bob, you have Michigan losing to MN and MN losing to Michigan.
Pregame: Illinois vs Northwestern, Tuesday, February 21st, 7:00pm CT, BTN
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I have faith that those two teams can find a way.
EDIT: I think UM could win, but then cancel it out with a lose to Rutgers; or Minn could win and then lose to MD or WIS.
WVC beat me to the UM/MN call, but yours is an excellent reply.
The other issue with your scenario is that it requires MD, WI & PU to lose a surprising number of games to teams in the 4-12 bracket. Still, if we take away the UM/MN impossibility, we still have eight teams at 9-9 and if a badly depleted Indiana loses at PU, we can still have seven. Seven was the number I challenged in the original imaginary tie scenario.
The most frustrating part of this season to me is despite the fact that it feels like we are so far off from a successful (meaning NCAA tournament) one, we really aren't. We didn't need to beat any world beaters: if we had just won against Winthrop at home without that massive choke job, and then finished the rally at PSU, we would be 17-11 and 6-8 in the Big Ten with an incredible chance to end the regular season 20-12 (9-9) and be squarely in the conversation. UGH.
Our only remaining option is to win out in the regular season and win at least two in the tournament, getting us to 21 wins. I don't have enough orange koolaid to believe in that.
Our only remaining option is to win out in the regular season and win at least two in the tournament, getting us to 21 wins. I don't have enough orange koolaid to believe in that.
Yeah, that's the crazy part. When the schedule came out in august and I saw this february schedule, I thought Groce had gotten a GIFT. And in hindsight, the schedule was an even bigger gift than I thought! All the non-con teams except WVU and FSU were down from a normal year (VCU, BYU, NC St), really down Big Ten, really weak bubble. Disappointing to miss because even though I didn't believe in Groce going into the year, I really, really wanted Malcolm Hill to get to play in the big dance. Him missing out is just haunting to me as a fan.
I've said it before, but this year with the B1G being down it really isn't far-fetched to say this. Is it likely? NO.
Just have to avoid Wisconsin, Maryland, and Purdue.
WHY NOT ?
This Illinois team has so much potential. Can they catch Fire in a Bottle ? They are playing better right now.
To beat IOWA on enemy turf is a hard thing to do- Consider this-
IOWA has beaten IOWA STATE-MICHIGAN-PURDUE-OHIO STATE AND NB this year.
Very impressive win for the Illini.
NW is one of those teams Illinois matches up well with if we bring our road game and all things being equal Illinois will be in this game tooth and nail in a 2 point game.
Its nice to see a thread with at least a few positive thoughts!
I know our program is way short of where we want it to be, and unfortunately not even "average" (i.e. 9-9 in B1G) but frankly we should always remember that people on this board drink a lot of orange cool-aide.
Ken prom had us as 70 to start the year we are now at 72
Most pre season predictions I read had us a 9/10th in B1G, we are 11th.
Win 2 or 3 of the last 4 games (which seems possible) and at least we hit those outside realistic expectations. (Unlike IU,MSU OSU, etc)
The ardent fan bases cool aide fueled expectation of a sure NCAA bid we always wildly optimistic.
I'm not saying 70th in kenprom, 10th in conference is anywhere near "good enough" for the long term. But let Whitman do whatever he feels he needs to do in the offseason to address that. For the sake of the kids I'd like to see them meet those outside preseason expectations and fans be more supportive of their efforts to get there.
GO ILLINI!!! Beat the Kitties
I know our program is way short of where we want it to be, and unfortunately not even "average" (i.e. 9-9 in B1G) but frankly we should always remember that people on this board drink a lot of orange cool-aide.
Ken prom had us as 70 to start the year we are now at 72
Most pre season predictions I read had us a 9/10th in B1G, we are 11th.
Win 2 or 3 of the last 4 games (which seems possible) and at least we hit those outside realistic expectations. (Unlike IU,MSU OSU, etc)
The ardent fan bases cool aide fueled expectation of a sure NCAA bid we always wildly optimistic.
I'm not saying 70th in kenprom, 10th in conference is anywhere near "good enough" for the long term. But let Whitman do whatever he feels he needs to do in the offseason to address that. For the sake of the kids I'd like to see them meet those outside preseason expectations and fans be more supportive of their efforts to get there.
GO ILLINI!!! Beat the Kitties
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It's not at all optimistic for a coach in his 5th season. It has already been mentioned, but a below average team isn't going to get respect in preseason polls until they prove it or they bring in a huge recruiting class. Preseason rankings are a joke and should almost never be used to set expectations.
Making the tournament was nowhere near wildly optimistic. Groce recruited talented players. Pretty much every game we here the announcers say we are a good team, better than our record shows. That's because we have talented guys but it's just not clicking.
I agree that our expectations were a little too high going into the season. We were pretty horrible last year and lost one of our two best players. We bring back Abrams and add Lucas, neither of whom were going to be gamechangers. I think it was reasonable to think we'd be better than last year (and we are) due to being more experienced and injury-free. However, expecting a team that finished 5-14 last year with largely the same group of players to finish near the top of the Big Ten is a bit much. That being said, I still think we should be a little better than we are. But the overly high expectations make it seem like we're underperforming more than we are. I still have high hopes for the future since we have a great class coming in next year that we can really build off of assuming no decommits. I think Kipper and Lucas are going to be studs too.
We also added Black and Thorne which went a long way towards fixing a major weakness from last year, rebounding. I don't think many people were expecting a Big Ten contender, but perhaps a middle of the pack NCAA caliber team. That's a very low bar for year 5, not "wildly optimistic" or "overly high expectations".
BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
Not to mention you'd usually expect some player development to occur from one year to the next, as well as continuing physical maturity. Those things alone should have made us significantly better with most of a returning roster plus some solid additions filling positions of need.
This would be a huge W for us. Need to win 6 more to get in. If we can get this one, I think we win out and catch fire going into the BTT. Anything can happen.
I like thinking like this too. Gives hope for watching the rest of the season and looking forward to a possibility of something. I think even 5 more wins we could be on the bubble. They would be 20-12, with a BTT win and winning the last 7 out of 9 games with a very very strong SOS. It would be possible, starts tomorrow!
KrushCow31
Former Krush Cow
- Chicago, IL
Watch us win out, finish 8-9 in the conference, win two games in the BTT and make the NCAAs lol.
I would be over the moon. I think most people would be.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
KrushCow31
Former Krush Cow
- Chicago, IL
Which of our 18 conference games do you think we will skip?
Oops! 9-9 haha. But if I had to pick one, it would be Penn State. Which one? Your choice haha.
OrangeAndBlues
- Indianapolis
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