Livin' on a Prayer

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Gopher07

Gopher07

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As Bon Jovi once said, we're halfway there. With half our regular season B1G games behind us, how do you see the rest of the schedule playing out?

If I had to guess ...
@ Iowa W
@ Nebraska L

Call me unfaithful, but I don't believe this team will be able to pull out two road wins in a row late into the season. Nebraska and Iowa each have upsets on their home floors, and I think because of the revenge factor we'll win at Iowa.

vs Wisconsin W
vs Ohio State L
@ Northwestern W
vs Michigan State W

I think we'll have one "signature" win, and I'm pegging it as the MSU game for now. We actually played them close until the closing minutes in East Lansing, and we catch them as their third game in 6 days, second in a row on the road.

vs Indiana L
@ Wisconsin L
vs Nebraska W

Final record, pre-tournament: 21-10 (9-9)
 

Tell you what, I'd take that. I'd switch the MSU and Nebraska games, though.
 


I don't like to be a negative Nancy, but I give the Gophers almost no chance of beating MSU. Their size is not a good match-up for us. Hope you are right on MSU and wrong on Nebraska and @Wisconsin.
 

I do agree that it's not likely to happen, I just feel like we might steal one there. Maybe we'll get good Ralph for a night and Eliason will continue to progress to a point where he can hold his own against the MSU front line for 15-20 minutes. MSU did lose at Northwestern and Michigan, two teams I would struggle to call "tall"
 


I think gophers beat Iowa and Nebraska on the road. Then Wisconsin at home. Lose to MSU and tOSU at home. Beat Indiana and Nebraska at home. Win at northwestern, but lose at wisconsin to finish 10-8.
 

jmag21 said:
Tell you what, I'd take that. I'd switch the MSU and Nebraska games, though.
Click to expand...

+1

'Every Big Ten game is a tough one'. Ok, but I think the ability to really beat a bottom dweller home/away will in essence be the best measurement of any progress this team has made.
 

To be fair, Nebraska isn't exactly Penn State. They have beaten Indiana and PSU at home and won @ Iowa, and had close losses in Madison and Champaign. Beat a reeling Northwestern team on Wednesday and they're sitting 4-6 in conference.

Sure they've gotten destroyed by Wisconsin at home and Ohio State (twice) but realistically if you were ranking the teams in the B1G right now I'd say they're only one or two slots below us in terms of in-conference resume (probably ranking PSU, Iowa and Northwestern lower, if the Huskers beat the Wildcats). Now, we probably should win on paper, but as the conference proves time and again winning on the road is never a given.
 

It's a tough road to hoe. I'd say most likely 4-5 but with a chance to go as high as 6-3 or as low as 3-6. 8-10 would put them in need of a good BTT performance to boost them over the top. Every game is really really important now.
 



What does Pomeroy think? Anyone subscribe to the site this year? I used to live on that site when it was free.
 

I don't subscribe either (damn you pay site!) but my guess is he has us going 4-5 or 3-6, based on the rankings. Ohio State (1), Wisconsin (2), Michigan State (5), and Indiana (10) are all top 10 teams (so that's five sure losses there), probably a toss up at Northwestern, and probably wins against Nebraska (x2) and Iowa.
 

Pomeroy

Has us going 8-10 in B1G at this point. Was 7-11 until ILL win, then ILL dropped from 9-9 to 8-10. He projected us to go 9-9 before any games were played, 11/3/11. If everything plays out per his efficiency calculation, we would be tied for 7th with ILL but Michigan and Indiana would be tied for 4th with 10-8 conf record. 10-8 might just fetch a bye in first round of BTT.
 

Indiana has won once on the road during conference play. Their next two games are on the road against Michigan and Purdue, I don't see them winning either. That would make them losers of 6 of their last 8. I think Indiana has a tough time finishing out the season.
 




betterdeadthanred said:
Indiana has won once on the road during conference play. Their next two games are on the road against Michigan and Purdue, I don't see them winning either. That would make them losers of 6 of their last 8. I think Indiana has a tough time finishing out the season.
Click to expand...

If I recall currently, Crean has only won twice on the road during conference play through his entire tenure at Indiana.

Will look to confirm that.

****EDIT:

Per an Indiana website (http://www.crimsoncast.com/tag/road-losses/) Crean, coming into this season has posted a 1-29 conference/post season road record. Add in this year so far and he is at 1-4 in conference, for a total of 2-33 with the only two wins coming at Penn State.

There is no reason Minnesota should not beat Indiana at home.
 

WE NEED INDIANA TO KEEP WINNING. That's our most quality win this season. Every time they lose, it negatively effects the Gophers.
 


BigGopherFan said:
WE NEED INDIANA TO KEEP WINNING. That's our most quality win this season. Every time they lose, it negatively effects the Gophers.
Click to expand...

We should go out and get a more quality win. We have Wisco, OSU, and MSU at home, so we have opportunities to get it done.
 


I pretty much agree with the OP's line of thinking.

However, I really really hope we sweep Becky.
 

Gopher07 said:
As Bon Jovi once said, we're halfway there. With half our regular season B1G games behind us, how do you see the rest of the schedule playing out?

If I had to guess ...
@ Iowa W
@ Nebraska L

Call me unfaithful, but I don't believe this team will be able to pull out two road wins in a row late into the season. Nebraska and Iowa each have upsets on their home floors, and I think because of the revenge factor we'll win at Iowa.

vs Wisconsin W
vs Ohio State L
@ Northwestern W
vs Michigan State W

I think we'll have one "signature" win, and I'm pegging it as the MSU game for now. We actually played them close until the closing minutes in East Lansing, and we catch them as their third game in 6 days, second in a row on the road.

vs Indiana L
@ Wisconsin L
vs Nebraska W

Final record, pre-tournament: 21-10 (9-9)
Click to expand...

Hope you're in tight with the man upstairs, cause it might take divine intervention
to get to .500 at the end fo the season. No road wins appear likely at this point,
though your NW pick is the one place to maybe get one. not going to beat MSU
anywhere. Wisconsin at home is winnable because let's face it, Wisconsin is no
top 25 team anywhere but Madison. But all in all, 8-10 would be a lot to ask
right now.
 

WhoFellDownTheGopherHole? said:
+1

'Every Big Ten game is a tough one'. Ok, but I think the ability to really beat a bottom dweller home/away will in essence be the best measurement of any progress this team has made.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

The Iowa game is huge. One that we need if we have visions of making the dance.

After Trevor went down, I felt the guys would do well to get 6 BIG wins. I think they will do that but my confidence level is not there for them to get 9.
 

Winnipegopher said:
I don't like to be a negative Nancy, but I give the Gophers almost no chance of beating MSU. Their size is not a good match-up for us. Hope you are right on MSU and wrong on Nebraska and @Wisconsin.
Click to expand...

Agree, not a good matchup. Still, Northwestern beat them, and they matchup worse then we do
 

Well, not the order I expected but 1-1 following the road trip. Now the Barn needs to play a factor in getting 3 out of 4. Wisco is huge.
 

Gopher07 said:
Well, not the order I expected but 1-1 following the road trip. Now the Barn needs to play a factor in getting 3 out of 4. Wisco is huge.
Click to expand...

The hugeness can't be overstated. I know the term is overused, but if we are thinking in terms of an at-large bid rather than a conference tournament championship, then we are getting very close to must-win territory.
 

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