Rooting for the Illinois teams tonight!


How about this...

If we get a 4 seed, we are probably playing either Maryland or Michigan State in our first game.

If we get a 2 or 3 seed, we are probably looking at more like Michigan, Northwestern or Iowa.

Who would you rather play?
 

How about this...

If we get a 4 seed, we are probably playing either Maryland or Michigan State in our first game.

If we get a 2 or 3 seed, we are probably looking at more like Michigan, Northwestern or Iowa.

Who would you rather play?

Michigan would probably be the team I would least want to play in that group.
 

How about this...

If we get a 4 seed, we are probably playing either Maryland or Michigan State in our first game.

If we get a 2 or 3 seed, we are probably looking at more like Michigan, Northwestern or Iowa.

Who would you rather play?

Would certainly rather get the two or the three. Gophers have to win out, of course, but we can get there with either an MSU loss tonight, or a Wisconsin loss tomorrow. We lose a game it's all moot.
 

Maybe. If MSU loses tonight but goes on to beat Maryland in East Lansing in their regular season finale (which seems possible or even probable given how those teams have played lately and the location of the game), it knocks us out of the top 4 if we don't win out.

That game is in College Park.
 


Truthfully I probably care less about the double bye than most, but it is 1 extra day of rest and one less game to win to win the BTT. You still have to play that 4 seed on Friday (if you can beat the 12/13)... why mess around with that 12/13 game, I dont see how winning that game improves seed for ncaa tournament at all, can only hurt it.

I agree with that - being a 5 seed is added risk for 0% gained if you win your first game.
 


I agree with that - being a 5 seed is added risk for 0% gained if you win your first game.

I've always been a touch nervous about playing in a new arena when the other team has already played a game. I think that's the reason I hate the idea of the 5th seed so much. I'm less scared of that this year as our team has shown an ability to win on the road this year more than before.
 

Maybe. If MSU loses tonight but goes on to beat Maryland in East Lansing in their regular season finale (which seems possible or even probable given how those teams have played lately and the location of the game), it knocks us out of the top 4 if we don't win out.

Game is at Maryland, the best way for us to get a top four seed (besides 2-0) is for Illinois to win tonight and Maryland to beat sparty saturday.
 



Right, so how about a 5-way tie with us, Michigan, Northwestern, Maryland and MSU? How about a 4-way tie with any of those including MSU?

What about a robot with a human brain?
 

Game is at Maryland, the best way for us to get a top four seed (besides 2-0) is for Illinois to win tonight and Maryland to beat sparty saturday.

On the contrary, the best way to lock the double bye is to win out.
 

Me reading this thread...

dbc97d3b537a3b38f323b2cd9e97228de9342018e72bb18e3b36ec235a8783f5.jpg
 

The good news in all this is that no matter how it all plays out, if we keep on playing the way we have of late I like our chances against anyone in the conference regardless of what seed we end up with. But clearly if we can get in the top 4 that is probably the best case scenario overall in terms of having the best shot of coming out on top in the tournament.
 



I am not completely getting this. I know any tie with Sparty hoses us with them, but in the distinct possibility of a three way tie including Maryland, do we lose tiebreakers to them, too?

We hold the tie breaker with Maryland, but if all three of us tie, they take the head to head records against each other between all three schools. We would be 1-3, Maryland would be 2-1 and Sparty would be 2-1
 

Better for RPI if Michigan state wins
 

The only conclusion I can come to is that no matter what happens tonight, it's both good news and bad news for the Gophers.
 


Better for RPI if Michigan state wins

Probably a fairly minor effect on our strong tournament resume at this point, but if Illinois wins, they'd have a shot to move into the top 50. Currently #56.
 

Probably a fairly minor effect on our strong tournament resume at this point, but if Illinois wins, they'd have a shot to move into the top 50. Currently #56.

Agree with this. If Michigan St wins it won't move us up one spot in the RPI but if Illinois wins we may get another top 50 win on our resume which helps us more in my opinion.
 

To bring this full circle, the OP has the hottest take here.

1. There is a scenario that if MSU wins out, we win out, and Wisconsin beats IA and loses to MINN, that it's a three way tie for second, and we get hosed (don't get me wrong a 4-seed is totally fine with me) with a 4-seed via the tie-breaker.
*** This seems a highly likely scenario considering the way that all three teams are currently playing.

2. In another post the OP brought up who he'd rather play in (hopefully) the quarterfinals. I want nothing to do with playing Maryland (likely 5-seed) in the first game either. I think we match-up great with Michigan, and regardless of how hot they are (we beat them two weeks ago) I wouldn't mind seeing a rematch.

3. Go Illini, It would be awesome to shock the world with a Gophers 2-seed!

4. Most importantly, beat the pants off the stumbling Huskers.
 


I'm fine with just focusing on what we, or well, the players can control and not getting caught up on what this team can't control. If we do everything we can do to get a double bye but don't get it due to circumstance then so be it.
 

Agree with this. If Michigan St wins it won't move us up one spot in the RPI but if Illinois wins we may get another top 50 win on our resume which helps us more in my opinion.

Illinois isn't going to move up 7-8 spots in RPI for beating a team in the 40s

No doubt it'd be better if northwestern and Illinois won tonight though.
 

Would it be too much to ask the B1G just to use RPI in any case where there's more than two teams or they've split? I don't just say that because it would benefit us, but I believe they use BCS rankings as a tie-break in football and it's far less arbitrary than what is done now.
 

If MSU loses and drops out of the Top 50 in the rpi, our record vs Top 50 teams will look way better, we are 7-5 right now, that would make us 7-3, and if Illinois won 2 games and got up into the Top 50, we could improve to 8-3, then add in a win over Wisconsin, and we could finish the regular season with a 9-3 record vs the Top 50, which could give us one of the Top 8 records vs the Top 50.
 


That should clinch an NCAA bid for Northwestern.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Northwestern lucky AF. They're gonna make the dance but they're running on fumes. I suspect it will be a short stay for the nerds.
 

Happy for them! I was so excited when we locked up our spot...but to go dancing for the 1st time on this play? Wow.

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 





Top Bottom