RaceToTheTop

Who's SOS are those? are they what are on the team sheets.....because they are WAY out of whack with what Pom or Sagarin would say. Pom has IU's at #12 right now and Sagarin has it at #11. In fact, Pom and Sagarin are incredibly consistent with each other in terms of SOS. I am discouraged to think the NCAA is using SOS values that don't really match with reality.

So Purdue fans should be rooting big time for Iowa in their last game as they travel to Illinois since they beat Iowa twice and ls to Illinois twice.....although couldn't that potentially turn a Q1 loss to Illinois to a Q2 loss if Iowa beats them?

USPS -- First time caller, long time listener. if the following were to happen entering into the BTT, which of the following would you have ranked highest and lowest on the S curve: IU beats Minnesota, loses to Wisky (record 19-12/9-11) Rutgers loses to Purdue (record 19-12 but one of those wasn't D1, 10-10) Purdue beats Rutgers (record of 17-14, 10-10). I'll hang up and listen.

Maybe it's been said, but what Q1A game did we gain yesterday? (nevermind -- see Ohio State bumped up to 15) FWIW, obviously there is going to be a bit of teams bumping in and out of Q1A, Q1B, and Q2 in the last couple of games + conference tournaments.

42-21 Purdue. Iowa completely sleepwalking.

Everything lining up poorly for the BTT...still in the first half in Iowa, but Iowa laying an egg and down 33-21 to Purdue.....starting to really look like even IF we were to win our last games, we'd be in the play in game. If Purdue hangs on today and then beats Rutgers in West Lafayette and Michigan either beats Nebraska or at Maryland, then regardless of what we do in the last two games, we end up in the play in game. Also think that in that case, winning both instead of one becomes more important because Rutgers just improved their case and Purdue puts themselves right back on the bubble with victories over Iowa and Rutgers.

Rutgers taking it to Maryland. That will put Rutgers at 10 wins. That brings the possibility of IU still being in the play in round ev or en if they win their last two games. Not that big of a deal, because of they do win their last two, being in the tourney isn't even a question. In order to avoid being in the play in round if IU wins their last two games, they would need Purdue to lose either at Iowa or at home to Rutgers or have Michigan lose their last two games....one of which is at home to Nebraska, the other at Maryland. If IU wins only one of two games, the only way they avoid the play in is in a scenario where Purdue drops their last two games I believe.

NC State loses at Duke 88-69. The Wolfpack were kind of in position in their last two games where not much would change their status.....they played at Duke and end the season hosting Wake Forest. They are the ultimate bubble team, bracketmatrix has them in the tournament in the field in 43% of the brackets, out in 57%. The Duke loss likely doesn't change anything, but a win at home against Wake Forest won't do anything for their resume either. Basically the only movement they would have had was with a win at Duke (putting them into the field in most brackets) or a loss at home to Wake Forest (which would have pretty moved them out of almost everyone's bracket). If they win at home against Wake Forest they will be in the precarious position of being just out or being one of the last few in.....and the last couple in usually get pushed out due to conference tourney results. They'll be anywhere from a 5 to 9 seed in the ACC tourney, so the first game does little good in terms of upping resume as it will be against an ACC team that isn't going to make the NCAA tournament. To get to a game that could potentially help, they'll have to beat a mid to lower tier ACC team so they can face one of the top four (Louisville, Duke, Florida State, Virginia).

IU listed as a 10 seed on the bracketmatrix with 7 at large bids listed below them. In the tournament on 106 of the 108 brackets.

Through 4 of the 11 NCAA games on tap today, IU moved up once spot and ahead of 24-5 Auburn on Pom. Simply means that the ripple effect of the games played changed their ratings ever so slightly to push IU a little ahead of Auburn. Could switch back again before the end of the night because to the nearest hundredth of a point in AdjEM, Auburn entered the night at +15.55 and IU was at +15.53; both are now at +15.53 so IU is less than .01 ahead.

I didn't think it at the time and had agreed with some others that Phinnissee hadn't been tripped....but then saw this video. That's a play that gets called all day as a trip.

