BasketballMan
Banned
From ESPN. The last four words of the following are a killer.
Iowa: There are reasons Iowa's NCAA tournament chances were always a long shot. They include the 325th-ranked nonconference strength of schedule, sure, and the road losses to Purdue and Virginia Tech, not to mention that 80ish RPI. But more than any of that, the reason Iowa's route to the NCAA tournament looked so difficult two weeks ago can be summed up in one word: schedule. Down the stretch, Iowa's chances for marquee wins were few and far between -- a home game against Minnesota, a road game at (gulp) Indiana -- but the schedule also was peppered with RPI trip wires: Northwestern, Penn State, Nebraska, Purdue. On Saturday, Iowa tripped one of those wires, losing at Nebraska, 64-60. This nearly happened at Penn State last week (Iowa escaped 74-72), and maybe it was inevitable -- it is really hard to go an entire month without losing at least a game or two that you probably should have won. For the Hawks, the upshot is that whatever at-large bid hopes they now have probably rest on a victory at IU, and I'm not sure even that would be enough. I hate to quote John Lennon from his bitter post-Beatles comedown days, but as John Lennon said: The dream is over.
Iowa: There are reasons Iowa's NCAA tournament chances were always a long shot. They include the 325th-ranked nonconference strength of schedule, sure, and the road losses to Purdue and Virginia Tech, not to mention that 80ish RPI. But more than any of that, the reason Iowa's route to the NCAA tournament looked so difficult two weeks ago can be summed up in one word: schedule. Down the stretch, Iowa's chances for marquee wins were few and far between -- a home game against Minnesota, a road game at (gulp) Indiana -- but the schedule also was peppered with RPI trip wires: Northwestern, Penn State, Nebraska, Purdue. On Saturday, Iowa tripped one of those wires, losing at Nebraska, 64-60. This nearly happened at Penn State last week (Iowa escaped 74-72), and maybe it was inevitable -- it is really hard to go an entire month without losing at least a game or two that you probably should have won. For the Hawks, the upshot is that whatever at-large bid hopes they now have probably rest on a victory at IU, and I'm not sure even that would be enough. I hate to quote John Lennon from his bitter post-Beatles comedown days, but as John Lennon said: The dream is over.