Marcus: Nebraska game is a chance to quiet some noise
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There will be about 9-10 B1G teams with 10 or more wins by the time the main block of conference play starts, meaning that pretty much every team with 8 or more regular season conference wins will be in the NCAA mix since there will be quite a few good wins to be had. Non conference performance for the league really plays a huge part in its perception and ranking throughout the year.
18-19 wins = on the bubble and depending on fantastic wins on your resume and/or more wins in the B1G tournament.
20+ wins = lock
I think we'll see either 8 or 9 B1G teams in the NCAAs.
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Agreed! There is definitely a chance ten Big Ten teams could make the dance. This is a 14-team league with a lot of good teams getting a lot of good wins. Right now 12 of the 14 teams are in the Top 55. If the league takes care of December, they will be in good shape. Lots of opportunities for Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins for lots of teams and lots of "reasonable" losses. There will be no bad losses in the Big Ten this year. Even losing to Rutgers would not be the killer it has in the past. In fact, Rutgers might be thinking Big Dance. It is a unique year with the NET rankings, too. If the Committee is true to its word that conference affiliation isn't a factor, then this is a year ten teams could make it to the NCAAs.
GophersInIowa
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Do we know for sure if Dupree is playing tonight? I'm assuming he isn't but haven't seen anything official.
SelectionSunday
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Sounds to me like he's playing, per Pitino.
UpAndUnder43
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Pitino said the plan is for Dupree to play.
This is as much a March game for the Gophers as there is, go 0-3 and it will be tough to get into the NCAA, I just don't see this team closing out with a 10-5 record and a winning B1G season and I doubt 9-9 gets them in.
20 Big Ten games this year. To your point, though- this is the biggest game of the year. They need this one bad. They need the win. They need to hold the home court. They need the positive momentum. If they lose they will be playing under negative pressure in coming games and the anti Pitino crowd will amp it up.
builtbadgers
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The true anti Pitino crowd is very small. They are people that just do not like him, call him pee wee look a like, little Ricky. whatever. The majority want him to do well. Then there is the small group that think he is a coaching superstar. That is the part that is earned through tremendous achievements like conference titles, Big 10 tourney titles, NCAA runs. This is a critical game, we can not go to Madison 0-2. I remain faithful that getting Curry back, more practice to precision and better defense will bring success. And it has to. 9-11 WILL NOT get it done no matter how tough the conference is. Home court must be protected in every single game. Go Gophers
Yep- agree 100%. Defense is going to be the key. We have the numbers and enough capable athletes to accomplish that.
I think Pitino has a lot to learn. I think he someday COULD become a coaching superstar if he gets the momentum to get better recruits that can work his system. The clock is not in his favor right now and the recruiting this fall was indicative of what the hot seat can do to you (it didn't help that the whole staff turned over either). Win tonight. Have a solid year. Get an NCAA bid. Strong spring recruiting (get Hurt! and a Grier type transfer) and roll on from there.
There will almost certainly be a 9-11 Big Ten team making the NCAA Tournament this season. Whether that ends up Minnesota, who knows? But, there will be Big Ten teams with sub-.500 league records making the NCAA.
Especially in the 20 game schedule and the shift to playing other average Power 5 teams in the non-conference instead of quality mid-majors. It has the double effect of skewing the mid-majors down and giving the high majors in good conferences an uptick. Down side of course is that in a down year in the conference, it could be brutal like the SEC a few years back when they two or three teams in. I think you're right that below .500 Power 5's in a strong year are going to have a good chance to make it. ACC had a few in prior years, and it will happen again.
I don't think that happens unless a conference team with that record makes some noise in the Big Ten tourney. I know teams with sub-.500 records get a bid sometimes (we did in 2013) but not often. When you get to picking sub-.500 teams from a conference, you're likely picking too many teams from that conference. Despite the early hype, I'm not at all convinced this conference will have 9 or 10 teams selected.
It really has nothing to do with the hype, it has to do with the analytics. A 9-11 Big Ten team that had a good non-conference season, with have NCAA tourney numbers. There will be several good to potentially great wins, no bad losses, a strong SOS, etc.
It's way too early to say that with any level of certainty. That would mean 8 or 9 teams from the B1G in the NCAAs. While the non-conference performance has been strong, it hasn't hasn't been strong to the point where that is a guarantee. We aren't even a third of the way through the season.
And it would depend who it was, and who they played and beat in non-conference play. Purdue or Wisconsin could maybe pull it off if they win a finish strong in their non-conference. But a team like Minnesota or Iowa might have some trouble due to lack of a quality non-conference slate.
That's exactly what that means. And there will be at least 8 or 9 teams in from the Big Ten.
On kfan they were just talking with Spencer Tollackson about Lunardi having the gophers in the play-in game. Tollackson said if given the opportunity to lock the gophers into the play in game at this point, that he would do it.
Made me wonder if I'd take a guaranteed play in game. I might now, but would not have taken this guarantee before the season began. Interesting how my expectations have gone down. Hopefully a win tonight.
Made me wonder if I'd take a guaranteed play in game. I might now, but would not have taken this guarantee before the season began. Interesting how my expectations have gone down. Hopefully a win tonight.
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builtbadgers
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Not with zero top non conference wins. I did not say zero big 10 teams at 9-11 would get in. Besides 9-11 is far from acceptable. Tonight is huge because we can not go to UW at 0-2.