hawkeyecub

Stupid Northwestern.

Lunardi just released his bracketology update. Big Ten notables: Ohio State as a #2 (2nd best 2 seed on the S-curve) Illinois as a #3 (top 3 seed) Iowa as a #4 (top 4 seed) MSU as a #5 (worst 5 seed) Wisconsin as a #7 (2nd 7 seed) Michigan as a #9 (2nd best 9) Indiana as a #10 (3rd best 10) I'm surprised he still has Wisconsin that low, they're 15th in the RPI, two spots ahead of MSU and ahead of them in the standings. I also think Michigan should be up a line or two. Illinois could move up if they win both games this week, but that's going to be two tough road games. They've got a chance to move up to a 2 and probably won't fall beyond a 4. OSU should be able to hang onto a 2 seed with their remaining schedule, but let's hope Northwestern knocks them off Wednesday. They probably won't fall beyond a 3. If Iowa holds serve at home they would probably be a 3 seed next week. I think if they win the two at home plus their first game in the BTT that they'll be a 3, and if they win in the semi-finals they'll be guaranteed a 3 . But if they split this week and don't play well in the tournament they could easily fall to a 5. They could still grab a 2 seed but it would take winning out and getting a little help.

Michigan State just isn't doing the things that have always made them great. They have 3 first round draft picks, but as a team they don't rebound or defend as well as they always have. That said they're in right now and will probably be a 5 or 6 seed two weeks from now and could make a run like they did last year.

Even with 18 you still would have problems though because it still would be unbalanced. You would have to go to 20 games to get it the way you used to and that's just never going to happen. The addition of Penn State screwed it up, just like they did with football scheduling. Now with the 12th game in football, it would definitely be easy to have everyone play 9 Big Ten games and play everyone. Either way in both sports if you play more conference games than every other conference, you're pretty much just adding extra losses and hurting yourselves. Personally, I'd like to see a 20-game schedule -- just drop the conference tourney -- but that's a whole other subject. Yes, you have an unbalanced schedule with 18 conference games, but at least you play two teams only once instead of four teams only once. I hate that the regular season Big Ten title seems to not mean as much anymore. Illinois had two separate weeks where they only played one game in that week. I think it could be done, but evidently the conference and others don't think the regular season title is important enough to schedule more games. We have 11 teams and the Pac-10 has ten, yet they play 18 conference games, so why can't we? I've heard some of the coaches talking about this in the teleconferences and interviews this year. The consensus among many of them seems to be that they would love it to crown a true champion, but that they would want all conferences to go to a similar system. Otherwise they say that it would just give every Big Ten team more losses and would hurt them as far as getting in or getting a good seed in the tournament. I think it was Bo Ryan who gave this kind of example: If a team went 13-7 in the Big Ten, that's a pretty successful season. But that's still 7 losses and even if they go 8-3 in the nonconference schedule, they're at 10 losses. Coaches would have to try to get more easy wins in the preseason but that would hurt their RPI and the RPI of other teams in the league. I know what you're saying about going to 18, but I think you either would have to go all the way or just leave it how it is. What if it worked out so that Iowa played Penn State and Purdue only once this year, while OSU played Illinois and Wisconsin only once? You still will inevitably have the same problems.

Yep, not a big difference between a 2 or 3, especially this year where the teams contending for those spots are almost interchangable. Huge difference between a 3 or a 4 though. I think that if we win 2 more in the regular season and win our first game of the BTT we're in pretty good shape to hold onto a 3. Anything less and we're probably looking at a 4.

Big day tomorrow in the Big Ten. Iowa at Illinois is the game of the week. Apparently Illinois is handing out 17,000 orange headbands with Augustine and Dee's numbers on them for senior's day. Assembly Hall will probably be rocking, but I'm confident that Iowa can play well and hopefully pull out that signature road win that we could use. Should be a great game either way with a ton on the line. By the way Lunardi has Iowa and Illinois as 3 seeds today, with Iowa ahead of them on the S-curve. If we can somehow pull this won out, it could easily be the start of a 4 game win streak (PSU, Wisconsin at home next week, then it would probably be Purdue/NW in first round of BTT) which could get us that 2 seed. And let's hope that Michigan can steal at win at Ohio State. I think they match up well with them and can pull it out as long as Ohio State isn't insanely hot from 3-point range.

It is fairly incredible that they beat both Iowa and Wisconsin in football and basketball this year. I don't see that happening again for a while. It seems like Basanez and Vukusic have each been there for 7 years. I just hate playing at Northwestern in both sports. Weird atmospheres at both venues with not much fan support (I think Wisconsin had more fans tonight) in small arenas and stadiums. And in both sports they play systems that Big Ten teams don't see much of. That said I'm glad they pulled that one out tonight. Now if they can just beat Ohio State at home next week...

Even with 18 you still would have problems though because it still would be unbalanced. You would have to go to 20 games to get it the way you used to and that's just never going to happen. The addition of Penn State screwed it up, just like they did with football scheduling. Now with the 12th game in football, it would definitely be easy to have everyone play 9 Big Ten games and play everyone. Either way in both sports if you play more conference games than every other conference, you're pretty much just adding extra losses and hurting yourselves.

