Eliminated From March Madness?

[eveningnewsteam]

I don’t care about the numbers, but they don’t lie. If this team continues to play like this, the tournament is a pipe dream anyway. They look nothing like a tournament team right now. With the way they looked the last 3 days, it looked like a team that could be playing on Wednesday at the BTT. To say this team has a ton of improvement to do would be an understatement.

 

[PCHawk]

I would be curious to know if a team has made the NCAA tournament after losing to two teams in non-conference play who didn't win even 10 games.

Wisconsin had some really bad losses last year and got in easy. I think MSU may have had a couple too. Even if we turn it around, our seed will be bad.

 

[NikeHawk21]

It is pretty close to true. I don't think they will be able to win enough games to get that RPI back below 75 which is the minimum threshold for an at large bid. These losses and the future losses of those two teams will continue to haunt the team all season.

http://www.rpiforecast.com/wizard/Iowa.html

Play around with this if you like. I ran a couple that included losing at both ISU and VT and a 12-6 B1G record and our RPI was under 50.

 

[50613sivert]

http://www.rpiforecast.com/wizard/Iowa.html

Play around with this if you like. I ran a couple that included losing at both ISU and VT and a 12-6 B1G record and our RPI was under 50.

Sure, 12-6 in the B1G sounds good - great, actually. But guess how many B1G games Iowa is favored by =>50% this year: 5 (vPSU-51%, vRtgrs-50%, @Neb-50%, vIND-64%, vNW-61%)

However, I do think that the performance so far is under what this team is capable of and will be doing by season end.

 

[Hawkalum2002]

Wisconsin had some really bad losses last year and got in easy. I think MSU may have had a couple too. Even if we turn it around, our seed will be bad.

Wisconsin's only non-conference losses last year were to ranked Creighton and UNC. Michigan State had a loss to Northeastern and four losses to ranked teams in the non-conference. Neither is comparable to Iowa already losing two to 100-200 ranked teams. We don't play any ranked teams in the preseason this year by missing Cincy, although Va Tech could probably get ranked at some point, but that also means they beat Iowa along the way.

 

[PCHawk]

Wisconsin's only non-conference losses last year were to ranked Creighton and UNC. Michigan State had a loss to Northeastern and four losses to ranked teams in the non-conference. Neither is comparable to Iowa already losing two to 100-200 ranked teams. We don't play any ranked teams in the preseason this year by missing Cincy, although Va Tech could probably get ranked at some point, but that also means they beat Iowa along the way.

Was it the year before that Wisconsin got rocked bad in the non conference? I thought it was last year.

 

[Hawkalum2002]

Was it the year before that Wisconsin got rocked bad in the non conference? I thought it was last year.

Yes, it was the end of Bo Ryan, beginning of Gard era where they struggled. By the end of the season they were probably the second best B10 team behind Indiana that year. Too bad Iowa didn't run into them until the end of that year.

 

[IndianaHawk]

I agree with this. He faced four European "all star" teams, two exhibitions and the first three games against small competition that couldn't get physical with him. Now he's facing some bigger bodies, if not tall ones, that aren't intimidated by him and not letting him back them down so easily. He didn't deserve the over hype he'd been given so far, but he's not that far off just because he had a couple off nights the first time he went up against better competition. He is still a freshman afterall, it's the sophomores that played all those minutes last season that should be ahead of the game right now. Garza and Nunge have been two of the bright spots.

I agree. I will never get on a Freshman’s case for poor play. I am impressed if a freshman gets playing time.

 

[Bigtenchamp]

We are saying it because we see the deficiencies, look at the schedule and start counting potential Wins/losses. Nobody is guaranteeing it. Hell, they could lose 20 games in a row, win the BIG tournament and still get in.
Maybe you'd like to go down the schedule, tell us how you come up with 17 or 18 more wins? That's what it's going to take, now that our RPI is in the 300s.
Count em up for us. Get me to 21 or 22 wins from the schedule. Thanks.

Going up and down a schedule in any sport and counting wins and losses never works... yeah we could be horrible and only win 12-14 games.. i wouldn't be suprised with a bunch of freshman and sophomores.

I'm just commenting on how people are saying were mathmatically eliminated because by game 6... especially with such a young team.. This team has enough talent to compete night in and night out in the big ten.

However they are young and flawed... so they could also look like they have so far..

It's just so early for final conclusions.

 

[PCHawk]

Going up and down a schedule in any sport and counting wins and losses never works... yeah we could be horrible and only win 12-14 games.. i wouldn't be suprised with a bunch of freshman and sophomores.

I'm just commenting on how people are saying were mathmatically eliminated because by game 6... especially with such a young team.. This team has enough talent to compete night in and night out in the big ten.

However they are young and flawed... so they could also look like they have so far..

It's just so early for final conclusions.

If they could somehow look good and win Tuesday, going through the schedule and counting wins would instantly look a lot different. Your mindset would be "if we can beat Va Tech on the road, we can beat this team, and this team, and this team". Right now our mindset is "if we can lose to two crap teams in a row, no way we can beat this team". It's amazing how one game can change predictions.

 

[BryceC]

Va tech game would be huge and it will be interesting because they play a very physical style. Iowa has strugggled to overcome that so if they win it’ll be a really good win for this season.