What's your state of mind for the rest of the season?

[GatoLouco]

I start this thread as I feel calm, despite us basically having pissed away our chances of a 3 peat.

The program gave us 2 wonderful years. For our modest expectations it was something else. This season it made us dream of over achieving again. I said I believed we had enough to get to 10 wins. In the past 11 was kind of the dancing cut off. This season, with the expanded conference, it might be 10. And I suppose we, indeed, had enough talent for that, but needed a bit of luck that we did not get.

So I'll just enjoy it for what it is:

• Team is competitive enough to get our opponent's best attitude, something that in the past would have been a blessing
• We have two all conference type of players
• We can hope to see (more of) the development of two very promising freshmen
• NIT would not be so bad

The things that can make me go sour:

• Lack of (apparent) effort like what we saw in Champaign
• Not getting to 7-8 wins. There are enough fairly winnable games left. We end up with 4-5 and everything positive I said goes out the window.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I want to see KJ and Angelo start getting as many minutes as possible. I am still hoping for eight or nine wins, and some postseason play.

 

[SDakaGordie]

I want to see KJ and Angelo start getting as many minutes as possible. I am still hoping for eight or nine wins, and some postseason play.

Those two statements are incongruous.

 

[prez77]

Just enjoy the games one by one. The probability of making the tourney at this point is pretty low.
Do NOT do anything that would run any risk of hurting Barnhizer's future. Not worth it. Mart doesn't need to be playing 40 minutes per night either. Give KJ and Angelo much more minutes.

 

[its_the_sauce]

Personally I'm just debating whether to do brunch before tomorrow's game or early dinner afterwards.

Of course this would really be first time to actually use a free Chick-fil-A voucher (from Wednesday's game).

 

[SDakaGordie]

Just enjoy the games one by one. The probability of making the tourney at this point is pretty low.
Do NOT do anything that would run any risk of hurting Barnhizer's future. Not worth it. Mart doesn't need to be playing 40 minutes per night either. Give KJ and Angelo much more minutes.

My guess is that the players and coaches are focused on winning now.

 

[Hungry Jack]

If we lose to the Huskies at home, my mind will probably be sedated for the remainder of the season.

 

[julescat]

Hopefully qualify for the B10 tournament. I think it's 50-50 at this point.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I am hoping we don't lose a lot of games from here forward.
I haven't updated my team ratings in a few days, but the loss to Rutgers is probably going to measure out as our worst performance (relative to ratings) since Montana State - and our worst game against a Power 5 school. And that was in a "must-win" home game.

I remember in the aftermath of the Purdue game feeling that we had been exposed - that Painter had essentially solved us defensively and everybody could follow that blueprint... despite the wins over Maryland and Indiana we've reached a danger point.

The team was unlikely to improve very much during the Big Ten season - without Ciaravino, Windham or Mullins stepping up. We're a veteran team and Berry, Barnhizer, Nicholson, Hunger are basically the same as last year. Leach has gradually improved this season, but both he and Martinelli have probably plateaued. So we can win some games with what we have, but in order to win enough games, it is going to be because Windham and Ciaravino get minutes and play well.

 

[Baz=Heisman]

Let’s just take it one game at a time. College basketball is a crazy sport. Teams can go on a run, when it seems like they are cooked, and sneak in the tourney. That’s still my hope.

But either way I want our fans and students to keep showing up to support these guys. They have given us some of the best moments in our 100+ YEAR PROGRAM HISTORY.

Obviously, Boo was the “main man” for this run (and my favorite player of all time in all of sports) but Brooks, Matt, Martinelli and Ty have all played significant roles. If they didn’t play their roles Boo wouldn’t have gotten us to the promised land.

Stay in the fight. Pound the rock. Go ‘Cats!

 

[CappyNU]

I start this thread as I feel calm, despite us basically having pissed away our chances of a 3 peat.

The program gave us 2 wonderful years. For our modest expectations it was something else. This season it made us dream of over achieving again. I said I believed we had enough to get to 10 wins. In the past 11 was kind of the dancing cut off. This season, with the expanded conference, it might be 10. And I suppose we, indeed, had enough talent for that, but needed a bit of luck that we did not get.

So I'll just enjoy it for what it is:

• Team is competitive enough to get our opponent's best attitude, something that in the past would have been a blessing
• We have two all conference type of players
• We can hope to see (more of) the development of two very promising freshmen
• NIT would not be so bad

The things that can make me go sour:

• Lack of (apparent) effort like what we saw in Champaign
• Not getting to 7-8 wins. There are enough fairly winnable games left. We end up with 4-5 and everything positive I said goes out the window.

For me, it's clear the Barnhizer is significantly more injured than people have let on, and he has been rendered almost completely ineffective compared to what he's capable of doing. Since the PSU game, when he had his teeth knocked out in practice followed by the false teeth getting knocked out the next game at Purdue, his 2pt shooting has gone from 48.4% to 42.9%, 3pt shooting from 34.3% to 17.2%, FT shooting from 82.5% to 63.3%, rebounding from 9.6/game to 7.7/game, turnovers from 2.1/game to 3.7/game, steals from 2.7/game to 1.7/game, and his points from 20.1/game to 12.9/game. He's had two good games in this stretch, and not coincidentally they were the two that we won. Barnhizer is now 6th on the team in offensive Box Plus/Minus during conference play, behind both Gelo and KJ.

