Has the 1-5 Skid Really Been That Bad?

[kicker22]

Just my opinion, but I actually saw some things during the Illinois game that make me want to believe that we're ready to turn the corner and get out of the skid. I saw an aggressive Woody going up strong in the paint and playing the way many of us expect a seven footer to play. I also saw a few good offensive possessions late in the game and actually felt that unlike other losses we were actually going to come out ahead. The dagger was literally buried into my spine when they hit the 3 with no time remaining.

The loss stung more than others for me because as I stated I really saw us winning that one late and liked what I saw out of our offense in the closing minute. That loss hurt so much more than the others because the others I was expecting a collapse or simply a failure to produce or get back into the game. This time we got back in the game, rallied from behind and were staring OT in the eyes, and then crushed.

 

[HawkBBFan]

Yes it has been that bad!

 

[tm3308]

Getting the doors blown off in East Lansing (that score was nowhere near as lopsided as the game really was) and following it up with a complete dud at home against Illinois took the skid from "not that bad" to awful, IMO.

 

[PCHawk]

Getting the doors blown off in East Lansing (that score was nowhere near as lopsided as the game really was) and following it up with a complete dud at home against Illinois took the skid from "not that bad" to awful, IMO.

The main reason that game got out of hand was the 2 technical fouls. Other than that it was probably going to be a 10 point loss, which it ended up being anyway.

I think Appling hand checked Gesell 3 more times while I was typing this post.

 

[DDThompson]

We are 1-5 the last 6 games. But......

3 of the games were on the road, against Minny, Indy and MSU. 3 good teams in very tough venues. Lots of teams would go 1-2 or 0-3 against those teams on the road.

Let's see, you just might make too much sense here:
OSU went 0-3 in those games (and lost 5-of-6 with win vs. Purdue in that stretch and bad loss to PSU)
Wisconsin went 0-2 in those games (and lost 5-of-6 with win vs. Illinois and a bad loss to NW in that stretch)
Iowa went 0-3 in those games (and lost 5-of-6 with win vs. Purdue and a bad loss to ILL during the span).

Yep. No hope.

Minnesota beat OSU, Wisky, Ind at home: there's no reason to think Iowa doesn't have an automatic 'W' against them in the Barn.

Indiana beat OSU, Wisky, and Mich at home: there's certainly no reason to think Iowa doesn't have an automatic 'W' against them in Assembly.




3 were at home, against a very good Wisconsin team, and 2 average teams: Purdue and Illinois. Probably should have won 2 out of 3.

Should have won 3-of-3

But you're right. There are two new seasons coming up.

And actually, the Minny/Indy losses wouldn't feel so bad if Iowa would have done some winning against the big boys at home.

 

[tm3308]

The main reason that game got out of hand was the 2 technical fouls. Other than that it was probably going to be a 10 point loss, which it ended up being anyway.

I think Appling hand checked Gesell 3 more times while I was typing this post.

It was already at 15 points when the double foul/technical was called. It had been around 15-18 for several minutes at that point, and didn't get closer than 13 over the final 8 minutes until Basabe's meaningless buzzer beater. MSU had us under their thumb down the stretch.

 

[PCHawk]

It was already at 15 points when the double foul/technical was called. It had been around 15-18 for several minutes at that point, and didn't get closer than 13 over the final 8 minutes until Basabe's meaningless buzzer beater. MSU had us under their thumb down the stretch.

And if you take 4 points from the made free throws, we would have been as close as 9 points before the last 3. So like I said we were going to play them to around a 10 point game.

 

[tm3308]

And if you take 4 points from the made free throws, we would have been as close as 9 points before the last 3. So like I said we were going to play them to around a 10 point game.

They made three of the four free throws. Even if you took those away, they would have still been up 15 with 50 seconds to play. We got our ***** kicked up there. There's no sugar coating that, and a couple garbage time three pointers and a dunk don't change it.

 

[1hawkeye1]

It was already at 15 points when the double foul/technical was called. It had been around 15-18 for several minutes at that point, and didn't get closer than 13 over the final 8 minutes until Basabe's meaningless buzzer beater. MSU had us under their arm bar down the stretch.

FIFY

 

[PCHawk]

They made three of the four free throws. Even if you took those away, they would have still been up 15 with 50 seconds to play. We got our ***** kicked up there. There's no sugar coating that, and a couple garbage time three pointers and a dunk don't change it.

We got our *** kicked for a 5 minute stretch that included 2 technical fouls.

