I didn't realize Winthrop slithered into the top 100. Wow.
Pretty solidly in at this point to. Our lowest RPI loss by almost 20 spots is at Indiana. Go figure.
I didn't realize Winthrop slithered into the top 100. Wow.
I don't see it either, but we don't have a bad loss and have a very difficult schedule. VCU is currently a premium Neutral floor win
????? Still hard to see it
We may not have a bad loss, but we do have several appalling ones...
Yes we do. However, margin of loss is not taken into account for the RPI. We might as well lost by 1 to West Virginia
Follow link down one more level to the bracket matrix, one poll on the 100+ (?) put Illinois as the last team in, probably a homer or maybe Groce decided to to a bracket. Don't look for logic in one outlier.
Indiana may be slithering out soon.
I hope we make the dance, and I think Groce is a great guy. But I also think it's obvious that he's not a good coach.
And barely making the tournament by going on a win streak against mostly bad teams should not save his job. If he manages to do all that and then win a couple games in the tourney, then I think he's probably back, but we can have that conversation during the tournament.
You can change the result of any remaining game(s) you want and that website will give you the resultant tournament seeding and brackets. You can get an Illini fourth seed if you choose your upsets judiciously. They key is to make sure no one other than the top three get ten or more wins. Playing with the bracket can get addictive.
If the only change you make to FiveStar's graphic above is to have Rutgers beat visiting Michigan tonight (tomorrow night?), then we'd tie for 5-8 and get the five seed on the tie break. Taking it still further, we'd play the winner of the PSU-OSU game on Thursday, and if we won, we'd play Minnesota on Friday. Another win would likely lead to Purdue in the next game.
If we beat Purdue on Saturday, the moon would fall from the sky and both the remainder of the Big Ten tourney and the entire NCAA tourney would be canceled. Groce, of course, would then be fired for failing to make the tournament after causing the cancellation with that impossible string of wins. Would Illinois then face sanctions for causing March Madness to be canceled? It is too soon to say.
The thing is that our numbers by beating three not great teams still won't be great. We'd need to win all three, plus beat a Purdue/Wisconsin/Maryland in the BTT to get the RPI low enough. Good luck with that.
Slot number four of the last four in...
Isn't this what Second and Chalmers has told us all along? We make the play-in game and lose - - and that means we come as close as possible to making the dance without getting into the actual tournament!
We wouldn't barely make the tournament because of a win streak against bad teams We would make the tournament because the record at the end of the year got us in. And the RPI would say we should be in. I know this is splitting hairs but there is a difference between the two in my mind. Rutgers winning the big ten tournament is getting in on a win streak.
Wins over @ Iowa and Northwestern netted us +9 gain.
Beating @ Nebraska and Michigan St. would likely get us a similar gain, putting us low 50's or high 40's. I don't think we necessarily need to beat one of those big 3 teams to get in.
Having said that, I think we will lose Sunday and discussion becomes moot
right,I know. If you follow your link it takes you to the poll that has us as the last team in. On the poll there is a link that takes you back to the bracket matrix page (which is also linked somewhere earlier in the thread); but it shows how many polls there are out there that bracket matrix looks at...and out of all of those we have just now crept into one. Nothing wrong with that, but finding 1 nut out of 100 odd polls isn't the same as thinking we are really in the bubble conversation today.
RPI
I think NW got us most of the jump and at the time they were a bit farther up than MSU
I think the jump on the Feb 21 update to 59 from 66 (-7) was all NW, I think we only moved 1 or 2 with Iowa. MSU is 45; NW is 43, but they were 39 when we beat them, so I don't think MSU will help as much, NE/Rut, + a thursday BTT against another mid level B1G team I don't think will move us enough...we need to start getting to 48 or below to start having a shot. I don't we can get there before Friday of BTT & climbing to a 4/5 seed to avoid the 1-3 seed on Friday seems like a stretch. I'm thinking we need to beat one of them, that gives us a top 25 win and the boost to get us on the right side of the bubble.
RPI
I think NW got us most of the jump and at the time they were a bit farther up than MSU
I think the jump on the Feb 21 update to 59 from 66 (-7) was all NW, I think we only moved 1 or 2 with Iowa. MSU is 45; NW is 43, but they were 39 when we beat them, so I don't think MSU will help as much, NE/Rut, + a thursday BTT against another mid level B1G team I don't think will move us enough...we need to start getting to 48 or below to start having a shot. I don't we can get there before Friday of BTT & climbing to a 4/5 seed to avoid the 1-3 seed on Friday seems like a stretch. I'm thinking we need to beat one of them, that gives us a top 25 win and the boost to get us on the right side of the bubble.
It's so fitting that we're right there on the bubble with Bruce Weber and his Kansas State squad. We'll both just miss the tournament. Watch. :tsk:
Syracuse at 86. Sure that will change after tonight.
Rutgers up by 4, 6.5 mins remain.
Didn't happen. Now, Minnesota and NW both need to lose all the rest of their games for us to have a shot at the 4 seed. I shan't hold my breath on that happening.