Post Season Tournament Possibilities

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
If the season ended right now, the conference tourney would look like this:

#1 Michigan against the #8 Purdue/#9 Northwestern winner

#4 Wisconsin against the #5 Ohio State/#12 Illinois winner

#2 Michigan State against the #7 Minnesota/#10 Indiana winner

#3 Iowa against the #6 Nebraska/#11 Penn State winner

According to Joe Lunardi at ESPN, there are currently x B1G teams in the tournament:

2 - Michigan State, 3 - Wisconsin, 4 - Michigan, 5 - Iowa, 6 - Ohio State, 11 - Minnesota

Last year the B1G got seven teams but I'm not sure we'll get more than those six this year - the league is still tough but lacks the top-end strength it had last year to help lift the middle. So the Huskers would have to move up to (at least) that sixth spot to get in. Lunardi still doesn't have the Huskers as one of the next 8 teams not in his bracket - although we did make "Also considered" so we still have plenty of work to do.

 
I think we finish 4-2 in our final 6. Which puts us at 10-8 in B1G and i believe the 6th seed... We beat PSU and then get a good but not great Iowa team. If we beat Iowa I think that might just catapult us to the last 4 in and here is why.

We would be 11-4 in our final 5 B1G games(that includes the Tourney). Our only non-conference losses come against teams that have spent time in the top 12 outside of UAB.

I think that Minnesota chokes on its way out and so does Indiana. Therefore B1G gets 5-6 teams in the dance. We would be sitting at that 6th spot with wins over MSU/OSU/MN/Indiana.

Now that is me smoking the hope pipe a bit.. really, if i am being honest, we need to win out and win two in the B1G tourney to actually make it.

 
I thought we might be a little closer after yesterday but now I think we need quite a bit more help. I don't think 4-2 the rest of the way will help - probably hurts considering five of those games are the bottom five teams in the conference. I think we need 5-1 and even that's not going to be a big help unless Wisconsin isn't the 1. Then I think we need two wins in the B1G tourney as that would put us over 20 wins and with another victory against a Top 25 team. 21-12 and we would be right on the edge. Minnesota was the seventh B1G in last year at 20-12.

 
Mavric said:
I thought we might be a little closer after yesterday but now I think we need quite a bit more help. I don't think 4-2 the rest of the way will help - probably hurts considering five of those games are the bottom five teams in the conference. I think we need 5-1 and even that's not going to be a big help unless Wisconsin isn't the 1. Then I think we need two wins in the B1G tourney as that would put us over 20 wins and with another victory against a Top 25 team. 21-12 and we would be right on the edge. Minnesota was the seventh B1G in last year at 20-12.
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I think you nailed it. I had a little more hope until hearing from the experts. We need big wins, and that means beating Wisconsin and getting 2 conference tourney wins, with one vs top 25. Not impossible, but tough.

 
Based on everything that has happened with the Huskers as of late. They are capable of running the table for the tourney. It will just depend which team Miles gets when they step on the court each game.

 
The Wisconsin game is going to be very tough. They're starting to play like they were earlier in the year. Kaminsky is finding his game and making his presence felt. We'll need to play our best game of the year against the Badgers. Indiana is going to be very tough at home. Heck, none of these games are going to be easy, so let's keep our enthusiasm tempered.

 
Win out up to Wisconsin. The Bank would be insane. First priority is taking care of business at home. Illinois is hurting big time. They don't have a ton of depth and have struggled to score points all year. Rice will get his 16-20 because he takes 20 shots but besides that limit Egwu and Abrams and I think we can pull that one out. Indiana scares me being that they are inconsistent at home. PSU beat them but they've also had some big wins. That game is a toss up in my eyes. And finally, Wisconsin could be the deciding factor. I we could someone go into that game at 11-6, riding an 8 game winning streak, the roof would be blown of that arena. Especially with senior day for Ray Ray. I'm very excited to see what happens, but i'm also aware this team could also fall flat against PSU and erase any hope and I wouldn't be surprised at that either. Lots of talent in the B1G and anyone can win at anytime.

 
2 losses is all we can afford. There is no way we'd ever make it with 13 losses, but I think we could be one of the last ones in with 12 losses and two B10 tourney wins. Can this team go 7-2 down the stretch? Tough to say. We were winless away from PBA until the last two road games, but have been money at home (one loss by one point to the conference leader). It'll be fun to watch, Nebrasketball has not been this exciting in a longer time.

 
I might be overly optimistic here, but I think 5-3 gets us in. If we finish the season 4-2 that all but ensures a top 6 finish in the conference and going 1-1 in the tournament would solidify that placement. We could even jump or tie Ohio St. for 5th by going 4-2. The season finale against Wisconsin is going to be huge if we can keep ourselves in it until then. Still a lot that can go wrong, but why not go head first into the kool-aid? We don't have many chances to even consider the possibilities this late in the season.

 
The problem is how we finish in the conference really doesn't matter a whole lot (as far as 5th, 6th, etc.). Most "experts" say we need some more help. Going 5-3 makes the record look a little better but that would most likely mean not getting any more "good" wins and adding a "bad" loss. Not going to happen.

Also, even though Minnesota is currently behind us in the conference standings, their RPI is much better and they have three more quality opponents before the B1G tourney. So even if Minnesota has a slightly worse record than we do, they would be very likely to be chosen ahead of us, especially if we lose three games down the stretch.

I'm not really even sure finishing 6-2 will get us in.

 
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I don't think losing at Illinois and Indiana are necessarily "bad" losses as long as they stay in the top 100, but I do agree with what you are saying. We have to beat Wisconsin and if we are good enough to do that then we should also be able to win the other games. I also think Minnesota has 3 losses left on their schedule. I'm not sure how that will effect their rpi, but I'm guessing it would put us both in the same neighborhood at the end of the season. Conference standings should come into play if that happens.

Either way, this is much better than off season football talk.

 
STL Husker said:
SouthLincoln Husker said:
We need to go 6-2 and win a first round tourney game. If we go 5-3, we will need to win 2 tourney games. Regardless, we need to win the next 2 at home!
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There are only 6 games left in the regular season. The extra 2 are assuming we go 1-1 in the tournament.
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Sorry, you are right! I think we need 6 wins. It we lose 2 of the away games, we will need to beat Wisconsin. One tourney win will put us on the bubble. We will know more after the next couple of weeks as the conversation will continue.

 
STL Husker said:
Either way, this is much better than off season football talk.
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