9-9

What are the odds that the gophers will finish 9-9 by beating Purdue, PSU and Nebraska?

20%

Zero. We will beat Penn St., but the other two I'd count as losses at this point. 7-11 will have to do.

PSU have actually improved of late while the Gophers are in free fall. We could easily lose to PSU. 6-12 sound with no major injuries and Mbakwe's 6th season...No excuses for Tubby. Time to hit the road!

Easily lose to PSU at home? You're an idiot.

Gold Vision said:

Easily lose to PSU at home? You're an idiot.

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I'm the same idiot who said we were more apt to be in the NIT than make the sweet 16 back in December. Yeah, I'm the idiot!

Beginning the season I was pretty sure we would win 11-12 conference games. Now, 9-9 looks about doable. 85% certain!

Not so sure

Penn state hasn't won any in big ten
Nebraska has only beaten Penn State and then Northwestern at home
Purdue has only beaten Penn State, Nebraska and Iowa in OT

If this team needed a chance to turn the season around, there it is.

This team was capable of beating anybody in December, but unfortunately it's February, and they are losing to everybody, so I say chances are 10%.

Moses87 said:

I'm the same idiot who said we were more apt to be in the NIT than make the sweet 16 back in December. Yeah, I'm the idiot!

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You're the idiot who keeps posting after he retired two weeks ago.

We'll beat Nebraska and PSU, but not sure about Purdue. We're gonna limp into the tourney I think. Not looking good. I think it'll be one and out at this point. However, I will say that the Gophers have performed well in the BTT during Tubby's tenure, so who knows?

Moses87 said:

I'm the same idiot who said we were more apt to be in the NIT than make the sweet 16 back in December. Yeah, I'm the idiot!

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At least you can enjoy feeling vindicated by the team's poor play.

Moses just isn't a gopher fan. He likes it better when they lose.

I wouldn't bet on 9-9. I think we'll go 8-10 and squeeze into the tourney, but it's still a very disappointing season. We were talking big ten title when we were 3-0. Now we are a bubble team. We were punked.

record

The Gophers, in all likelihood, will not win another game. 9-9 is not a possibility.

Cayman said:

At least you can enjoy feeling vindicated by the team's poor play.

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whatever it takes to rid ourselves of the cancer that Tubby is.

Moses if you're just gonna post negative stuff about the Gophers, go find a Badgers forum. It's like you enjoy it when we lose. Yes, all of us get frustrated, but for you it's like you don't even want us to win. If you want Tubby gone that bad, I dare you to not post on the forum until he gets fired.

surprise the gestapo hasn't gotten Mosses yet

I know I had a similar thing on Bruce's poll about whether we would make the tournament, but it is so darn frustrating that we are talking about whether we can get to .500 in a season where I we got to a point that I thought 10-8 was the worst case scenario back in early January.

How the teams won or lost their games, aside, lets look at what has REALLY transpired so far this season, and THEN ask the question again as to what our chances are of finishing 9-9.


Last year, there were 5 Big Ten teams that finished the season ranked in the Top 16. Guess what? They are the same 5 teams who are ranked in the Top 16 this year. Go figure.



We've played the Top 7 teams in the conf, 11 times, losing to each of those 7 once, and of the 4 teams we've played twice, we've beaten each of those teams once.

4 splits.

Of the 3 teams we've only played once, 2 of the games were ROAD games. Both teams were ranked in the top 25.
The 3rd game, was a home loss, to Top 5 ranked Michigan.
If we lose to Indiana, they, the #1 ranked team in the nation, will be the only Big Ten team to get a sweep against us.

The 4 wins we have vs those 7, were all Top 30 wins, including a Top 10 win. I'm including Iowa as a Top 30 team because both the Sagarin and Ken-Pom rating systems have them ranked in the Top 30.


Looking at the bottom 4 teams, we've only played 2 of those 4 teams. and we have 2 wins, and they were impressive wins as well and 1 ROAD loss vs those teams. The team we lost to, NW, has 2 additional wins over Top 50 rated RPI teams. Still an embarrassing loss, but really our only bad loss on paper.



What I think is going on, is 3 things. We lack depth, so when more than 1 or 2 players are struggling, well, that doesn't leave many players left who aren't struggling. All an opposing team has to do is figure out who the players are who are playing well, and key on them. Over time, this has obviously had a cumulative effect, preventing any of our players from really having good games for the entire game, if even for an entire half. We suck at playing against the zone, need I say more?! And finally, good teams have a tendency to make their opponents look bad, by playing good defense and good offense and exposing the weaknesses of their opponent.

Are the teams we are playing quality opponents?!


The Sagarin Ratings and the Ken-Pom Rating systems seem to think our opponents are possibly the best ever assembled together in one conference at the same time.

Sagarin Ratings have our opponents that we've lost to at #1, #4, #7, #11, #12, #32, #35 & #90.
Ken-Pom Ratings have our opponents that we've lost to #2, #5, #9, #12, #13, #28, #32, & #100.

Some of those losses were Road games, too. So other than the NW game, honestly and without considering the circumstances of how we lost or how we won, we have not lost a single game that we should have won.


Looking at our last 3 games, rating services have our last 3 opponents rated

#165, #179 & #198 for Penn St.

#106, #123 & #144 for Nebraska.

#74, #91 & #126 for Purdue.


Now remember, we have wins over Top 10 MSU, Top 15 Wisc, Top 30 Illinois and Top 35 Iowa. Though only the Illinois game was on the road.


But seriously?! Starting out at home vs a team rated 180 on average?! Unless nobody shows up at the game except for Tubby Haters who all boo him and the team as they come out onto the court, I'd say we have a good chance of beating PSU.

Then Nebraska. Purdue will be the toughest of the 3, but if we go into Purdue having won 2 in a row, I think we'll have enough of our MOJO back to pull it off. Then its off to the BTT where we play one of the bottom 4 again, hopefully making it 4 in a row. Then look out!!! Tubby has done well in the BTT.

I am predicting a 9 and 9 finish

XMan said:

What are the odds that the gophers will finish 9-9 by beating Purdue, PSU and Nebraska?

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I continue to place the possibility of the Gophers finishing at 9-9 at 2%, tops. More likely than we'll be a school that winds up never winning another game. They might as well go ahead and try it, but if someone from the U allows Tubby to keep coaching, they may get a response along the lines of, "are you kidding me? Please don't waste our time." It would be great for the Gophers to finish 9-9 and for Tubby to have another year together with the team, but folks shouldn't get their hopes up.

^ Kidding. Poor attempt to troll GW. I couldn't stop myself.

I continue to place the possibility of Trevor Mbakwe being allowed another year by the NCAA at 2%, tops. More likely than an additional year being given is that the school winds up never even formally filing a request. They might as well go ahead and try it, but if someone from the U picks up the phone and talks over the details of the matter with a member of the Committee prior to filing, they may get a response along the lines of, "are you kidding me? Please don't waste our time." It would be great for Trevor and the school to have another year together, but folks shouldn't get their hopes up.

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