There will be NO 2013!!

STILLBUSTER

STILLBUSTER

Well-Known Member
More veteran team;
more disciplined and focused leadership;
more confidence and perseverance;
more depth and balance;
more consistency;
more skill and athleticism;
more favorable schedule down the stretch ...

I have Hawks going 7-3 (@Indy, @OSU, @Michigan) or 8-2 (@Indy, @Michigan). I don't know if they'll win the reg season but here's what I do know:

at worst, 2nd;
pay back Maryland in BTT.
Sweet 16;
a shot to redeem "Iowa" on the big stage;
most importantly, NO 2013 MELTDOWN!
 
A win today will put that talk straight to bed without a glass of milk. A loss however and on the fricken ledge man.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
More veteran team;
more disciplined and focused leadership;
more confidence and perseverance;
more depth and balance;
more consistency;
more skill and athleticism;
more favorable schedule down the stretch ...

I have Hawks going 7-3 (@Indy, @OSU, @Michigan) or 8-2 (@Indy, @Michigan). I don't know if they'll win the reg season but here's what I do know:

at worst, 2nd;
pay back Maryland in BTT.
Sweet 16;
a shot to redeem "Iowa" on the big stage;
most importantly, NO 2013 MELTDOWN!
Click to expand...

We will have to play worse than we did at MD to lose to OSU IMO. If we play average and our opponent plays above average only IN and MI can beat us IMO...assuming no injuries. I think 16-2 is realistic and is a sole championship.
 
You have to look no further than how the team performed after Iowa State. I would NOT want to be the Northwestern basketball team today. Just sayin'. :) Regarding the road contests ahead, Michigan is the only one that is a MAJOR concern to me. Indiana has a glossy record, but the team is full of holes. There's a reason they're only ranked 19th, and Minnesota showed why yesterday in spades. I'm expecting a better than 50 / 50 shot of winning @ both Indy and OSU. A LOT better chance barring a night when everyone's shooting is way off like last Thursday.
 
STILLBUSTER said:
More veteran team;
more disciplined and focused leadership;
more confidence and perseverance;
more depth and balance;
more consistency;
more skill and athleticism;
more favorable schedule down the stretch ...

I have Hawks going 7-3 (@Indy, @OSU, @Michigan) or 8-2 (@Indy, @Michigan). I don't know if they'll win the reg season but here's what I do know:

at worst, 2nd;
pay back Maryland in BTT.
Sweet 16;
a shot to redeem "Iowa" on the big stage;
most importantly, NO 2013 MELTDOWN!
Click to expand...


Think it was actually 2014 when the meltdown happened but we know what you mean. This team has more shooters than that one and seem to be more cohesive than that one. As long as they stick together as a team then I think we'll be OK.

That said, today's game could be a lot like the Drake game. We had a big letdown with the ISU game and were sluggish vs. Drake and could be same thing here after the Maryland loss.
 
SteveGarvey said:
Think it was actually 2014 when the meltdown happened but we know what you mean. This team has more shooters than that one and seem to be more cohesive than that one. As long as they stick together as a team then I think we'll be OK.

That said, today's game could be a lot like the Drake game. We had a big letdown with the ISU game and were sluggish vs. Drake and could be same thing here after the Maryland loss.
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Could be, but home games with NW & PSU should be just what the doctor ordered.

Get us to 9-1 heading to Champaign, and hopefully another win there (@ILL always seems to be a tricky game for us so am not taking that one lightly) and this team should be feeling good about itself. Hopefully they still ARE confident. Close loss on the road to a Top 10 team, when you didn't even play all that well, I would hope isn't something to rattle this team's psyche.

I don't want to even talk about what a loss today could mean, but this team seems different than it did 2 years ago. Just better chemistry, more weapons, etc. No, I don't expect Iowa to win out, but I don't expect anything close to a melt down.
 
WindsorHawk said:
We will have to play worse than we did at MD to lose to OSU IMO. If we play average and our opponent plays above average only IN and MI can beat us IMO...assuming no injuries. I think 16-2 is realistic and is a sole championship.
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I agree: O$U is young and undisciplined. UM doesn't match up well with us and I'm not sure how they'll be playing when they get LaVert back. IU scares me a whole bunch. They're a bit undisciplined, but not overly. They some real talent but a lot of role players, also. Their role players seem to be shooters. The kid Anunoby (chose IU over Iowa and others) is really coming on. That kid is going to be a great player.

