A few thoughts of mine....
1. Keep in mind that we had one of the easiest B1G schedules, if not THE easiest, of the Top 6 teams in the conference. We got PSU, Neb, and NW twice and only had to play MSU, Mich and OSU once. That probably ain't gonna happen next year.
2. Although we were competitive against the Top 5 teams ahead of us (with the exception of Michigan and 1st half of OSU), the fact remains that, other than a home win against Wisky, we lost all the other games against the teams ahead of us. Those teams aren't just going to roll over and give up their spots in the Top 5, we have to take it.
3. While this team is playing like a team (the sum is definitely better than the individual parts), the fact remains that we do not have a shooter that has shown a consistent ability to hit the 3 ball, nor do we have a guy that can consistently break his man down off the dribble and get to the rim. We have decent talent....enough to beat the Top 50-100 RPI teams like ISU, Virginia, Maryland, and Wisconsin. Can the players improve enough to get some Top 25 wins against the likes of OSU, MSU, Mich or Indiana?
With all that being said, I think we definitely have a team capable of breaking into the Top 5 of the conference. I think we can overtake Wisconsin.....even though Bo Ryan has never finished below 4th in any of his 12 years at the school. I'm not sure we have the talent to break ahead of any of the other "Big 4" yet, though. But if we can get to 11-7 in the conference with at least 2 of those wins being over the "Big 4", I think we can finish 5th in the conference and get somewhere around a 5-7 seed. After that, it's all about matchups in the tournament. If we can avoid the dreaded 8/9 seed, we definitely have a chance of getting to the 2nd weekend.