RaceToTheTop

Iowa State wins in OT 84-83 at Texas Tech. Tech inbounded with 4.1 and had a decent look at the buzzer.

Iowa 78, Indiana 77. Late comeback win for Iowa because they always do.

The only non-power 5 teams in the top 50 in NET are: Gonzaga (10) Utah State (27) San Diego State (31) Memphis (32) UC San Diego (43) St. Mary's (46) UC Irvine (50) Given that these teams are more likely to play fewer games that drive up their net significantly and more games that could lower it, I would think that ultimately there will end up being fewer in the top 50.

Wonder what the injury is. Really didn't look that bad when it occurred. Must have had significant swelling.

Ref should have T'd him up. The whole 'I didn't say anything!' is like a five year old getting as close to you as they can and saying 'I'm not touching you'. His intent was to show up the ref and/or intimidate him. That should be a T every time.

Just the opposite -- he asked how many had been decided by more. 2 of the 10 have been decided by less, 8 of the 10 by more.

Should be noted that if Ewers were to end up at Oregon that they've already taken a quarterback from the SEC that was worse there than Ewers and turned him into the GUY. Bo Nix was JAG at Auburn but was a GUY at Oregon.

Ohio State finished fourth in the Big Ten. Meanwhile, the fourth team in the SEC that the media was feeding should have been in the CFP lost the ReliaQuest bowl to a 7-5 Big Ten team.

Woodson isn't holding him out. If he was good to play, he'd be playing. The injury may allow Woodson to bring him back in slowly and see how matchups work.

Forgot about him. I don't think we gained much traction with him, but he's doing well at Xavier. The one under-the-radar guy I was clamoring for that never received IU interest was VCU's Toby Lowal. English kid who can leap out of the building and was raw. 6'8" kid who mostly played inside but was starting to develop a mid range game. Not eye popping stats, averaged 7.7 points and 6.0 rebounds but did that in 19 minutes per game and was very efficient. He ended up at Virginia Tech where he is their leading scorers. 12.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in 25 minutes/game. Shooting 62% overall and 38% from three (on 24 attempts) in 15 games.

Just based on my WAR from last year, entering the Big Ten conference tournament: 18-13, 9-11 in conference or worse: not in 19-12, 10-10 in conference: sweating out the selection; my projection is slightly out but not out of the question. 20-11, 11-9 in conference; in as a 10 or 11, either as last four byes or last four in 21-10, 12-8 in conference; 9 seed 22-9, 13-7 in conference: 6 or 7 seed 23-8, 14-6 in conference; 4 seed 24-7, 15-5 in conference; 3 seed now just getting silly. 25-6, 16-4 in conference; 2 seed 26-5, 17-3 in conference or better; 1 seed

Current WAB values for the rest of the season for IU (the plus WAB numbers are what IU would get for winning; minus WAB is what gets subtracted for a loss). Obviously the values will get changed based on the play of their opponents. at Iowa win +.65, loss -.35 Illinois win +.69, loss -.31 at Ohio State win +.59, loss -.41 at Northwestern win +.59, loss -.41 Maryland win +.52, loss -.48 at Purdue win +.79, loss -.21 at Wisconsin win +.78, loss -.22 Michigan win +.66, loss -.34 at Michigan State win .81, loss -.19 UCLA win +.48, loss -.52 Purdue win +.53, loss -.47 Penn State win +.30, loss -.70 at Washington win +.33, loss -.67 at Oregon win +.75, loss -.25 Ohio State win +.35, loss -.65 Based on WAB, a bubble team would win go 6-9 against that slate. Since IU is currently 13-3 and 4-1 in conference, that would put the Hoosiers at 19-12 overall and 10-10 in conference. IU's current WAB is +1.1; technically an overall WAB of 0 should put you firmly on the bubble but from my experience calculating WAR from last year (which comes out very similarly to WAB), a number of +1.0 is more likely than not to put you in. So I would say that a 19-12 and 10-10 record puts IU squarely on the bubble while a 20-11 and 11-9 conference record most likely has IU in. FWIW, IU's WAB of +1.1 right now ranks 37th. For all intents and purposes, you can project their season ending WAB by taking their final season number of wins -19 and then adding 1.1. You want to have a positive number at the end of the year and the more above one you are, the safer you are.

While I get frustrated when I see some problems on switches on the perimeter, the fact is that our opponents are shooting 30% from three which puts us at the 51st spot. And it's not that we are having opponents shoot more of them than normal -- we're right at the average three point shots against. I do think that fans tend to be a little more critical of their own team because they can spot the problems that they have but I think those problems that we see are ones that are very common to everyone.

Personally, I think getting blasted on the road by a pretty good team and dropping 3 or 4 spots is a pretty on the money drop. At least in terms of WAB, that's what happens.

Overblown, IMO. I think a lot is being put on IU winning three games in a row where two were at home against two of the worst three teams in the Big Ten and a road game against a Penn State team that is starting to look like fool's gold. Reneau is a pretty money player when he does get it down low. I'm not sure I'm upset about a 'ball hog' who takes 9 shots per game and shoots 60%. I think the issue compounds when Ballo, Reneau, and Mgbako are on the court together because none of them are guys who create their own shot and defensively that puts Mgbako on a wing. Also remember, though, that the selling point that got Mgbako here was him playing the 3.

I don't know if I would go so far as to say he 'fixed' the problem. Ballo is a career 57% free throw shooter who is shooting 59% this season. He was horrible last year but he was a 70% shooter in the 21/22 season.

Currently at #15. However, there are some top programs that have not added many and will likely pass us. For instance, Miami is 16th but has only added 8 so far.

Transfer player spreadsheet updated with Staes commitment. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HkHOPCXQowEXP28uvzvaAHspgGxBnh9w_jCR8y3U_uM/edit?usp=sharing

After the USC win, IU moved up 4 spots on Pom to 50 and 6 spots on Torvik to 45.

That’s what I would expect. Both are going to start but I would think the subbing will be more staggered to keep one on the bench at a time. I know Chris says that he only wants Reneau backing up Ballo but I don’t see that happening. You are going to see them on the court together sometimes. The key is to pick the moments where the matchup to do so can work.

CHRIS007 is back! 11111!

Yeah, three conference games in seven days and five in thirteen days. What's strange is that IU hosts UCLA on February 14th and then gets eight days off before they host Purdue on the 23rd.

Could very well be our last game against a quad 3 in the regular season, which means we wouldn't have any Q3 or Q4 losses unless something changes.

Although IU was only 6 of 21 from three, it really didn't look that bad. Movement was good.

I understand him getting pulled in the first half. But exactly what did he do in the second half to earn the pull? The fact that Woodson said Kanaan was 'really good off the bench' in the post game interview is baffling to me.