Would have been really nice if Minnesota could have not, ya know, completely choked twice in the past week. I'm sure they feel the same.
I just ran another prediction for the last games of the season, and these are the scenarios I got (holding my other predictions constant, including an RU upset of Maryland and PSU beating MSU in State College):
Go 2-0: 14-6 gives us the 2-seed, and we would play the winner of (7) Indiana and (10) Ohio State. If we won, we'd presumably play the winner of (6) Iowa and (3) Penn State.
Go 1-1: 13-7 bumps us down to the 5-seed, and we would play the winner of (12) Minnesota and (13) Northwestern. If we won, we'd play (4) Michigan State. This would suck. We'd have to hope MSU gets another loss so we could switch with them. Ties with MSU enact crappy tie breakers that SOMEHOW seem to bump us way out, even though we swept Wisconsin and PSU.
Go 0-2: 12-8 gives us the 6-seed, and we would play the winner of (11) Purdue and (14) Nebraska. If we won, we'd play (3) Wisconsin. I actually would like this setup better than that middle scenario.
Obviously, you guys might have different predictions for the non-Illini games, and that would affect these scenarios. However, after playing with it, the dropoff from finishing 2-0 to 1-1 seems MUCH bigger than from finishing 1-1 to 0-2. This is, of course, ONLY talking about the BTT. I imagine the NCAAT seeding implications are very significant if we could finish with at least one more (very quality) win in the regular season. Winning both this week REALLY sets this squad up for a nice seed and a possible Tournament run in March, so let's do it!
EDIT: It's probably unlikely Maryland loses TWICE down the stretch, but it's not that much more unlikely than us winning twice ... they play at Rutgers and vs. Michigan, and they have been playing a bit worse lately. Holding everything else constant, us going 2-0 and them going 0-2 could give us the outright title.