Who goes down to allow us to go up?

BSpringsteen

Well-Known Member
For us to get better, some other teams have to get worse. Simple as that.

If you look at the teams in the Big 10, who are your candidates to slip to allow the Hawks to move up the ladder?

Ohio State: Building a dynasty type program, they are on top for the long haul.
Michigan State: Blip on the radar season for them, they are staying too.
Michigan: Rebuilding, but they have the momentum. They won't be slipping.
Wisconsin: 9 straight trips to the tourney. No reason to suggest a slip.

Purdue: Painter leaves, and they've gone to hell before.
Penn State: No history to keep them as a tourney team.
JNW: Never made the tournament.
Illinois: Lots of history, but there could be a coaching change and a rebuild.
Minnesota: Appears to be on the slide.

Iowa: Competitive in games for the first time in 3 years in Frans first year.
Indiana: Too much looking back at what they were, but Crean has some recruits.
 
For us to get better, some other teams have to get worse. Simple as that.

If you look at the teams in the Big 10, who are your candidates to slip to allow the Hawks to move up the ladder?

Ohio State: Building a dynasty type program, they are on top for the long haul.
Michigan State: Blip on the radar season for them, they are staying too.
Michigan: Rebuilding, but they have the momentum. They won't be slipping.
Wisconsin: 9 straight trips to the tourney. No reason to suggest a slip.

Purdue: Painter leaves, and they've gone to hell before.
Penn State: No history to keep them as a tourney team.
JNW: Never made the tournament.
Illinois: Lots of history, but there could be a coaching change and a rebuild.
Minnesota: Appears to be on the slide.

Iowa: Competitive in games for the first time in 3 years in Frans first year.
Indiana: Too much looking back at what they were, but Crean has some recruits.

I think this is a very tough question to answer. I agree with you on the top 4, but I think Purdue will be good (not great) for a while. Painter isn't leaving, they love him there and he'll be there a while. I agree PSU and NW probably have peaked, but what I don't get is the Illinois, they will continue to be what they are.

what I don't get is the we are going to improve over the summer statements, well so will other teams, and I think Indiana is going to out recruit Iowa as they are Indiana. I think they'll become ok as well. I'm not sure how Iowa does it, I think they need teams to lose their top players and not re-load. It's tough and Iowa will take sometime to become 'good' again.
 
IMO, next year Iowa will be better than NW, NU, Penn State, and Minnesota. I think Indiana will start to improve and will be comparable but I think Iowa could finish above them.
 
If Iowa is looking for teams to slip, then they have already lost. Iowa has to upgrade talent. Pure and simple. Get a team of true B1G players and that will solve the problem. You can have one or two tweaner types with limited games, but not a whole team of them.

Look at it this way. Is Luke Walton an NBA player? Sure. Do you want a whole team of Luke Waltons, or even want him to start or play significant minutes? No way.
 
Purdue won't be quite as good next year with the losses of Moore and Johnson, but they return Hummel (although who knows how he will play after being hurt for 2 years). Ohio St. should still be pretty good even though they lose Lightey. Michigan should be better. Wisconsin and Minn about the same maybe a slight drop off. PSU, NW, Neb, IU and us will must likely be in similar situations for next season, IMO.
 
For us to get better, some other teams have to get worse. Simple as that.

If you look at the teams in the Big 10, who are your candidates to slip to allow the Hawks to move up the ladder?

Ohio State: Building a dynasty type program, they are on top for the long haul.
Michigan State: Blip on the radar season for them, they are staying too.
Michigan: Rebuilding, but they have the momentum. They won't be slipping.
Wisconsin: 9 straight trips to the tourney. No reason to suggest a slip.

Purdue: Painter leaves, and they've gone to hell before.
Penn State: No history to keep them as a tourney team.
JNW: Never made the tournament.
Illinois: Lots of history, but there could be a coaching change and a rebuild.
Minnesota: Appears to be on the slide.

Iowa: Competitive in games for the first time in 3 years in Frans first year.
Indiana: Too much looking back at what they were, but Crean has some recruits.

This suggest that Iowa can be back in the top 1/2 of the BT. Along with a decent non-conference record/schedule, and they're back in the tournament. A couple of players - they're not that far away, things do change.
 
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I think the Hawkeyes will jump MN, NW and PSU. I also think the Hawkeyes will finish ahead of PSU and NE next season as well. I think a 7th place finish in the B1G is achievable goal for the Hawkeyes next season.
 
CAAR - you're missing the point in semantics.

The final big 10 standings are .500

We can't have 11 14-4 teams.
 
CAAR - you're missing the point in semantics.

The final big 10 standings are .500

We can't have 11 14-4 teams.

I think he hit the nail on the head. We need to just get better, and PUSH our way past other teams. Not have them slip up and LET us past them. When we get better players (and we seem to be slowly, but surely doing that right now), we will simply have a better team. The crew we have right now, is a 7/8th place team right now, at best, depending on who stays and who goes for everyone else.
 