 

[tm3308]

We got our *** kicked for a 5 minute stretch that included 2 technical fouls.

We played pretty poorly for the entire second half, while MSU was shooting the lights out. That game wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated. I really don't get how anyone can seriously dispute that. The game was already all but over before McCabe decided to do something stupid and make it even worse.

 

[PCHawk]

We played pretty poorly for the entire second half, while MSU was shooting the lights out. That game wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated. I really don't get how anyone can seriously dispute that. The game was already all but over before McCabe decided to do something stupid and make it even worse.

All I'm saying is when I watched the game a second time it wasn't as bad as I thought. We were down 9 with 8 minutes left. At that point we were still in it. If we were to make a run there it would have been anyone's game. Instead they made a run and put the game away. If you break the game down into sections, we played with them pretty well other than a 5 minute stretch in the second half. I'm not saying we didn't get outplayed. Just saying for most of the game it wasn't like we were getting run out of the gym.

 

[HawksMN]

Hawks = equal no balls against MSU

Need to grow a set.

 

[bcl20]

The skid wouldn't be so bad if we had bad luck or something but the fact that we've now gone 6 straight games without playing defense is extremely concerning. We've either stopped trying, are tired or teams have just figured something out. 6 games is a trend and it's tough to think that trend will be broken. Luckily we're playing one of the worst offensive teams in the country tomorrow night so it's a good starting point.

 

[Thawki]

We are 1-5 the last 6 games. But......

3 of the games were on the road, against Minny, Indy and MSU. 3 good teams in very tough venues. Lots of teams would go 1-2 or 0-3 against those teams on the road.

3 were at home, against a very good Wisconsin team, and 2 average teams: Purdue and Illinois. Probably should have won 2 out of 3.

Add it up, and best case we should have gone 3-3 in that stretch. We went 1-5 (a two game swing). I don't think the sky is falling. We need to play better, no doubt about that. It starts in the Big Ten tournament. Let's beat Northwestern and take it from there.

The problem is that you are comparing us to a standard of a team that isn't very good. But this team was in a position, in theory, to take a share of the Big Ten title when they started that four game stretch in eight days. At that point in time we had really put it together over the conference season. We had not lost back to back games all year.

For a team in that position to go 1-5 and lose the way others here so aptly described, yes, that is a big deal. Heck, with your reasoning I am sure you could make 0-6 seem not so bad. The only problem with that is that you would be horribly wrong then, too.

It is almost laughable that you could even ask the question. Didn't we have just four conference losses on the season when we started that eight day stretch? And then we lost three games in eight days? We went from having a shot, again, in theory, at tying for the conference title to taking a six seed into the BTT.

A more realistic way to look at it would be to say that we had won two out of every three B10 games we played to that point and had not lost back to back games all year. Those last six games were not a tougher stretch than any other stretch. We SHOULD have gone 4-2 in those games. Instead, we went 1-5.

But, you're right. That stretch wasn't THAT bad. Whatever...

 

[Thawki]

Just as easy to start a win streak as it is to start a skid. Start of the BTT is a great time to start a streak...

I am going to apologize in advance, but I am going to post this response. You are obviously trying to be upbeat, but I just got through ripping the guy that said 1-5 wasn't as bad as it seemed. So, I am already prone to be cynical right now.

It is just as easy to suck and lose a bunch of games in a row as it is to play better than any team on your schedule for a bunch of games and win a bunch in a row? Did you ever take a class in analytical thinking? Or do you ever read something out loud before you actually post?

It is hard to win and easy to lose. Or at bare minimum it is easy to lose and not so easy to win. That is a fact. If it were easy to have winning streaks then bad teams would have them. But they don't.

 

[tgoldhammer]

Nope. Not that bad. Once the B1G title was out of reach, playing for NCAA seed was it. So they cleverly got themselves to an 8 seed, so they can beat a 9, then play a 1 that will think they're gonna cruise. Surprise! Here come the Hawks!

It's bad in that we haven't played well, but as you say it's not necessarily bad in terms of our NCAA tourney forecast. We can play with anybody, and while that's been part of the problem in trying to close out the B1G season, our depth gives us the firepower to make any tournament game interesting.

I would rather see us play a 1-2 seed early, not ride an easy schedule for a feel-good Sweet 16 appearance. This might be selfish, but haven't we waited for a game in March where we had a shot to knock off a powerhouse? Isn't this what it's all about?! Let's beat Northwestern, absorb the inevitable screwjob against MSU, and get this thing started!!!