Well, seeing as my hopes had been so artificially raised earlier in the season, and I had no clue that teams like Wisconsin and Iowa were going to be factors, yeah, I'm disappointed in how this season has gone.
Issues abound, and I did not think there would be so many, and the biggest issue in my mind is whether Tubby's coaching abilities are equipped to take this team beyond the 1st round of the NCAA tournament.
I'm disappointed in how the scedule has seemingly set us up for disappointment, with the NW road game coming right on the heels of the two big games vs Indiana and Michigan, and now this road game vs Iowa sandwiched together with a road game vs OSU and a home game vs Indiana.
Leaving 3 of our most winnable games to be played at the very end of the season after we've been beaten up by the scedule all the way to that point.
But in light of how good the rest of the Big Ten is, and how little depth we have, I'm not all that disappointed, really.
I've been looking at alot of things, trying to wrap my brain around all of this, and I'm thinking we might see Iowa going 4-1 to finish out the Big Ten season, moving them to 10-8, and with 4 wins and a loss that will still help their RPI rating, they could play themselves into the NCAA tourney before seasons end.
I also see Illinois finishing up at or around 8-10 and getting into the NCAA tourney.
I have looked at Purdue's, Penn St's and Nebraska's scedules, who they've played, who they've beaten, and where those games were played, and in light of how we seem at least able to jump out to big leads vs almost anyone, or able to catch up to anyone no matter how far back we fall, I'm thinking we win all 3 of our last 3 games. Those 3 teams simply are not very good. Most of their wins are vs each other and/or NW.
And as for our next 2 games, well, Indiana's pretty up and down this season, for a #1 ranked team, and it being a home game for us, we could still pull off a big upset in that game.
And OSU?! Looking at their scedule, honestly, I see them possibly dropping all the way down to 9-9 by the end of the conf season. They've been coasting by with the Michigan win and easy games otherwise, keeping them up where they have been in the standings and rankings.
But today's beatdown at the hands of Wisconsin, a team not really known for putting down beatdowns on teams, shows me that our next game could be the most important of the season so far!!!!!
Both OSU and Minnesota are at a crossroads in their seasons. Both will have suffered beatdowns. UMn's moving into a softer part of its scedule, OSU is finally having to play the toughest part of their scedule, starting with us. Minnesota could start its comeback in the game vs OSU, and we could send OSU further into a tailspin that drops them down and down til talk of them fearing the bubble will start up. If we beat them, it won't matter if we beat IU or not, I think we'll win our last 3. Obviously if we lose to OSU but beat IU, then I think we win our last 3 as well. If we lose our next 2, well, it will depend on the strength of character of our players.
But I'm starting to think that the Big Ten will get 8 teams into the tourney this year.
Oh yeah, one more thing I noticed, it's looking like Purdue will be 6-9 with very little chance of even making the NIT when we come to town. So not sure how much gas they will have left in their tanks at that point in the season. They may just put off trying until the BTT starts up?! Could be a factor helping us win probably our 3rd toughest of the next 5 games.
