Howe: Big Ten Hoops Power Rankings 3-11

Iowa at 6th in the same tier as UW and Maryland. Stop the madness. Iowa would be underdogs against Penn State, Ohio State, Minnesota, and potentially Indiana on a neutral floor if they played this week.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
Iowa at 6th in the same tier as UW and Maryland. Stop the madness. Iowa would be underdogs against Penn State, Ohio State, Minnesota, and potentially Indiana on a neutral floor if they played this week.
Click to expand...

With the way Iowa plays D and how unathletic they are, the only B1G teams that I feel Iowa can beat on a neutral floor this week are Northwestern and Nebraska’s JV team even though they just beat the Hawkeyes. Every other team I would consider favorites over Iowa.
 
Iowa finished sixth and also is the sixth-ranked team in the NET rankings among Big Ten teams.

But, I know, the sky is falling. Should turn down the NCAA bid.
 
RobHowe said:
Iowa finished sixth and also is the sixth-ranked team in the NET rankings among Big Ten teams.

But, I know, the sky is falling. Should turn down the NCAA bid.
Click to expand...

The sky isn't falling, but the ship sure is taking on water.

Iowa at #6 makes sense, as you said they're #6 in the standings. But I'd drop them down to tier 3.
 
My initial thought was Iowa is the 1st team in Tier 3. Then I remembered the close game with Maryland. They still belong in Tier 2 IMO.
 
Xerxes said:
With the way Iowa plays D and how unathletic they are, the only B1G teams that I feel Iowa can beat on a neutral floor this week are Northwestern and Nebraska’s JV team even though they just beat the Hawkeyes. Every other team I would consider favorites over Iowa.
Click to expand...
I don’t care who wins Wednesday and plays us Thursday. Our opponent will be playing back to back games. We should be able to out score either. NW defends but doesn’t score. Illinois scores but doesn’t defend.
 
All the tier 3 teams have sub 50 Net's and worse overall and conference records. It's hard to see with how poorly Iowa has played down the stretch, but they likely still reside in the bottom of the tier 2 of this kind of ranking. Iowa can't beat anyone right now nor would I be confident in them doing so - but (and thankfully for Iowa) - you just can't scrub or forget the other 75% of the season. If this ranking was - rank every B1G team the last 3 weeks of the season, they'd be in tier 5.
 
WindsorHawk said:
I don’t care who wins Wednesday and plays us Thursday. Our opponent will be playing back to back games. We should be able to out score either. NW defends but doesn’t score. Illinois scores but doesn’t defend.
Click to expand...

As per usual, you're exactly right when it comes to basketball. The "should" word is what gives me pause. Iowa should have beaten Nebraska yesterday. They were down 3 starters, lost 2 more during the game. Had zero inside presence at the end of regulation and in OT. Yet Iowa lost.

Iowa should beat a lot of teams in the B1G. But this is by far the worst stretch they've had all season and its kinda reminding me of 2013-2014. It doesn't matter who Iowa plays, when their shots start dropping, they don't stop dropping until the game is over. And when they're not hitting 3s they're getting right to the hoop easily and laying it in.

You're just not going to win against teams when you refuse to play defense and you don't have the athletic ability to make up for it.
 
RobHowe said:
Iowa finished sixth and also is the sixth-ranked team in the NET rankings among Big Ten teams.

But, I know, the sky is falling. Should turn down the NCAA bid.
Click to expand...
The entire season when you did these it was about who is playing well lately. Iowa isn’t playing well lately. I’m not saying anything of the nature about the NCAA tourney. It’s great Iowa is going.

If you look at KenPom Iowa is 23 spots behind Maryland (18) at 41.

Penn State - 40
Indiana - 42
Ohio State - 44
Nebraska - 45
Minnesota - 46

For Iowa to be included in tier 2 is a stretch.
 
WindsorHawk said:
My initial thought was Iowa is the 1st team in Tier 3. Then I remembered the close game with Maryland. They still belong in Tier 2 IMO.
Click to expand...
The close home LOSS to Maryland carries weight... but the Rutgers home beatdown, the Ohio State and Wisconsin beatdowns, and road loss to a depleted Nebraska team don’t carry weight?
 
Xerxes said:
As per usual, you're exactly right when it comes to basketball. The "should" word is what gives me pause. Iowa should have beaten Nebraska yesterday. They were down 3 starters, lost 2 more during the game. Had zero inside presence at the end of regulation and in OT. Yet Iowa lost.

Iowa should beat a lot of teams in the B1G. But this is by far the worst stretch they've had all season and its kinda reminding me of 2013-2014. It doesn't matter who Iowa plays, when their shots start dropping, they don't stop dropping until the game is over. And when they're not hitting 3s they're getting right to the hoop easily and laying it in.

You're just not going to win against teams when you refuse to play defense and you don't have the athletic ability to make up for it.
Click to expand...
There’s a reason I said should. I am not convinced anyone would shoot as well as NE did at the end yesterday...anyone. Yesterday’s game followed the Iowa recipe for success...and gives me reason for optimism. Get ahead and make your FTs. That will work 95% of the time IMO...assuming we have the lead. I am also upgrading us overall and downgrading our opponent overall based on freshness of legs, etc.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
The close home LOSS to Maryland carries weight... but the Rutgers home beatdown, the Ohio State and Wisconsin beatdowns, and road loss to a depleted Nebraska team don’t carry weight?
Click to expand...
I give the solo 6th more weight. We probably need a Tier 2b...Iowa.

Edit - I would add we’re 5-3 against those teams with the comparable rankings.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
The entire season when you did these it was about who is playing well lately. Iowa isn’t playing well lately. I’m not saying anything of the nature about the NCAA tourney. It’s great Iowa is going.

If you look at KenPom Iowa is 23 spots behind Maryland (18) at 41.

Penn State - 40
Indiana - 42
Ohio State - 44
Nebraska - 45
Minnesota - 46

For Iowa to be included in tier 2 is a stretch.
Click to expand...

It's debatable. It's not a stretch. There's a difference.
 
The term Power Rankings tends to imply a team's relative strength at that moment in time....not as a "body of work". We have the longest current losing streak in the conference right now, even though every team we played during this losing streak has a losing record in the B1G. Three of those were by double digits and the lone one that wasn't was played against a team down 3 key contributors.

So yeah, as a Power Ranking, I don't know that I'd put Iowa above anyone currently with the exception of maybe NW.
 
SpiderRico said:
The term Power Rankings tends to imply a team's relative strength at that moment in time....not as a "body of work". We have the longest current losing streak in the conference right now, even though every team we played during this losing streak has a losing record in the B1G. Three of those were by double digits and the lone one that wasn't was played against a team down 3 key contributors.

So yeah, as a Power Ranking, I don't know that I'd put Iowa above anyone currently with the exception of maybe NW.
Click to expand...

Iowa lost at Wisconsin, which finished in fourth and 14-6 in the league.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top