2012-13 College Basketball Running Cordial Discussion

Was wondering that myself.

 

Everything you said can be applied to Wisconsin, but in the past 10 NCAA tournaments, Bo Ryan's teams reached the Elite Eight once and the Sweet 16 four other times. And the Badgers had only one first-round exit. Brey's Notre Dame teams made one Sweet 16 and lost in their first round three times. (Though it's worth noting Notre Dame missed the tournament four times in that span.)

 

Never thought I would say this but Iowa, at 4-7, has a better shot than Illinois of getting in. Iowa has a lot of Penn State/Nebraska left on the sked these last 7 games. I think they'll win 5 of them and get to 9-9. IF they can close, 6 of 7 is not unrealistic.

 

Covered Memphis at Southern Miss on Saturday, and if any team is a true sleeper in the tournament, it's Memphis. They are long and athletic, and they killed Southern from behind the arc (9 of 17) and in the paint.

They are also very young, and took a couple of bad losses early, so they haven't gotten much of a buzz nationally. But they've won 14 straight games, and in the vale of mediocrity that is Conference USA, they'll probably win out in the regular season. They're a team that I don't think anybody really wants to see on their bracket come tournament time.

Meanwhile, USM has played its way onto the wrong side of the bubble. They probably need to win out, which means winning at Memphis in a couple of weeks (very doubtful), and then probably get to the C-USA Tournament finals to have any shot at an at-large.

 

Bo Ryan's teams play defense.

Mike Brey's don't.

 

Iowa is 15-9 and hasn't beaten a single ranked team. Illinois is 17-8 and has beaten five ranked teams. And won the Maui Invitational.

You make Michael Gee look like fucking Nostradamus.

 

I bet Illinois is in at 8-10 in the Big Ten, even with a first-round Big Ten Tournament loss.

Mid-major advocates will have a fit to end all fits, but I bet it happens.

 

Illinois likely is in if it gets to 20. There are too many high-quality wins to ignore.

 

Seriously. I know I don't have much room to talk as a Virginia fan, but Iowa's OOC schedule was fucking dogshit.

 

Iowa isn't even in Lunardi's Next Four Out.

 

As one of the board's Iowa alumni, I'll add: No Way In Hell.

HOWEVER, props to Fran McCaffery for making the Hawkeyes at least respectable in a tough conference. When Alford bailed, the bottom fell out and Iowa men's basketball was just awful for several years.