**Official Don't Stop Believing Thread**

[clicheusername3]

I hate the basketball forum right now. Can someone please step up and combine the 100 "Can we still make it" threads in to ONE thread....and then DELETE that thread.

 

[SteveGarvey]

Journey-Dont Stop Believing - YouTube[/QUOTE




I think Iowa and the NCAAs are going their "Separate Ways".

 

[volhawk50]

If we win out, we are in. There is no way the committee takes a 7th place Illinois team over a 6th place Iowa team.

There is a way; in fact, it's just about guaranteed that they'll take a 7th place Illannoy over us. They'll take Minnesota over us even if MN finishes 9th in conference. Point is the conference standings don't mean anything to the committee. If we finish 6th in conference with our rancid non-con schedule, losses to VT, Purdue, and Nebraska, and no truly impressive win, it won't be good enough. 3-1 leaves us out, 4-0 gives us a chance.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

There is a way; in fact, it's just about guaranteed that they'll take a 7th place Illannoy over us. They'll take Minnesota over us even if MN finishes 9th in conference. Point is the conference standings don't mean anything to the committee. If we finish 6th in conference with our rancid non-con schedule, losses to VT, Purdue, and Nebraska, and no truly impressive win, it won't be good enough. 3-1 leaves us out, 4-0 gives us a chance.

Frankly, 4-0 is meaningless without two mwins in BTT. Personally, I believe if we finish regular season at 3-1, we would, at minimum, need to make the BBT Final and keep it close. Short of that and I think we're buying NIT shirts again this year.

 

[IowaHawkeye2010]

If Iowa finishes 4-0 they need one BTT to get in. No questions asked. That is 5 RPI top 50 wins: ISU, Wisky, Illi, Indy and Minn. If we lose to Indiana and win 2 BTT I think we are in the discussion as once again that is 5 RPI top 50 wins, replace Indy with whoever we would beat in 2nd round. More than likely we are looking at a top couple seed in the NIT, but to say that Iowa has no chance is beyond ridiculous. If either of these scenarios happens and we get left out it will be criminal and due to the fact that we played a 300+ Non-Conf instead of a 200 Non-Conf, which just seems ridiculous in itself.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

If Iowa finishes 4-0 they need one BTT to get in. No questions asked. That is 5 RPI top 50 wins: ISU, Wisky, Illi, Indy and Minn. If we lose to Indiana and win 2 BTT I think we are in the discussion as once again that is 5 RPI top 50 wins, replace Indy with whoever we would beat in 2nd round. More than likely we are looking at a top couple seed in the NIT, but to say that Iowa has no chance is beyond ridiculous. If either of these scenarios happens and we get left out it will be criminal and due to the fact that we played a 300+ Non-Conf instead of a 200 Non-Conf, which just seems ridiculous in itself.

At least if Iowa can achieve your 2nd scenario (finish 3-1 and win 2 in the BTT), it will at least give me a legit reason to tune into the selection show, other than the fact I always watch it anyway just because I'm a March Madness fan. I would still be betting against an Iowa invite, but who knows.

I agree that playing some 300 RPI teams shouldn't hurt you much more than playing 200 RPI teams. SOS should be taken into account, absolutely, but I think it's weighted too much by the RPI. Your odds of beating team #200 are probably only slightly worse than beating team #300, but the impact on your RPI apparently is pretty drastic.

 

[ihawkeye]

It's all over but the crying at this point. I'll still support them until the end but you can continue to blow leads and lose all those close games. I hope they learn from it and we win those close ones next year.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

Iowa isnt going to the NCAA tournament this year, barring a miracle. With that being said, this team will probably win 20 games and finish 9-9 in the toughest league in the country by far. Look where this program was when Mccaffery took over, it was beyond bad from the HC to the talent, it was about as far in the tank as the Iowa program could be. Crean didnt rebuild Indiana over night and neither did Beilein up at Michigan. When you get past the gut wrenching losses this year, which is very difficult to do and look where this program was 3 years ago, it is nothing short of remarkable. I thought Iowa was 1 year away before this year started and that is looking to be the case. What I didnt realize was how damn close they were to taking that leap into the upper echelon of the Big 10 and playing in the NCAA tournament this year. I expect Iowa to be a pretty salty group next year and contend for the conference championship, that should be the expectation of Iowa's team next year.

 

[1hawkeye1]

Yeah. A LOT of if's. But there is still a good chance we make it if we finish strong. A 6th place finish in the Big Ten, and a decent tourney run could get us pretty darn close.

And Illinois has a bad team that shoots a lot of 3's. They are on a bit of a hot streak now but I don't see that lasting long enough to get them to the dance.

illinois is in.

 

[bpiercehawks]

I've stopped believing. It lessens the pain. Somewhat...

 

[PCHawk]

At least if Iowa can achieve your 2nd scenario (finish 3-1 and win 2 in the BTT), it will at least give me a legit reatune into the selection show, other than the fact I always watch it anyway just because I'm a March Madness fan. I would still be betting against an Iowa invite, but who knows.

I agree that playing some 300 RPI teams shouldn't hurt you much more than playing 200 RPI teams. SOS should be taken into account, absolutely, but I think it's weighted too much by the RPI. Your odds of beating team #200 are probably only slightly worse than beating team #300, but the impact on your RPI apparently is pretty drastic.

It is ridiculous how much playing 300 RPI teams instead of 200 RPI teams affects your RPI. It seems like that's the only difference between us and Minnesota right now. Or at least it was before they just beat Indiana.