I hate to say this, but WUs is really coming on. They're much better now than when the B1G started. I can see 2 and maybe 3 losses.
 
I've seen a lot of people say that this team feels different from the team from 2 years ago. I would say this team right now feels exactly how that team felt after the Michigan *** whoopin. Being able to see that team's season as a whole is the only reason people think they were any different than this team now.
 
SteveGarvey said:
Think it was actually 2014 when the meltdown happened but we know what you mean. This team has more shooters than that one and seem to be more cohesive than that one. As long as they stick together as a team then I think we'll be OK.

That said, today's game could be a lot like the Drake game. We had a big letdown with the ISU game and were sluggish vs. Drake and could be same thing here after the Maryland loss.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the Maryland and Iowa State games are comparable. Iowa State we dominated than blew it. Maryland we were out played but hung around despite bad shooting. I think they'll be hungry today. That said, our offense still is heavily reliant on the three so if that's not dropping it'll be close. We still defend and Northwestern has been far from impressive on offense so i think they'll still win. I just want a beat down
 
PCHawk said:
I've seen a lot of people say that this team feels different from the team from 2 years ago. I would say this team right now feels exactly how that team felt after the Michigan *** whoopin. Being able to see that team's season as a whole is the only reason people think they were any different than this team now.
Click to expand...

The 13-14 team didn't have the amount of quality wins this team already does, and it had a few losses that weren't dismissable as "good" losses. Not to mention this team is a more veteran roster.
 
SteveGarvey said:
Think it was actually 2014 when the meltdown happened but we know what you mean. This team has more shooters than that one and seem to be more cohesive than that one. As long as they stick together as a team then I think we'll be OK.

That said, today's game could be a lot like the Drake game. We had a big letdown with the ISU game and were sluggish vs. Drake and could be same thing here after the Maryland loss.
Click to expand...

Agreed on our shooting. This team is significantly better at shooting the three, and I think that's a big factor when it comes to not letting other teams get back in the game. Also agreed on the cohesiveness of this team. They really seem to enjoy playing together unlike the team two years ago. Everyone just deferred to Marble which wasn't usually a good thing (and that isn't a knock on Marble). I don't think this feels like the Drake game. We just played mediocre throughout the Maryland game and couldn't shoot. We never had much of a lead. The second half of the ISU game was a complete disaster, especially considering how well we played in the first half.
 
Stanzi said:
The 13-14 team didn't have the amount of quality wins this team already does, and it had a few losses that weren't dismissable as "good" losses. Not to mention this team is a more veteran roster.
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When they were top 10 they had 3 losses and they were all to top 10 teams. They didn't have near as many good wins tho.
 
Fran has only had one year in which his team wasn't better at the end of the year than it was at the beginning/middle of the year. That was the year the meltdown, and it started almost exactly when Patrick was diagnosed with cancer.

I have no worries at all that this team will meltdown, as that was the aberration, the norm in the other 4 years was to be playing the best BB the second half of the B1G season.
 
Just in case people weren't aware...

In the last 5 games, Uthoff has averaged 19.4 points and Jok has averaged 19.6 points. Quite a duo!
 
tksirius said:
Just in case people weren't aware...

In the last 5 games, Uthoff has averaged 19.4 points and Jok has averaged 19.6 points. Quite a duo!
Click to expand...

No hangover from the loss and trip back from the east coast. Except for missing some shots in the first 5 minutes of each half the hawks played great. Their defense and rebounding was very good for almost all 40 minutes and the offense was there most of the time.

This team can be very very tough when they are shooting it pretty well and not having a bunch of turnovers.
 
Woody has been an absolute beast on the boards lately. Get Gesell going again and everyone will be playing their best ball down the stretch.
 
PCHawk said:
When they were top 10 they had 3 losses and they were all to top 10 teams. They didn't have near as many good wins tho.
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I knew they were ranked, but I didn't remember them being top 10. I guess I must have blocked out that season after the epic collapse.
 
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