Yesterday wasnt the bubble burster

S

Section136

Well-Known Member
It was the home loss to Nebraska. No shame in losing to a more talented team in Champaign. Blowing a double digit lead at home to Nebraska is the real killer.

Win that game and we are 8-8 in the B1G with two to play. Right where we would have been with a win yesterday.
 


I think it was the b2b losses - @NW and @PSU. That was killer. Even if you just split one of those, the talks can remain. Sitting .500 in conf w/ 2 to play.

I think a loss 8 games into the conf slate is too early to bust you from tourney talks.
 


You beat Clemson and Campbell then your RPI is better and you still have a great shot if you go 9-9 or even 8-10 in the B1G
 


I probably shouldn't have used the term bubble burster. More like the loss that is the most damaging to us being in the at-large discussion.

We had just come off a brutal 7 game stretch to open the B1G season and were well rested. Nobody thought we would be 3-4 after those 7 games and this was out chance to get to .500 in conference and really get the ball rolling as our remaining conference schedule was pretty manageable compared to the front end.

We come out and jump on them and are up 11, I believe, in the first half. They come back and win a game they pretty much had no business being in. Sucks.
 


11-20 vs Creighton 24-5 (13-4) RPI 27 59-82 L
11-23 Campbell 16-13 (11-6) RPI 194 61-77 L
11-29 Clemson 14-13 (6-7) RPI 148 55-71 L
12-06 at Northern Iowa 17-12 (8-9) RPI 65 60-80 L
12-09 at Iowa St. 20-8 (10-5) RPI 41 76-86 L
12-28 Purdue 18-10 (8-7) RPI 49 76-79 L
01-07 Ohio St. 23-5 (11-4) RPI 7 47-76 L
01-10 at Michigan St. 22-5 (12-3) RPI 4 61-95 L
01-17 at Purdue 18-10 (8-7) RPI 49 68-75 L
01-26 Nebraska 12-14 (4-11) RPI 134 73-79 L
01-29 at Indiana 21-7 (8-7) RPI 18 89-103 L
02-09 at Northwestern 16-11 (6-9) RPI 47 64-83 L
02-16 at Penn St. 12-16 (4-11) RPI 139 64-69 L
02-26 at Illinois

I think if we played these games over, we would probably win at least 5-6 more games. (Clemson, Campbell, UNI, Nebraska, Penn State, Maybe Split with Purdue)

But I guess if we played the 5 Ranked teams we beat over, we might lose a couple of those...So it really evens out. We are what we are.
 


I think losing to PSU and Nebby hurt worse than Clemson and Campbell.

If you sit with 10 or 11 wins in the nation's best conf, it's tough to look away. It also means you are playing better at the end of the year.

The real issue isn't that Iowa lost to those two teams early, it's that they didn't play anyone else in the non-conf. Couple an atrocious non-conf SOS with no quality wins, and your RPI suffers.

A lot of different angles here for sure.
 


hawkfarmer said:
You beat Clemson and Campbell then your RPI is better and you still have a great shot if you go 9-9 or even 8-10 in the B1G
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I get that argument but we were never even really in the Clemson game. Hard for me to go back and say we should have won that game. I wont speak on the Campbell game as I did not watch that.

The Nebraska was a mismatch in the first 15 minutes and we let them back in it.
 




Nothing matters at this point except Nebby

8-9 16-14

Northwestern 17-14 9-9

Big Ten 1st round 18-14 10-9

Big Ten 2nd round 19-14 11-9

Big Ten 3rd round 20-14 12-9

and then who knows, who cares... it's all about wednesday night in Lincoln
 


I would say the bubble burst after Hubbard left and we didn't get that "other guy" capable of scoring and slashing from the wing. I am not saying Hubbard was going to be the man, just saying that we could have really benefitted from a guy with his skill set and maturity. Another guy to drive, finish, kick, run in transition and defend would have done a lot for our offensive diversity.
 




Section136 said:
It was the home loss to Nebraska. No shame in losing to a more talented team in Champaign. Blowing a double digit lead at home to Nebraska is the real killer.

Win that game and we are 8-8 in the B1G with two to play. Right where we would have been with a win yesterday.
Click to expand...
I agree. It was a disgrace to lose that game.
 


For me the losses to some of the teams were not as tough to take as how we lost. Clemson shoot lights out with little resistance. Campbell dominated us on the boards and had some crazy number of blocks. Nebraska scored or made a FT on 17-19 possessions to end the game. The struggles of a young team I guess.
 


Yup. The Hawks needed to do more earlier in the season (Campbell, Clemson, Nebraska, @PSU, @NW) - not necessarily win ALL of those games, but needed to win SOME of them in addition to the good wins. Iowa has some really nice wins this year, and some really ugly losses that kind of evens things out.

With an RPI around 100 give or take, Iowa was already way below the bubble before the loss to Illinois.
 




We need defensive quickness for next year or we will still be talking about the same thing next year. I don't see it on this current team, so we better have about 3 new guys who can play perimeter defense or next year won't be as good as we all hope it will be.
 


Bump. I have no clue how we lost to Nebraska at home. Richardson undoubtedly careered it against the Hawks that night.

I stand by my OP.
 


Section136 said:
Bump. I have no clue how we lost to Nebraska at home. Richardson undoubtedly careered it against the Hawks that night.

I stand by my OP.
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For some inexplicable reason, Richardson put up 6 treys (he's made 4 in one game earlier and no more than 2 in any other game).

But the real reason was Iowa couldn't stop dribble penetration, Nebraska was getting into the lane at will. Bad bad deal on the D end.
 


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