I think Lee then Ramirez. I just wish we had a real 5th hitter behind them.

Huge win for Ohio State tonight, winning in the Breslin Center. I definitely didn't expect that to happen. They have to be the favorites now. They have Michigan and Purdue at home and travel to Northwestern. Unless they stumble, Iowa will have to win out to tie them at 12-4.

How did you get Neifi out of that? If I would have just read that quote I would have thought he was talking about Walker. Because according to His Dustiness, "Neifi saved us." How does that have anything to do with this statement? It doesn't.

How did you get Neifi out of that? If I would have just read that quote I would have thought he was talking about Walker.

I thought so too. It wasn't the best angle, but it certainly looked like a jump ball to me. I thought the reach in they called on Brown in the last minute was also pretty questionable though.

Michigan is in with that win if there was every any doubt. I really don't like the idea of facing Illinois with their backs against the wall on senior's day. Fortunately we match up well with them and have played them very well in the last four meetings, including the last two at Assembly Hall. Illinois is really on the outside looking in for the Big Ten championship now and pretty much have to win out to get a share. Wisconsin is right there, but still have to go to MSU and Iowa. That's a big game between OSU and MSU tomorrow night. If OSU can pull it out they're definitely in the driver's seat. If the Hawks can win Saturday it would almost clinch a share, assuming they can win one of the two home games next week. I can't wait til Saturday. I just hope our defense actually shows up on the road this time.

Take off the orange glasses for a moment. There was nobody anywhere near him. He wasn't hanging on to spare someone below. And what the hell does Haluska have to do with any of this? Because he (and many other Illinois fans) finds it necessary to run down a Hawkeye to boost up an Illini player. They don't think Haluska is a good athlete simply because he's white and from Iowa. It doesn't matter if you show them that his times, distances would have placed very well and probably won him some championships in Illinois. It's funny that every time ESPN does an Iowa game the broadcasters make reference about Haluska's track achievements and talk about what a great athlete he is. I guess they didn't get the memo. No one ever said Haluska was a better athlete than Randle, but there was an enormous argument about it. The fact is Haluska is a better basketball player and also is a great athlete. Did anyone come on here after Doug's nasty dunk against MSU and say "I wanna see Brian Randle do that" or say anything about Illinois? Nope. And you wouldn't think that fans of a team who has done much better recently would have such a fixation on their supposed inferior neighbors to the west.

Yep, that's exactly it. I'm guessing you have very little idea as to what actually happened and Steve's role in the entire situation.

Good call, I missed that. I guess I was just looking at his rebound and assist numbers. Still I don't think he's a very serious contender. Dials is probably in line to get more votes than Foster.

Player of the Year is really up in the air this year. I guess Brunner has a shot, being the only guy in the league averaging a double-double, but he is 15th in scoring at 14.2. I just hope he makes first-team all Big Ten. Paul Davis is averaging 18 and 9.4, but with some of MSU's struggles I don't think he has the buzz. Killer plays poor defense and has the selfish rap around the Big Ten. Plus his team is in the midst of a nosedive. Dials is behind Brunner in scoring and getting almost 3 fewer boards a game. If Wisconsin finishes strong I think Tucker has a pretty good shot at it with his scoring, but he's only getting 6 boards. Horton has had a solid year, but again I don't think he has the buzz, especially if they finish in the middle of the pack. Foster has been extremely efficient, but he's only scoring 14 points and not doing anything else particularly well. Looking at it, I guess Bru does have a shot and he's getting a lot of pub this year. If Iowa wins it outright, he should be a serious contender. He's also the third leading rebounder in major conference college basketball. Iowa has the leading rebounder, assist man and shot blocker but it's very possible that none will make first-team Big Ten.

I know it and like I said that's only part of the equation. If he has always really coveted that Indiana job, he'll take it and nothing like that will stand in his way. But there are some things that could sway him if he's on the fence. We're getting a new practice facility and Carver is going to be getting some renovations next year. Neal has opened new doors in recruiting and they're very excited about this recruiting class. He has the fan base back in his corner much more now also. I also would really like to see Neal getting a shot at the head job of Alford left. Although it hasn't always been reflected on the scoreboard this year, he's made some big improvements on our offense, plus there are the positives in recruiting. The lack of head coaching experience is a concern, but he has quite a bit of experience as a scout and assistant in the NBA. I guess I'm back and forth on McDermott. He's a great fit at UNI, but I don't know how he would fare at Iowa where he would have to take his recruiting up a notch. I'm not a big fan of Dana Altman either. He's another guy that I think is a great fit in the MVC, but maybe not the Big Ten.

