Dec 24 ESPN Bracketology: Iowa is on the bubble & the 4th team out
- Thread starter Franisdaman
- Start date
And someone penciled that in as a loss and likely will be a loss no matter how they play.
Nov 26, 2024 Update:
Again, I know it's early, but in another thread we were talking about whether Iowa would really finish 16th or 17th in the B1G. In another thread, there were complaints that things were slow in this forum. And if you don't like this topic, just skip this thread for now.
As of Tuesday, Nov 26, Joe Junardi/ESPN essentially has Iowa 14th in the B1G.
Joe/ESPN projects the B1G getting 11 teams into the NCAA Tournament.
The 11 Teams & their Seed:
3 Purdue
5 Indiana
5 Ohio State
5 Wisconsin
7 Illinois
8 Michigan State
9 UCLA
10 Oregon
10 Michigan (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
10 Maryland (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
11 Nebraska (one of last 4 in)
Others, on the Bubble:
Penn State.........4th Team OUT
Rutgers.............,..5th Team OUT
IOWA....................7th Team OUT
The Full Bracket:
Again, I know it's early, but in another thread we were talking about whether Iowa would really finish 16th or 17th in the B1G. In another thread, there were complaints that things were slow in this forum. And if you don't like this topic, just skip this thread for now.
As of Tuesday, Nov 26, Joe Junardi/ESPN essentially has Iowa 14th in the B1G.
Joe/ESPN projects the B1G getting 11 teams into the NCAA Tournament.
The 11 Teams & their Seed:
3 Purdue
5 Indiana
5 Ohio State
5 Wisconsin
7 Illinois
8 Michigan State
9 UCLA
10 Oregon
10 Michigan (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
10 Maryland (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
11 Nebraska (one of last 4 in)
Others, on the Bubble:
Penn State.........4th Team OUT
Rutgers.............,..5th Team OUT
IOWA....................7th Team OUT
The Full Bracket:
Bracketology: Could Duke nab the No. 1 overall seed?
The SEC continued to dominate in this week's edition of Bracketology, but is Duke making a run toward a top seed?
www.espn.com
As of now, this is how Iowa's conference schedule is shaping up with respect to Quad opportunities.
Source:
Source:
That’s a brutal away schedule. How did we get 4 home and 8 away quad 1 games! (Big, I know). People complaining about our pre conference schedule are clueless.
Dec 3, 2024 Update:
Again, I know it's early, but in another thread we were talking about whether Iowa would really finish 16th or 17th in the B1G. In another thread, there were complaints that things were slow in this forum. And if you don't like this topic, just skip this thread for now.
Joe/ESPN projects the B1G getting 10 teams into the NCAA Tournament.
The 10 Teams & their Seed:
3 Purdue
4 Oregon
5 Wisconsin
6 Ohio State
6 Illinois
7 Michigan State
8 UCLA
8 Michigan
10 Maryland (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
11 Indiana (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
Others, on the Bubble:
Nebraska.......1st Team OUT
The Full Bracket:
Again, I know it's early, but in another thread we were talking about whether Iowa would really finish 16th or 17th in the B1G. In another thread, there were complaints that things were slow in this forum. And if you don't like this topic, just skip this thread for now.
Joe/ESPN projects the B1G getting 10 teams into the NCAA Tournament.
The 10 Teams & their Seed:
3 Purdue
4 Oregon
5 Wisconsin
6 Ohio State
6 Illinois
7 Michigan State
8 UCLA
8 Michigan
10 Maryland (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
11 Indiana (gets 1 of last 4 byes)
Others, on the Bubble:
Nebraska.......1st Team OUT
The Full Bracket:
Bracketology: Could Duke nab the No. 1 overall seed?
The SEC continued to dominate in this week's edition of Bracketology, but is Duke making a run toward a top seed?
www.espn.com
Not necessarily so. I'm in my '70's and I stopped paying attention to him long ago.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Isn’t that largely a function of away games carrying more Quad weight? We have 9 home games that are Q2/Q3/Q4.
As long as Fran starts Dembele and plays him starter minutes and then subs in Even Brauns to give Freeman breaks, Iowa is going to remain outside any list that includes teams that have a chance to make the NCAA tournament and I'm not even sure that Freeman, Harding, Dix, or Payton can make up for Iowa's lack of rebounding or Frans insane substitution patterns.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
I will eat some crow on Mulvey. Was fairly critical last few years. He has improved and seems to be a savvy, efficient big. He deserves some minutes over Brauns and Dembele.
We should also lean into Tadjo too, way more upside.
We should also lean into Tadjo too, way more upside.
I know he’s been banged up but I sure thought Tadjo would be part of the rotation. On the other hand, in the one game he’s played in he got 4 fouls in 5 minutes, so maybe he needs more work than thought.
Kinda wish he’d redshirted after missing so much of of the early non conference, the rotation is likely to tighten up from here on outside a couple remaining cupcakes.
I don't know about comfortably, I want to see how Sandfort progresses from his injury, but I think Iowa will be in.
