing on our schedule. We aren't going from a post season no show to a #1 seed. We don't really need a schedule that secures us a high bid because we aren't really a high bid team. Now if we made the tournament 4 years in a row and actually win some games in it. Then it might be realistic to start ramping up the non con and trying to play preseason marquee matchups.

Right this minute though everything hinges on continuing to win the games we can in the B1G. Without being able to win our share of conference games we really don't have any business being in the NCAA tournament. We are back on the baby steps plan to post season play. Fran let the program momentum fizzle out and now he has to get the boulder rolling again before we have the luxury of worrying about who we play.

 

[JG10Hawk]

Hard to believe how low those early season tournament wins over Oregon and UConn are turning into. Before the season started I was just hoping Iowa would go 1-1.



But the problem isn't those 4 games, the problem is the other crap teams Iowa scheduled.

This goes back to my gripe I made before the games against Western Carolina, Savannah State, and Bryant. Those are worthless games to play and they kill your SOS. They will always schedule these cupcake games but just don't schedule the worst teams from the worst conferences. Schedule the decent teams from the worst conferences.

Non con SOS ranking isn't the greatest measurement. Non DI games are excluded from the SOS formulas which is dumb. IMO they should be input as a ranked 353 opponent. Case and point, look at UNI's non con SOS (62 Kenpom, 9 NET). They played nobody outside of Iowa and have a much higher non con SOS. Bemidji State and Dubuque were two of their non conference games....One is basically better off playing DII teams vs those ranked 300+.

 

[ssckelley]

Non con SOS ranking isn't the greatest measurement. Non DI games are excluded from the SOS formulas which is dumb. IMO they should be input as a ranked 353 opponent. Case and point, look at UNI's non con SOS (62 Kenpom, 9 NET). They played nobody outside of Iowa and have a much higher non con SOS. Bemidji State and Dubuque were two of their non conference games....One is basically better off playing DII teams vs those ranked 300+.

I have no problem with these formulas ignoring non-D1 games, is playing someone ranked +300 really that much better than playing some of the better DII schools? I wish Iowa would replace a team like Savannah State with Upper Iowa. Keep the money in state and give those Iowa boys a thrill to play in Carver. Heck the game will probably be just as competitive and you'll probably sell more tickets. The only downside is you don't get the win to count, so in the eyes of the committee if you win 20 games but 1 is against a DII school then it's only 19. But that seems almost irrelevant anymore now they've moved away from RPI.

 

[JG10Hawk]

I have no problem with these formulas ignoring non-D1 games, is playing someone ranked +300 really that much better than playing some of the better DII schools? I wish Iowa would replace a team like Savannah State with Upper Iowa. Keep the money in state and give those Iowa boys a thrill to play in Carver. Heck the game will probably be just as competitive and you'll probably sell more tickets. The only downside is you don't get the win to count, so in the eyes of the committee if you win 20 games but 1 is against a DII school then it's only 19. But that seems almost irrelevant anymore now they've moved away from RPI.

You are kind of proving my point and I agree with you about scheduling the local non DI teams vs the 300+ out of staters.

It most definitely is better playing a non DI team vs a 300+ team to have a better non con SOS. For teams that play those non DI games instead, their non con SOS is skewed heavily in their favor vs those that do play the 300+ teams. Simply put they are removing 300+ ranked teams from their pool used in the formula which helps their ranking tremendously. That's why you see UNI ranked #9 in non con vs DI opponents. Completely ridiculous to think they played the 9th toughest non con schedule.

I agree there are some non DI teams that are arguably just as good or even better than the 300+ team. If the formula gave these non DI teams a 300+ ranking within the formula, you would have a much better representation of the non con strength of schedule. Completely ignoring the non DI games results in unfair and completely untrue comparisons.

 

[ssckelley]

When looking at 75 teams they are going to look at the quadrants. I highly doubt the names are even going to matter that much.

I think they will in the Q1. Playoffs be noticed on the team sheets they even split them up between the top Q1 and bottom Q1.