badgercub I'm not talking about what he says about life in Iowa City. This is obviously third-hand info but I'm very good friends with someone who is very good friends with Tanya Alford. Her and the kids love their life in Iowa City. She loves their "dream home", the schools and the lifestyle. That's only one part of the equation though. Secondly, when did I ever say he "felt the love"? Did you read my post? I said that I could definitely understand if he wanted to get out at this opportunity after taking so much criticism (some of it unwarranted) during his time here. He hasn't been treated all that well and has had some ridiculous stuff made up about him. Some of that treatment he brought on himself, but we've already talked about that. TripJ the cupboard is not nearly as bare as you make it seem. Our backcourt will be very good next year. We all know what Haluska can do and I expect that Henderson and especially Freeman will only improve. The problem is depth in the backcourt at this point. Not many people have seen Justin Johnson but the buzz seems pretty good. If we land Tyler Smith (which would only happen if Alford stays) we'll have a very good backcourt. We have some depth in the frontcourt, we just might not have any studs. Tate has a very good shot at being a JC All-American and should give us a solid post presence inside. Hopefully Alex Thompson can blossom into the player many of us think he can be. I've heard nothing but positives on Looby thus far. He's actually grown 2 inches since coming on campus and he's super athletic for a 6'11 man. He's still a little raw but the coaches love what he's shown them. He almost seems to be a hybrid between Thomas and Hansen earlier on. Gorney gives us another 7 footer who can hopefully give us some boards and defense and we'll see what Vanderbeken has. He's 6'10 but supposedly pretty skilled and likes to play on the perimeter. Like bmk said we won't challenge for the title, but we could definitely be a tournament team. Landing Tyler Smith would be big.

I just do not think Alford will end up at Indiana. First of all I have my doubts on whether or not they'll offer the job to him. If they did, I'm not 100% sure he would take it. Indiana is definitely a better job than Iowa. He has a much better shot of winning a national championship at Indiana than he does at Iowa. By no means am I saying that the Iowa basketball job has more lure than Indiana. But he also has a much better chance of having his legacy tarnished and having that relationship ruined. If the results were the same at Indiana as they have been at Iowa during his first 6 years he definitely would have been shown the door. He also would be scrutinized and constantly under a microscope more than he is here. Plus he still has a very good relationship with Bob Knight. Alford's stops are very similar to Knight (playing at OSU, coaching at Indiana). I think Knight may tell him that he's better off not going back home. I know his family genuinely enjoys their life in Iowa City and I think Steve likes it here also. Financially I don't know if there's anything to gain at Indiana. I don't put anything into what Katz or any other ESPN insiders say after speaking to "a source close to Alford." Isn't it funny how those guys always get the sensational, juicy stuff from these unnamed sources, even though most of the time it later turns out to be false? Now part of me thinks it's very possible that Alford really always has coveted this job and will jump at it. He hasn't had the best support in Iowa and could possibly want to take this opportunity to leave. I hope he (and Craig Neal) stays at Iowa. I think he's developed as a coach, the addition of Craig Neal has really helped him, and I think he is becoming the coach we thought we were getting 7 years ago. Now I probably wouldn't be devastated or as upset as I would be if Ferentz left, but I still really hope he stays.

Good win Badgers. Iowa now controls their own destiny. If we win at Minnesota Saturday then beat PSU and Wisconsin at home we should win it outright.

Why isn't Vukusic playing tonight? And I agree about Dee, he will probably get the respect because of his name, but he hasn't had a season deserving of those honors with the play of some of the other guards this year. Come on Badgers, pull this one out.

I don't think I'd called them overrated, just another example of a team playing beyond its means and above its expectations. But their consistency and grittiness could take them to the BIG 10 tourney championship I see posts like this and the "overrated" one and the only thing I can see that would make people think like that is the fact that Iowa has 4 white starters. This team has talent. Haluska, Brunner and Horner were pretty solid recruits coming out of high school. Haluska is very athletic and skilled, was Big 12 rookie of the year and has been consistently very good at Iowa. Brunner and Horner have produced in the Big Ten for 4 years. Brunner is the school's all-time leading rebounder, and is a very skilled post with solid athleticism. Horner is the all-time leading 3 point shooter and assist man at Iowa. Henderson is a lockdown defender (as is his backup Tony Freeman who is only a freshman) and Hansen could arguably be the Big Ten's defensive player of the year. Thomas gives us great energy off the bench, is super athletic and one of the most efficient rebounders in the league. This is a team with a very talented and experienced core group, who also has some experienced role players who understand their role and do a great job of filling it. They play the best team defense in the league (2nd in the country in defensive efficiency) are the best defensive rebounding team in the league and play with toughness and togetherness. It's far from overrated (as bmk said it's underrated in the polls) and isn't just a group of scrappy hard workers.

I don't know why the smart money would be on them. They've not been consistent at all and they haven't been great on the road. They also will likely have a lower seed than Iowa. Outside of that it's hard to predict until you see the matchups. I agree that OSU is probably best set up at this point to make a run to the Final Four. But Iowa is also the kind of team that can make a deep run depending on matchups (as is always the case in the NCAA's). 4 of our top 6 players are seniors, while the other two are juniors. Most importantly we play very good defense consistently and are ranked 2nd in the country in defensive efficiency. When you play defense like that, you'll always have a chance. If we can shoot well we can play with anyone. I know that because we have a lot of white guys people like to think we aren't very athletic or can't do much in March, but when you look at our resume' you'll see differently. No real "bad" losses and the only teams who have more wins than us vs. the top 50 are Duke and UCONN.