Based on this, I've resigned myself to the fact that this is not a tournament team now, and even if we had gotten the Butler, Iowa and PSU games, our ceiling was likely the First Four. I don't have the confidence that this team will last physically until the end of the season despite the "easier" schedule the rest of the way.

Based on Torvik's simulator, we essentially have to go at minimum 7-3 the rest of the way plus 2 wins in the conference tourney to get in. It's likely not going to happen, so hopefully we can show some growth the rest of the way and make it to a postseason tourney.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I am hoping we don't lose a lot of games from here forward.
I haven't updated my team ratings in a few days, but the loss to Rutgers is probably going to measure out as our worst performance (relative to ratings) since Montana State - and our worst game against a Power 5 school. And that was in a "must-win" home game.

I remember in the aftermath of the Purdue game feeling that we had been exposed - that Painter had essentially solved us defensively and everybody could follow that blueprint... despite the wins over Maryland and Indiana we've reached a danger point.

The team was unlikely to improve very much during the Big Ten season - without Ciaravino, Windham or Mullins stepping up. We're a veteran team and Berry, Barnhizer, Nicholson, Hunger are basically the same as last year. Leach has gradually improved this season, but both he and Martinelli have probably plateaued. So we can win some games with what we have, but in order to win enough games, it is going to be because Windham and Ciaravino get minutes and play well.

If Berry and Leach can become consistent threats from the outside, and Barnelli able to get inside for either a shot or the dish, we can be formidable (OK, competent) on offense. Throw in Gelo as an occasional slasher, and we have something. It is possible. Not saying it is probable. But there is still time.

 

[Baz=Heisman]

For me, it's clear the Barnhizer is significantly more injured than people have let on, and he has been rendered almost completely ineffective compared to what he's capable of doing. Since the PSU game, when he had his teeth knocked out in practice followed by the false teeth getting knocked out the next game at Purdue, his 2pt shooting has gone from 48.4% to 42.9%, 3pt shooting from 34.3% to 17.2%, FT shooting from 82.5% to 63.3%, rebounding from 9.6/game to 7.7/game, turnovers from 2.1/game to 3.7/game, steals from 2.7/game to 1.7/game, and his points from 20.1/game to 12.9/game. He's had two good games in this stretch, and not coincidentally they were the two that we won. Barnhizer is now 6th on the team in offensive Box Plus/Minus during conference play, behind both Gelo and KJ.

Based on this, I've resigned myself to the fact that this is not a tournament team now, and even if we had gotten the Butler, Iowa and PSU games, our ceiling was likely the First Four. I don't have the confidence that this team will last physically until the end of the season despite the "easier" schedule the rest of the way.

Based on Torvik's simulator, we essentially have to go at minimum 7-3 the rest of the way plus 2 wins in the conference tourney to get in. It's likely not going to happen, so hopefully we can show some growth the rest of the way and make it to a postseason tourney.

If we get to 10 wins and lose in the first round of the BTT we will be right there for a bid. Teams with sub .500 conference records make the tourney nowadays. And I’m not saying we will finish the season 10-10 in the B1G but there’s still a chance so not all hope is lost yet…

 

[macarthur31]

For me, it's clear the Barnhizer is significantly more injured than people have let on, and he has been rendered almost completely ineffective compared to what he's capable of doing. Since the PSU game, when he had his teeth knocked out in practice followed by the false teeth getting knocked out the next game at Purdue, his 2pt shooting has gone from 48.4% to 42.9%, 3pt shooting from 34.3% to 17.2%, FT shooting from 82.5% to 63.3%, rebounding from 9.6/game to 7.7/game, turnovers from 2.1/game to 3.7/game, steals from 2.7/game to 1.7/game, and his points from 20.1/game to 12.9/game. He's had two good games in this stretch, and not coincidentally they were the two that we won. Barnhizer is now 6th on the team in offensive Box Plus/Minus during conference play, behind both Gelo and KJ.

Based on this, I've resigned myself to the fact that this is not a tournament team now, and even if we had gotten the Butler, Iowa and PSU games, our ceiling was likely the First Four. I don't have the confidence that this team will last physically until the end of the season despite the "easier" schedule the rest of the way.

Based on Torvik's simulator, we essentially have to go at minimum 7-3 the rest of the way plus 2 wins in the conference tourney to get in. It's likely not going to happen, so hopefully we can show some growth the rest of the way and make it to a postseason tourney.

While Barnhizer's pain tolerance is elite, it's evident that he's just not at optimal health. I found Collins' comments at his recent presser akin to "if you only knew what he's going through/other guys wouldn't be playing," it affirms that we all see that he's not right. Moving forward, that means you can't put him out there for 36 minutes. Again, this is unfortunate as I'm sure Barnhizer wants to play 40 a night as he sees the end of his college career coming, and he's gonna push back on any efforts to curtail his minutes.

At this point, I can live with the scoring droughts as long as we had good process - make the defense work east-west; keep attacking the rim, and I can live with refs swallowing their whistles. However, I gotta see them focused on defense and protecting their glass. We have a team that can keep opponents under 65 points - I want to see that fight.

 

[CappyNU]

If we get to 10 wins and lose in the first round of the BTT we will be right there for a bid. Teams with sub .500 conference records make the tourney nowadays. And I’m not saying we will finish the season 10-10 in the B1G but there’s still a chance so not all hope is lost yet…

We might be right there, but I sure wouldn't feel confident going into selection Sunday at 19-13 (10-10) with a Q3 loss on the resume.