I thought this team would be much further along than they are returning Dix, Freeman and Sandfort. A buzzer beater at home over NW and again getting clobbered on the boards doesn’t give a lot of hope. We need Traore back quickly but this team desperately needs some athleticism on the front line.
I still think they get in, but a little less comfortable now due to the injury bug that’s hit us this year.
Hopefully we get Traore back for Michigan, and cooper for the new year. Next to Thelwell, they’re arguably our two best bench players and I thought we missed them the other day vs northwestern - really hurts our depth imo.
It is what it is. Seems a lot to me:
“Quad 1” wins are the headliners on any resume. The quadrant includes home games against teams in the top 30 of NET, neutral-site games against the top 50 and road games against the top 75.
I kind of expected them to be near the bottom of the B1G. They still might, but the additions of Thelwell and Traore have been positive, particularly on the defensive side of things. Having Dembele in the starting lineup needs to change. I think Fran kind of agrees in principle seeing as how his minutes are trending down while Thelwell's are trending up. Hopefully that continues. A healthy Traore should back up Peyton/Dembele and Mulvey should back up Freeman. I think if Fran does these things then Iowa can have a decent season. Sandfort Jr and Braun should not be consuming minutes from Traore and Mulvey.
I've said this before but it bears repeating. Bracketologists are like weather men. They can be wrong right up to the moment when they get things right. Bragging about how accurate they are is a joke. Most anyone that truly follows the sport can pretty much predict who should be in and can ballpark their seed.
I think McCaffery sees something in Dembele that he just really hasn't displayed during the games. He seems very hesitant to take shots and he just hasn't been effective on the boards. You have to wonder how much longer he will start. In fact, I don't usually make these predictions, but I wouldn't be surprised if Dembele enters the portal at the end of the year.
"Plus, saying we're going to "surprise the country" means we're going to be a top 20 type team." Where did you get this idea? I can find nowhere else on the internet where the phrase "surprise the country" as it relates to basketball means a top 20 finish. This is literally your perception of its meaning and is being used as a cudgel because you disagree with another posters position. Words have meaning and the meaning you attribute to these words is completely subjective and unsupported by rational thought. Heck it could mean they beat Iowa State by 30. Just saying.
He could go nowhere else in P4 and start. In fact I'm not sure he'd play at all at this point.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Not being a jerk, but I understand the Quad system. My point was that road games have a higher likelihood of landing in the Q1 column due to the higher weighting. Just like home games have a higher likelihood of landing in Q2 or below. Just an observation.
Just gotta get healthy.
* Dix seems back after his wrist issue
* Payton (wrist) still does not look right
* Traore (ankle) & Koch (undisclosed)--we sure could use them
* Dix seems back after his wrist issue
* Payton (wrist) still does not look right
* Traore (ankle) & Koch (undisclosed)--we sure could use them
I really don't think Payton's issue is his wrist. He's forcing things and making bad decisions.
Many of the shots have not been bad choices. The injury can be influencing his decision making however, if he’s trying to be impactful in other ways if he doesn’t feel good about his shot that day.
I think Fran is just hoping the light switches on for Dembele.
Physically he looks the part. 6-8 255. Nobody else on the roster is built like that. He's frustrating to watch no doubt. Plays soft and tentative...
Maybe if the light doesn't turn on in the next couple weeks Fran moves away from him.
I just think he wants to give his "up side" as much of a chance as possible.
When Traore is healthy he takes Dembele's minutes if that light doesn't switch on.
Fran is already moving away from him. He's averaged 15 mins over the last 3 games. Changing starting lineups is anathema to him. I think he prints out a whole season's worth and doesn't want to waste the paper. That's why Dembele is still there.
I mean, there’s several examples of Fran changing his starting lineup. Just last year with Dix and Freeman for example.
At the moment as you said Dembele isn’t getting starter minutes. I think if/when Traore gets healthy he’s possibly on track to supplant him, or possibly Pryce would be a better option at the 4 - imo Traore might be a better fit at the 3.
Fair. I just think he's giving Dembele a extremely long leash because he's a guy with obvious upside and like I said, nobody else on the roster has that frame.
Seems to have confidence issues as well. Fran probably thinks removing him from the starting lineup exacerbates that. I understand that line of thought but actually think it's wrong.
Bringing him off the bench might actually take some of the pressure off the kid.
I don't like Traore at the 3 vs the 4, but the difference is minimal. The beneficiary of Dembele's reduced minutes so far has been Thelwell who had seen a commensurate rise as Fran has utilized the 3 guard lineup that I hope continues to be utilized more and more. Iowa needs rebound and defensive help down low and Traore is better than Pryce at that so I'd have him backing up Payton/Dix down there.
He chucks up shots without getting squared up lots of times early in the shot clock. Not great decisions from a senior.
I think he’s a lot more squared up with most of his shots than you think. He’s got an extremely quick release.
And Fran has long preached that he wants his shooters to shoot when they have open looks, no matter the shot clock.
Another reason why at least getting a split to start with the NW win while we’re down 2 key reserves was big.
