12-38

[Secho99]

We shot 12-38 on 2-pointers tonight, many of which were open, relatively simple shots. We’re 311th in the country in making 2s and 317th in effective FG%.

These are the power conference teams worse at making 2s than us and their records:

Washington State (15-15)
DePaul (9-21)
Oregon State (10-19)
Wisconsin (16-12)
South Carolina (10-20)
Cal (3-26)

That’s it. It’s a big reason we’re hanging out around 50 in KenPom.

To me the missed opportunity tonight was in the first half. PSU was a mess and stuck on 7 points for more than 5 minutes and we pushed a 14-7 lead to … 17-7. We had our own 5-minute scoring drought and missed 7 shots in a row. It should’ve been 25-7 and instead it was just a slow bleed of the lead because of brick after brick.

I feel like I need to dig the old “Make Shots” t-shirt out of the closet.

 

[SimpsonElmwood]

No kidding. That was the key.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Our shooting sucks

 

[NUWildcats17]

We missed a lot of relatively open shots. Audige, Beran, and Berry need to be better plain and simple. I still have hope in this team and feel lucky to watch them play in their second tournament but it was frustrating seeing how badly some of those misses were.

 

[jensberg]

We missed a lot of relatively open shots. Audige, Beran, and Berry need to be better plain and simple. I still have hope in this team and feel lucky to watch them play in their second tournament but it was frustrating seeing how badly some of those misses were.

If they lose at Rutgers and then the first game of the Big Ten Tournament they may not make the ncaa's

 

[NUWildcats17]

If they lose at Rutgers and then the first game of the Big Ten Tournament they may not make the ncaa's

They were a SIX seed going into this game. It sucks they lost this game and the way it happened but man, we need to stop thinking the sky is falling.

 

[Secho99]

If they lose at Rutgers and then the first game of the Big Ten Tournament they may not make the ncaa's

They’re going to make it. It might be a 9-10 seed if that happens but they aren’t falling out.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

They’re going to make it. It might be a 9-10 seed if that happens but they aren’t falling out.

8-9 seed works. Would love to get a first round win and take on a number 1 seed!

Let’s face it, if we are a 6 seed or a 10 seed we either won’t be favored to win the opener or will be a popular pick to lose to a lower seed in brackets. That’s when we seem to play best.

 

[TheC]

If they lose at Rutgers and then the first game of the Big Ten Tournament they may not make the ncaa's

This still feels like a possibility. We have a terrible out of conference schedule. We will have gone in on 5 straight losses. We won't get the benefit of the doubt like the blue bloods will. The eye test has us not looking at all like the team that knocked off Purdue and IU last month. This game against Rutgers is HUGE. That Illinois collapse seems to have sapped all the confidence from this team. We stopped being the hunters starting with that second half. Not sure how to get that back.

 

[GatoLouco]

They’re going to make it. It might be a 9-10 seed if that happens but they aren’t falling out.

I don't get too deep into the inner workings of bracketologists. But there is still a scenario where we are a #9 see in the B1G tournament, ahead of 10-10 WI and PSU.

So, there is a scenario where we lose the first conference game and PSU or WI win a couple. MI and MI State win a game. Or someone unexpected wins out I suppose.

Doesn't this potentially puts us into territory of the committee having 9 teams they value more than they value us? Would they go to 10 B1G teams?

 

[NJcatsfan]

We are a lock. But we could really have a terrible, bad-taste end to the season by losing our way into a worse seed, then making a quiet exit. Let’s not do that. Gotta get back into a winning mentality. That seems more important than any individual would-be win for the resume.

 

[hdhntr1]

This still feels like a possibility. We have a terrible out of conference schedule. We will have gone in on 5 straight losses. We won't get the benefit of the doubt like the blue bloods will. The eye test has us not looking at all like the team that knocked off Purdue and IU last month. This game against Rutgers is HUGE. That Illinois collapse seems to have sapped all the confidence from this team. We stopped being the hunters starting with that second half. Not sure how to get that back.

Not really. If they had lost the IA game yes but with winning it Winning record in BIG, 20 wins a number of big wins and no real bad losses plus we play better than most on the road

 

[Secho99]

I don't get too deep into the inner workings of bracketologists. But there is still a scenario where we are a #9 see in the B1G tournament, ahead of 10-10 WI and PSU.

So, there is a scenario where we lose the first conference game and PSU or WI win a couple. MI and MI State win a game. Or someone unexpected wins out I suppose.

Doesn't this potentially puts us into territory of the committee having 9 teams they value more than they value us? Would they go to 10 B1G teams?

The quick answer is the committee doesn’t really look at conference seeding or even really conference-only record. They don’t make a conscious choice about how many teams from a league to select, it’s all about overall record and the quality of the wins and losses. I believe when they discuss teams they don’t have conference records on their board. Pitt for example is tied for 1st in the ACC, destroyed us by 29, and is still projected considerably lower than us due to the overall quality of their wins and losses.

I’m not saying the process is the best way to do it, but that’s how it’s always been done.