Iowa Basketball Checks in at No. 5 in Latest AP Poll

That was a nice jump up. How often do you lose a game and climb up in the polls in the same week you lost? Of course it helps when you lose to the second rated team in the country.

Has the Big Ten’s basketball conference become what we are used to seeing in football in the SEC? Most of teams rated high and it doesn’t necessarily hurt you to lose a game here or there.

We need to really run through the NCAA tournament as a conference and prove we deserve these lofty rankings. Three teams out of the final four teams should do the trick. Hopefully we are one of them. :)
 
When I first seen that I wondered how in the hell they could be ranked that high with 7 losses and then I noticed the records of everyone else. After Gonzaga, Michigan, and Baylor the records really drop off.
 
That OSU win was a really nice feather in our caps. Helps too when a lot of the Top 10 took L's this week.

Splitting a pair of games between Top 5 opponents - no reason we should have really dropped much or at all regardless, IMO.
 
Illinois plays at Michigan and at Ohio State this week. If we win our last two, should be ranked 4th. I wonder what we need to do in B1G Tourney to get a 1 seed in the NCAAs.
 
BigD said:
How often do you lose a game and climb up in the polls in the same week you lost?
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Weren't there like 8 of the top 10 teams that lost at some point last week or something goofy like that?

That's how it happened.
 
Every loss it seems like 1 seed possibilities are done. Then you look around and see everyone else doing worse. The only thing off the table is a Big 10 championship and since Michigan just happens to be so damn good this year, it wasn't realistic anyway. Iowa luck.
 
I know Fry is a big AP poll fan, but I will offer some KenPom numbers as a supplement... :)

Iowa is up to a shocking 59th in defensive efficiency. I say "shocking" because, not only is 59th starting to look very much "OK" in absolute terms, but remember that number was something like 136th just ~6 or so games ago. So, in reality, over this stretch we've actually been playing *exceptional* defense.

We held OSU - the 3rd best offensive efficiency team and a projected 1 seed by some sources - to 57 points in their own building in the game after losing one of our best defensive players (Nunge) for the season.

It's time to give credit where credit is more than due. This staff has made some serious adjustments in both scheme and technique that are paying off in dramatic fashion.

Some interesting KenPom comps:

Iowa (#5 AP)
Offense 2nd
Defense 59th

WVU (#6 AP)
Offense 11th
Defense 55th

OSU (#7 AP)
Offense 3rd
Defense 81st

Villanova (#10 AP)
Offense 6th
Defense 78th

FSU (#11 AP)
Offense 8th
Defense 53rd

Obviously, there are a handful of teams (Michigan is one) who have offenses that are in the ballpark of Iowa's AND have top 10 defenses, but they are few and far between. Playing the way we are - even sans Nunge, apparently - we are going to make for a really tough out.

A few weeks back, due to our defensive efficiency rating, we stuck out like a sore thumb among the KenPom top 50 or so. All of a sudden, it looks like we're right at home. I'm excited to see how this plays out!
 
1977Hawkeye said:
That OSU win was a really nice feather in our caps. Helps too when a lot of the Top 10 took L's this week.

Splitting a pair of games between Top 5 opponents - no reason we should have really dropped much or at all regardless, IMO.
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Especially when we played those teams at their house

Despite the virus and lack of fans
 
Esteshawk said:
...I wonder what we need to do in B1G Tourney to get a 1 seed in the NCAAs.
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Win out, including the B1G tourney. Even if Michigan still gets a 1 seed, it would be hard to argue against the Hawks at that point. I would just hope that IF it came down to it that we played the Zags or Michigan again to reach the NC (not play Baylor).
 
InGoodCo said:
This is the highest Iowa has been ranked in March since 1956. Same ole Iowa.
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The Fabulous Five / back to back Final Fours​

In 1953, Iowa finished second in the Big Ten behind the efforts of a starting lineup fully composed of sophomores nicknamed the "Fabulous Five:"Sharm Scheuerman, Bill Seaberg, Carl Cain, Bill Schoof, and Bill Logan.

As juniors, Iowa, with the "Fabulous Five" won the Big Ten outright and eventually finished fourth in the nation, advancing to the Final Four of the 1955 NCAA Tournament, defeating Penn State 82-53 and Marquette 86-81 to advance.[25]

In 1955-1956, as seniors, Iowa again won the Big Ten outright and advanced to the Final Four of the 1956 NCAA Tournament. They defeated Morehead State 97-83 and Kentucky and Coach Adolph Rupp 89-77 to advance to the Final Four. There, they defeated Temple 83-76 to advance to the NCAA Championship game. In the NCAA Final, Iowa lost to the San Francisco Dons with Bill Russell 83-71. San Francisco ended the season undefeated.[27]

Despite losing in the championship game, for the only time in school history, the Hawkeyes recorded consecutive Big Ten championships.[11] Scheuerman, Seaberg, Cain, Schoof, and Logan, all members of the "Fabulous Five", had their jerseys retired in 1980.[28]

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Iowa started the year at #5 in the first AP Poll and first week in March they are #5. You can go back and look at my posts from the start of the year, I thought it was very unlikely Iowa would finish the season in the top 10 and I was one of biggest optimist coming into this season. You're local homer here didn't see Iowa having a good shot to finish better than it started. I mean, the odds were definitely more in favor of Iowa not being able to live up to the ranking. It hasn't been a straight line or anything, but again I didn't expect it. This team is kind of beating expectations, at least for me.
 
HawkeyeFever said:
Win out, including the B1G tourney. Even if Michigan still gets a 1 seed, it would be hard to argue against the Hawks at that point. I would just hope that IF it came down to it that we played the Zags or Michigan again to reach the NC (not play Baylor).
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I would rather play Gonzaga or Michigan in the Championship Game

I watched Baylor at Kansas Saturday night and they looked terrible

Total lack of team play, terrible execution, bitching at each other on the floor

They have a long way to go to recapture their former charisma

They looked Lost the entire game

Kansas, on the other hand, I would not really want to play in The Dance
 
InGoodCo said:
Iowa started the year at #5 in the first AP Poll and first week in March they are #5. You can go back and look at my posts from the start of the year, I thought it was very unlikely Iowa would finish the season in the top 10 and I was one of biggest optimist coming into this season. You're local homer here didn't see Iowa having a good shot to finish better than it started. I mean, the odds were definitely more in favor of Iowa not being able to live up to the ranking. It hasn't been a straight line or anything, but again I didn't expect it. This team is kind of beating expectations, at least for me.
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Same here.

I don't remember what I may or may not have posted before the season, but I was right there with you on that. I honestly felt that struggles on defense were going to limit this team to a roughly Top 15-20 ranking.

I'm glad to have been wrong.
 
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