If only we were a 5 seed

ibahawkeye

ibahawkeye

Well-Known Member
I would be a whole lot more optimistic.

Bring on Purdue, Bring on Nebraska and Bring on Michigan. Anybody but Michigan State....

Should I not be worried to play Sparty in the 2nd round? They lost to both Nebraska and Illinois at home. It's not like they're unbeatable. We had them on the ropes at home but it just seems like a mountain we can't climb.
 
I have no more faith in beating Nebraska at this point than I do in beating MSU. Nebraska's been arguably the best team in the B10 over the last two months.

Every season since Fran has been here has ended with a BTT loss to MSU, we have to shake that streak at some point.
 
HawkeyeMike23 said:
I have no more faith in beating Nebraska at this point than I do in beating MSU. Nebraska's been arguably the best team in the B10 over the last two months.

Every season since Fran has been here has ended with a BTT loss to MSU, we have to shake that streak at some point.
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I can't argue that Nebraska is hot but I still like our chances against them better than MSU. All the losses for a mentally fragile team is not a recipe for success in my opinon.

I did say in another thread tho... if somehow they were to climb that mountain and come away with a win I think that would be all it would take to get some swag and confidence back in this team.
 
It is pretty amazing that Michigan St has knocked Iowa out of 3 consecutive BTTs. To be honest, I wouldn't even bet they'll get a chance to get knocked out by MSU this year. Iowa should beat Northwestern easily. They're far more talented. But their defense has been so awful for so long, there really isn't any signs that it will be different Thursday.

Iowa's defense has become the B1G's version of the school slut. It doesn't matter how ugly your offensive numbers are (Purdue, Ohio St, Illinois, etc) you're going to score very easily.
 
Nebraska only has 4 wins away from home this entire season...including on neutral courts. If they play OSU in the second round, I would bet on them losing.
 
mopkins said:
Nebraska only has 4 wins away from home this entire season...including on neutral courts. If they play OSU in the second round, I would bet on them losing.
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The problem with this stat is most of those away loses came earlier in the year. They aren't the same team as they were then.
 
PCHawk said:
The problem with this stat is most of those away loses came earlier in the year. They aren't the same team as they were then.
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Yeah but I'm more like the NCAA committee...I take the whole body of work into consideration...right or wrong :)
 
PCHawk said:
The problem with this stat is most of those away loses came earlier in the year. They aren't the same team as they were then.
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With that in mind... would you rather play MSU or Nebraska in the 2nd round if you're the hawks??
 
ibahawkeye said:
With that in mind... would you rather play MSU or Nebraska in the 2nd round if you're the hawks??
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Much rather play Nebby, without a doubt. Iowa is cursed against MSU in the BTT. Plus Iowa is fresh off a pretty ugly loss against MSU.

Sure will be interesting next year when the BTT only has 2 bye teams (I'm assuming).
 
mopkins said:
Yeah but I'm more like the NCAA committee...I take the whole body of work into consideration...right or wrong :)
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I take the whole body of work when deciding if they should make the dance but what they did on the road in the non conference is not very telling of how good of a road team they are now.
 
mopkins said:
Yeah but I'm more like the NCAA committee...I take the whole body of work into consideration...right or wrong :)
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I take the whole body of work when deciding if they should make the dance but what they did on the road in the non conference is not very telling of how good of a road team they are now.
 
PCHawk said:
Nebraska by far but that doesn't say much cause I would rather play any team other than MSU.
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I'm with ya.... I know it's hard to argue results but I'm still convinced MSU is the best team in the conference. If I filled out a BTT bracket I'd have them win the whole thing.
 
I actually prefer playing MSU. Nebraska is still playing to guarantee a NCAA bid so they will be motivated to play hard (and beating Neb doesn't really get you a lot of style points meaning Iowa would still be in the 8-seed range).

MSU on the other hand knows they just dominated the Hawks and got in their heads (Fran with a T, and McCabe's body slam), and by Friday night they'll probably already be looking ahead to their potential semi-final matchup with Wisco. So maybe, MSU comes in too overconfident and Iowa actually siezes the moment and gives forth their best effort for 40 minutes. Plus a win against MSU does give Iowa style points and maybe gets them up to a 7 seed or maybe even a 6 if the committee needs to move teams around to avoid conference matches in rounds 1 or 2.
 
Your #5 seeds matching up against #12's looks good on paper unless you get matched up with a team that's on fire right now that just made it in. (Gulf Coast last year) As ibahawkeye brought up in another thread it might be better for the Hawks going in as a #10 going up against a beat up #7 that's on a slide.
 
ibahawkeye said:
With that in mind... would you rather play MSU or Nebraska in the 2nd round if you're the hawks??
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Sorry to barge into your guys conversation... :p I'd much rather play. MSU in the 2nd round. (As someone pointed out) Nebby is still fighting to get in the tourney, and are playing hot ball right now.

We played MSU for only 30 minutes the last two games (maybe a little less in ELansing), and I would love to see us play them a solid 40 minutes. Even if we lose; if we play them hard for 40 minutes, it's a boost to our confidence and we go to the tourney with a little swagger. If we beat them, and play well Saturday and/or Sunday... We go into the tourney with giant confidence. It's what this team needs. I'd also want to play them... cuz F MSU.
 
Don't we need to beat NW first before we worry about Michigan State? Hopefully we don't get overconfident since we beat NW twice by a combined score of 169-117 (26 points per game).

Please take case of business one game at a time. If we lose to NW, our last 10 games would be 3-7 (1-6 in the last 7)....the committee does look closely at this. i'm sure we would be on the bubble if we lose.
 
Way more confident in playing NW than Purdue. We need a win any way we can get it. That is the top priority at this point.
 
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