For the first time in a long time, we will be returning players, not starting from scratch next year after dealing with offseason defections. We need to seize the opportunity to jump some teams while they are down and hopefully get back on the radar with respect to kids in IL, WI, MN, OH, IN. I highly doubt McCaffrey is going to be able get more than a kid every couple years from the east coast, so we need to pull some kids from the Midwest. Lots of Midwest talent out there, but we have been down for so long we have ceased being relevant. Instability creates opportunity and if there are changes at IL, MN, Purdue, etc., McCaffrey and company could forge some relationships in the void.
 
For us to get better, some other teams have to get worse. Simple as that.

If you look at the teams in the Big 10, who are your candidates to slip to allow the Hawks to move up the ladder?

Ohio State: Building a dynasty type program, they are on top for the long haul.
Michigan State: Blip on the radar season for them, they are staying too.
Michigan: Rebuilding, but they have the momentum. They won't be slipping.
Wisconsin: 9 straight trips to the tourney. No reason to suggest a slip.

Purdue: Painter leaves, and they've gone to hell before.
Penn State: No history to keep them as a tourney team.
JNW: Never made the tournament.
Illinois: Lots of history, but there could be a coaching change and a rebuild.
Minnesota: Appears to be on the slide.

Iowa: Competitive in games for the first time in 3 years in Frans first year.
Indiana: Too much looking back at what they were, but Crean has some recruits.


Other teams don't necessarily have to get worse, but they do have to improve less than we do...

Teams that I think will be still be better than us/compete for the Big10:
OSU - I don't think they will be quite as good as they were this year, but they will still be the class of the Big10.
Michigan - Really improved toward the end of this year. They could be much better (perhaps even good enough to contend) next year.
MSU - Everything says they should be back and very good next year. A part of me wonders though...
Wisc - Should be about the same as they were this year.


Teams that I hope to be on "our level":
Illinois - There is really nothing to back it up (other than a bit of late season improvement), but something is telling me that they will be pretty good next year.
Minn - They look to be slipping a bit, but I think they will still be very competitive.
Iowa - This is about where I am thinking we could be (6th-7th in the Big10).
Indiana - I expect Indiana to improve quite a bit too. I'm hoping we improve just a little more.
Purdue - The more I hear, the more it become obvious that the Missouri boosters seem to really want Painter. If Missouri makes the big offer that some say they will, I'm thinking that Painter will go.


Teams that I hope we will be obviously better than:
PSU - I suspect that they peaked this year.
NW - I think that they will be about the same. I'm hoping we are much better.
NE - I don't think that most Nebraska fans are even aware that they have a basketball team.
 
Ohio State will still be a great team, but lighty, lauderdale, and i think diebler all leave. Will Sullinger go to the NBA, I don't pay much attention to NBA so I don't know. If he goes then they lose a lot. They have Craft, but who else is there? Who am i missing?
 
Ohio State will still be a great team, but lighty, lauderdale, and i think diebler all leave. Will Sullinger go to the NBA, I don't pay much attention to NBA so I don't know. If he goes then they lose a lot. They have Craft, but who else is there? Who am i missing?

Buford will be there,and Thomas a FR who played quite a bit. Also, Sullinger said he is staying (though I will believe it after the draft happens). And they have some incoming freshman that are going to be ok.
 
Other teams don't necessarily have to get worse, but they do have to improve less than we do...

Teams that I think will be still be better than us/compete for the Big10:
OSU - I don't think they will be quite as good as they were this year, but they will still be the class of the Big10.
Michigan - Really improved toward the end of this year. They could be much better (perhaps even good enough to contend) next year.
MSU - Everything says they should be back and very good next year. A part of me wonders though...
Wisc - Should be about the same as they were this year.


Teams that I hope to be on "our level":
Illinois - There is really nothing to back it up (other than a bit of late season improvement), but something is telling me that they will be pretty good next year.
Minn - They look to be slipping a bit, but I think they will still be very competitive.
Iowa - This is about where I am thinking we could be (6th-7th in the Big10).
Indiana - I expect Indiana to improve quite a bit too. I'm hoping we improve just a little more.
Purdue - The more I hear, the more it become obvious that the Missouri boosters seem to really want Painter. If Missouri makes the big offer that some say they will, I'm thinking that Painter will go.


Teams that I hope we will be obviously better than:
PSU - I suspect that they peaked this year.
NW - I think that they will be about the same. I'm hoping we are much better.
NE - I don't think that most Nebraska fans are even aware that they have a basketball team.

#1 OSU: with Sullinger and Buford (2 leading scorers) back, and Craft to run the point
#2MI: Everyone returns

#3-6 (no particular order): IL, MSU, PD, WI: All of these lose a lot and will be rebuilding with recruits. One might fall, one might rise.

#7-9 (no particular order): IA, IN on the rise, MN rebuilding, NW loses Juice
#11-12 (no particular order): PSU loses a lot, NE new to league

UncleHawk
 
OSU loses Lighty, Diebler, and Lauderdale for sure. Sullenger says he is staying for at least two years but a top 5 pick might want to leave and get paid now. I would guess Buford returns and they are returning 2 talented sophomores in Thomas and Craft. I'm kind of excited to see how good Thomas turns out to be and to see whether he is a 3 or a 4. He was one of the most prolific scorers in Indiana state history. Even if sully leaves they still have a talented and experienced core to build around. Throw in some more of Matta's recruits and they should be top 3 or 4 next year in the conference. Fufred could you shed some light on Thomas if you read this?
 

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