That is the one that ticked me off. It's one thing to not use the S curve, but you can't tell me that year that Kentucky and Indiana weren't underseeded so they would meet each other in round two. IU was 25-7 and 15-3 in the Big Ten and Kentucky was 26-8 in 13-5 and won not only their conference title but the tournament title as well. Most people thought UK was a 3 seed and IU was going to be a 3 or 4....instead UK was a 4 and IU was a 5.

IF we win our last two games we would be 10-10....but still not guaranteed to be out of the play-in round. Most likely we would need one more team to win 9 or fewer games. The most likely scenario would be either Purdue or Rutgers; root for Purdue to lose at least one game OR Rutgers to lose both of their remaining games. Easiest scenario: Rutgers loses to Maryland, thus insuring that the Rutgers/Purdue loser will not reach 10 wins.

Certainly getting off topic here, but a couple of thoughts on the Minnesota/Wisky game: Very competitive game. Positives for Minnesota: they haven't packed it up since the IU loss and have put good performances together against Northwestern, Maryland, and Wisconsin. The downside for them: they don't finish out games and those positive efforts against NW, Maryland, and Wisky only netted one win. Total meltdown against Maryland (and, yes, Maryland did need some luck to win that one). Against Maryland, they blew a 7 point lead with two minutes left. Today, they were up 4 with 1:44. I actually thought they got a pretty favorable whistle today against Wisky -- something that doesn't usually happen in Madison -- and didn't take advantage. Part of their late game issues could be from Pitino playing their starters so many minutes, but part of that is that their bench isn't very good. Going into their last two games at 13-15, two things could happen: they can keep playing hard or they could see the road ahead to end the season isn't going to yield anything positive. To even be considered for the NIT, they would need to win their next two games and a game in the BT tournament to even be eligible for NIT consideration.

Thanks. Must have forgotten you had sent that to me and just read it. Holt certainly has had a bad string of luck. Dude nearly died at Providence when he lost 50 pounds in two months to a mysterious illness. He was granted a sixth year. He's actually playing his final season now despite first playing at IU in 2014-5. He's averaging 5 points and 4 rebounds per game in 15 minutes. As long as it doesn't effect IU making the tourney, I'm pulling for Providence to get there so Holt gets to play in a tourney.

Not a bubble watch game but of interest since we play both of them....Minnesota up 1 at Wisky with five minutes left.

It's possible that IU could win both games and still be in the play in if Rutgers beats Maryland and Purdue beats both Rutgers and Iowa. HOWEVER, being in the play game with a 20-11 record and 10-10 in the conference would have zero relevance to us being in the tournament if we lost the play in. If Purdue beats Rutgers and we win only one of two games, I think that we automatically will be in the play in game. Our tiebreakers are horrible against potential 9 win teams.....we were swept by Purdue, lost to Rutgers, and lost to Michigan. Technically Minnesota could also end at 9-11 and if our one win against was against them, it would help us in tiebreakers if we beat them.

BTW, I believe that a student must have completed one math credit beyond algebra 2 in order to gain admittance to IU Bloomington. That typically means that the student has completed algebra 1 before the high school level. If Lander has done that, at the minimum he would be a decent student.

If it is just two classes that is between him and being eligible, I have to believe that he's here. Hell, those are things that can even be knocked out through online classes (BYU has online high school classes that are pretty much start based on your own timeline that students the high school I teach at complete when they are looking to graduate on time but lack credits or ones they use in order to take a course their senior year but need to complete a prerequisite course they haven't). What would make me upset is if the IU administration gets involved and makes it harder for Lander to do so. Seems they are pretty stuck in the twentieth century.

I'm not familiar with the 'real story' if it wasn't what was in the papers. Who was Holt the fall guy for? Morgan? Bryant? I would hope it wasn't Perea.

'Twas a joke. That said, it wasn't like that was his only strike at IU.

Hell, Emmitt Holt ran down a dude in his car and I think he was barely old enough to have a license.

Three point shooting over last 8 games: 50 of 134 (37%), averaging 6.3 threes on 16.8 attempts. That's livable. Certainly better than the approximately 30% and 5 per game we were getting.

Just beat Minnesota on Wednesday. Won't be sleeping well if we don't.

IU stays at 38 on Pom. SOS goes up to #12.