Hawkeyes Officially Back on the Bubble per ESPN

Iowa [19-11 (8-9), RPI: 76, SOS: 115] The Hawkeyes are back! Actually, the Hawkeyes were never truly here, because they've spent all season being just far enough outside the bubble picture that including them would have been nothing more than fan service. It just wasn't very realistic. And when Iowa lost that road game at Nebraska, the dream appeared to be dead. But two factors have the Hawkeyes at least within spitting distance of the back end of the bubble: Tuesday's win over Illinois, which got them near .500 in the best league in the country (which isn't among the stated tourney criteria but certainly can't hurt); and the collapse of nearly every fringe bubble team ostensibly ahead of them in the considerations. From an analytic standpoint, I'm actually in favor of the Hawks; they are one of the nation's 35 or so best teams, and much, much better than their horrendous computer numbers (thanks in large part to a 313 nonconference SOS) say they are. They're the classic underrated-by-RPI team. With a 4-9 record away from Carver-Hawkeye, and just a home game against Nebraska left in the regular season, they have to make something happen at the Big Ten tournament next week to make this a more realistic proposition. But the dream isn't dead.
 
storminspank said:
Iowa [19-11 (8-9), RPI: 76, SOS: 115] The Hawkeyes are back! Actually, the Hawkeyes were never truly here, because they've spent all season being just far enough outside the bubble picture that including them would have been nothing more than fan service. It just wasn't very realistic. And when Iowa lost that road game at Nebraska, the dream appeared to be dead. But two factors have the Hawkeyes at least within spitting distance of the back end of the bubble: Tuesday's win over Illinois, which got them near .500 in the best league in the country (which isn't among the stated tourney criteria but certainly can't hurt); and the collapse of nearly every fringe bubble team ostensibly ahead of them in the considerations. From an analytic standpoint, I'm actually in favor of the Hawks; they are one of the nation's 35 or so best teams, and much, much better than their horrendous computer numbers (thanks in large part to a 313 nonconference SOS) say they are. They're the classic underrated-by-RPI team. With a 4-9 record away from Carver-Hawkeye, and just a home game against Nebraska left in the regular season, they have to make something happen at the Big Ten tournament next week to make this a more realistic proposition. But the dream isn't dead.
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Unfortunately this really matters. Now ESPN will mention they are a bubble team for every highlight, and for Bubble Talk. I was a littel upset when So Miss gets mentioned as a bubble team and we werent. Finally

EDIT: For the record that is what about 1/2 of us have been saying for the past 2-3 weeks (our RPI does not reflect our accomplishments)
 
We're in. We have a couple routine wins coming up and it's a done deal. Franny has them peaking at just the right time.
 
Hopefully we are on Lunardi's last 8 out on his next bracket. The more the media talks about us as a bubble team the more we will be in the minds of the selection committee. That and making some noise in the Big10 Tournament should help us out. I'm pretty pumped to be able to use Iowa and NCAA Tournament in the same sentence!
 
First things first....lay an egg against Neb and all this goes out the window.
Remember our reg. season finale last year?
 
storminspank said:
Iowa [19-11 (8-9), RPI: 76, SOS: 115] The Hawkeyes are back! Actually, the Hawkeyes were never truly here, because they've spent all season being just far enough outside the bubble picture that including them would have been nothing more than fan service. It just wasn't very realistic. And when Iowa lost that road game at Nebraska, the dream appeared to be dead. But two factors have the Hawkeyes at least within spitting distance of the back end of the bubble: Tuesday's win over Illinois, which got them near .500 in the best league in the country (which isn't among the stated tourney criteria but certainly can't hurt); and the collapse of nearly every fringe bubble team ostensibly ahead of them in the considerations. From an analytic standpoint, I'm actually in favor of the Hawks; they are one of the nation's 35 or so best teams, and much, much better than their horrendous computer numbers (thanks in large part to a 313 nonconference SOS) say they are. They're the classic underrated-by-RPI team. With a 4-9 record away from Carver-Hawkeye, and just a home game against Nebraska left in the regular season, they have to make something happen at the Big Ten tournament next week to make this a more realistic proposition. But the dream isn't dead.
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images
 
Can anyone explain to me why Boise State is being considered "in" the tournament by Lunardi? From what I see they have three quality wins: Creighton, UNLV and Colorado State. They took New Mexico to overtime, but as we all know too well almost doesn't count. I will give them the Creighton game was on the road, but to me that shouldn't carry THAT much weight.
 
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