tm3308
Well-Known Member
I've been here all day. It's not my fault you haven't noticed.
New AP Poll - Iowa In The Top 10
- Thread starter 1977Hawkeye
- Start date
I've been here all day. It's not my fault you haven't noticed.
Congrats to the players and coaching staff. Cracking the top 10 is quite an accomplishment and is due to a lot of hard work. Hopefully we stay focused and can make this a magical year. Looking forward to a very interesting Big Ten season and the tournaments to follow. Go Hawks.
1977Hawkeye
Well-Known Member
Also ranked ahead of N. Carolina, too, who I think is unranked at the moment. Talk about an unusual season.. Lots of new faces in the Top 10-15. Fine by me, though, especially since my Hawks are one of them.
Regardless of what happens in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, this season is a lot of fun, but I think I agree with OK4P: If Iowa is going to win the Big Ten this year, winning that game would be key. Not that it's over if Iowa loses, but a loss would mean they are 2 up on us in the loss column. Gotta win every game you can if you're thinking regular season title.
jacknicholson
Well-Known Member
jacknicholson
Well-Known Member
Who would have thought that in January of Fran's fourth year, we would be rated above Louisville, Kentucky, Duke, Michigan, Ohio State, North Carolina, and UConn.....
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition......
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition......
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Yep. We're gonna have one bad shooting night and get robbed in a road game at Indiana, Illinois or Minnesota, so that's one loss, plus I think we might lose at MSU so that is two losses, plus we have a loss already for three total. We absolutely have to win out at home. And we absolutely have to win at Michigan. That would put us at 15-3 and would probably be the floor in terms of tying MSU for the crown. If we lose at Michigan, I think we're looking at 14-4 or 13-5, which won't get it done. This is probably the most important Iowa basketball game in over 15 years.
jacknicholson
Well-Known Member
Wonder how Marcus Paige feels right now......
Chuckle
Chuckle
1977Hawkeye
Well-Known Member
Agreed. If Iowa wins Wednesday and takes care of business @NU, then the game against MSU may be even bigger. If Iowa had last year's conference schedule, I'd like our odds better. This is a tough path to a conference title, but if Iowa wins it, they will most certainly have earned it.
It makes me pine for a round robin schedule so that nobody really has an edge with an easy schedule, but that would mean 22 league games.
jacknicholson
Well-Known Member
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
I've been pining for a round robin Big Ten schedule for quite some time. Conference games are much more fun to watch than playing teams in the MEAC.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
Well, technically we haven't actually taken that step. We're just presented an opportunity (and a very realistic one, at that) to accomplish it this week. And I'm pretty hopeful that we'll get it done.
SpiderRico
Well-Known Member
This isn't the "next" step....this is simply a step sideways. If we can sustain it, it might be a "next" step. But over a 13 year period, Mr. Davis's average finish in the B1G was 4.7 (and that was in a much tougher B1G than at pretty much any other time in the conference's history). We made 9 NCAA tourneys in 13 years and won a total of 13 NCAA tourney games in those 9 years with an Elite 8 and 2 Sweet 16s (four out of the 9 years we lost to the eventual National Champ....crappy luck). In the 16 years since he left, we've been to a total of 3 NCAA tourneys and won exactly one game. And in 5 of the 13 years, we were ranked in the top 10 at one time or another during those years.
I certainly hope this is a step forward and that we can sustain it. Only time will tell.
1977Hawkeye
Well-Known Member
Agreed. This team looks promising, but it's too early to say we've officially arrived at that "next level".
In case nobody has looked at our remaining schedule, it's a meat grinder. Iowa could well absorb quite a few more losses. There aren't many games left on that list that I'm ready to assume are wins..
@ #21 Michigan
@ NW
#3 MSU
@ Illinois
#17 OSU
#21 Michigan
@ PSU
@ Indiana
#9 Wisconsin
@ Minnesota
Purdue
@ #3 MSU
Illinois
BILLBUCKNER
Well-Known Member
True most of that Rico.. The Big was tough when Mr. Davis was here. But it was not the elite bb conference in the country that it is NOW. Alford was fortunate that the Big was the softest it ever was or his run would have been much worse. Lick got in at its best. I still don't think we'll win the BIG this year.But Fran now has us in contention. That's all I could ever ask for.
22hawkeyes
Well-Known Member
you remember earlier this week saying that there was no way we crack the top 10?
kicker22
Well-Known Member
The nice thing I like about toughness of our schedule is that we control our fate. We have the chance to beat the upper tier teams in the conference multiple times. Not saying it wouldn't be nice to have a softer schedule and play more bottom feeders, but I'd rather want the opportunity to gain a game or drop an opponent down a notch in the standings, then to play a handful of bottom feeders and hope and pray other teams can dethrown the leaders.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
Never once did I say there was no way. I said things like "I'm not holding my breath," or "I'm not counting on..." I felt like it would take wins over Minnesota AND Michigan to crack the top 10, but I never said there was no way to get in this week. And in case you didn't notice, I'm not the only one on this board who wasn't sure we'd get into the top 10 with a win yesterday.
Husky28
Well-Known Member
In tm's defense, we didn't get in the top 10 because of the win... we got in because at least 4 of the top 10 lost over the weekend and at least 3 (OSU, ISU & Wis) had 2 losses last week.
tm3308
Well-Known Member
Several of those losses had already taken place when I said I wasn't sure we'd get in. I thought the KU-OSU game would have a big impact on it, because I thought Kansas might get a bump up by splitting ISU/OSU based on name recognition.
