If NU finishes strong?

[Deeringfish]

Borrowing this quote from an article in another thread I'm just curious.

With four of its final six regular-season games at home and three of the final six against teams in the bottom five of the Big Ten standings, it’s pretty much just a question of seeding now, not getting in.

What is the best we could hope for in the bracket? Lets just say we win 3 more games and one in the B1G tournament (that is pretty modest, I think) would NU be able to avoid playing a top ten team in the first round? It would be really fun to get past the first round and I think if we could play someone with an equal ranking we would have good chance especial if Lindsey comes back.

 

[SmellyCat]

Win the last seven regular-season games and three in the BTT and NU is 28-6 and probably a 3 seed. I'd say that's the best to hope for. If they go 4-4 the rest of the way, with wins over the mediocre teams, that is 23-10. I think we can hope for a 7, but it's more likely that NU finishes in an 8-9 game with a date with a top 5 team in the second round.

 

[ricko654321]

Win the last seven regular-season games and three in the BTT and NU is 28-6 and probably a 3 seed. I'd say that's the best to hope for. If they go 4-4 the rest of the way, with wins over the mediocre teams, that is 23-10. I think we can hope for a 7, but it's more likely that NU finishes in an 8-9 game with a date with a top 5 team in the second round.

I prob agree with your "win all the way end up at 3 seed". If we finish 9-9 in conference (so 1-5 the rest of the way) I think we are out. So an attempt at bridging the gap... keeping in mind the soft bubble, and also that these are just educated guesses:

10-8 (2-4), lose in B1G round of 12 -- 11 seed
10-8 (2-4), win one and lose in QF -- 10 seed
Note that if we get to 11-7 or better there's a good chance we get a bye to the QF...
11-7 (3-3), bad ish loss in R12 -- 9 seed
11-7 (3-3), lose in QF -- 8 seed
11-7 (3-3), win then lose in SF -- 7 seed
12-6 (4-2), lose in QF -- 6/7 seed
12-6 (4-2), lose in SF -- 6 seed
12-6 (4-2), lose in final -- 5 seed
13-5 (5-1), lose in QF -- 5/6 seed
13-5 (5-1), lose in SF -- 5 seed
13-5 (5-1), lose in final -- 4/5 seed

The markups for getting to the semis or finals may seem high, but keep in mind that would in all likelihood entail getting 1-2 more quality wins, on neutral (not home) court. The NCAA tends to reward those. On the flip side though, as you get higher up in #s it prob gets harder to move up more, cause you are further away from the center of the bell curve and there is more differentiation between teams.

I would think at this moment 7.5 is probably the OU on what our seed ends up being. I hope we go under!

 

[DaCat]

I think we end up 12-6 or 13-5, and make it to at least the semis of the BTT. So based on these projections, a #5 seed looks very possible.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

For the sake of NCAA tradition, I hope we are at least part of the first 64. Getting a bye as ricko suggests would be great:

"Note that if we get to 11-7 or better there's a good chance we get a bye to the QF..."