Palm Explained What Iowa Has to Do to Make the Dance

[BrueCrew3]

From espn.com

Iowa [19-11 (8-9), RPI: 76, SOS: 115] The Hawkeyes are back! Actually, the Hawkeyes were never truly here, because they've spent all season being just far enough outside the bubble picture that including them would have been nothing more than fan service. It just wasn't very realistic. And when Iowa lost that road game at Nebraska, the dream appeared to be dead. But two factors have the Hawkeyes at least within spitting distance of the back end of the bubble: Tuesday's win over Illinois, which got them near .500 in the best league in the country (which isn't among the stated tourney criteria but certainly can't hurt); and the collapse of nearly every fringe bubble team ostensibly ahead of them in the considerations. From an analytic standpoint, I'm actually in favor of the Hawks; they are one of the nation's 35 or so best teams, and much, much better than their horrendous computer numbers (thanks in large part to a 313 nonconference SOS) say they are. They're the classic underrated-by-RPI team. With a 4-9 record away from Carver-Hawkeye, and just a home game against Nebraska left in the regular season, they have to make something happen at the Big Ten tournament next week to make this a more realistic proposition. But the dream isn't dead.

College Basketball Bubble Watch - As the tourney draws near, a look at where we stand after a busy night on the bubble - NCAA Men's Basketball - ESPN

I think this is what most HN posters have been saying. The Non-Con SOS sucked. No doubt about it. That doesn't mean Iowa is a bad team. Of the 9 conference losses, all but 3 were by less than 5 points. This is a good (not great) Hawkeye team that deserves consideration. Do they deserve to get in? That's up to the committee .. but at least acknowledge that they are deserving of a look.

Just my $.02 .. ..

GO HAWKS!!!

 

[dchawk75]

[The RPI formula was changed in 2005 and the main change was more weight placed on road wins.[/QUOTE]

Now if they would just change it to weight margin of victory/loss differential, it might actually mean something.

 

[mehawk]

My opinion is that Iowa is in with 3 more wins.

2 more wins - I still think they have a shot. They better hope other bubble teams falter AND conference tourneys go as seeded. If there are one or two teams that win their conference tourney that weren't already in, I think that creates a lot of problems for Iowa (and the rest of the bubble). We have no idea how conference tourneys will go.

 

[sportstalent]

Two games will haunt Iowa if they don't make it in:
@Wisconsin
@Nebraska

Win those two games and Iowa potentially had a first day bye...given how everyone is beating everyone.