*****Official IOWA at the B1G Tournament Games Thread*****

[ssckelley]

ND has told Heller the same.

They need to get with Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, and even Purdue to schedule non conference mid week games. All these schools are in the same boat. You need these mid week games to give non regulars a chance to get action and to develop pitching.

Iowa has GOT to avoid 40 loss teams like Western Illinois. Games like that kill your opponent record which is about 1/3rd of your RPI.

 

[AuroraHawk]

Perfect time for B1G leadership/administration to issue a strong condemnation of the process.

The “elephant in the room” is that many of the committee representatives see the selection process as a chance for a little “payback” for other sports where B1G can flex its muscle.

 

[NevadaHawk]

I definitely think the cheating pitcher wasn't the first time. Their coach knew and he's been there 10 years.

If Michigan had an ounce of integrity, they would kick that kid off the team and make the coach serve a suspension.

 

[ssckelley]

I’m going to throw some shade at the BTN. Here they’ve got this huge TV network and they rarely showcase baseball and softball. They should be doing a Wednesday night game of the week and take every opportunity to showcase the sport every chance you get along with the BTN2 product with the garbage camera angles. Once basketball is over every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday should be filled with games.

You showcase the sport and it will help recruiting and draw more interest.

 

[ssckelley]

If Michigan had an ounce of integrity, they would kick that kid off the team and make the coach serve a suspension.

The Big Ten should make it where the coach gets suspended as well. It’s not possible for the coaches to NOT know.

 

[AuroraHawk]

They need to get with Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, and even Purdue to schedule non conference mid week games. All these schools are in the same boat. You need these mid week games to give non regulars a chance to get action and to develop pitching.

Iowa has GOT to avoid 40 loss teams like Western Illinois. Games like that kill your opponent record which is about 1/3rd of your RPI.

The other “answer” involves weighing mid-week games differently than weekend games.

Plenty of posts here about flaws in Rutgers’ resume but the committee can’t have it both ways. If RPI is supposed to take the place of “eye test,” Rutgers’ RPI should have been more than enough to get in. Looking at history, a 17-7, 40+ win, 2nd place regular season. 2nd in B1G tournament.

It’s a hose job. A royal hose job. And if B1G leadership stays quiet, it is clear that they don’t value baseball. And I’m not just talking administration. Well-respected coaches - like Michigan’s Backich - need to issue strong statements as well.

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

I’m going to throw some shade at the BTN. Here they’ve got this huge TV network and they rarely showcase baseball and softball. They should be doing a Wednesday night game of the week and take every opportunity to showcase the sport every chance you get along with the BTN2 product with the garbage camera angles. Once basketball is over every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday should be filled with games.

You showcase the sport and it will help recruiting and draw more interest.

They really had a chance to do this before every other conference had a network. They seem content on showing replays of OSU and Michigan spring games though.

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

This tells me to that Iowa probably had to win the conference tournament regardless. We'd be in full melt down mode if Iowa started the tournament 3-0 only to lose the title game and not make it.

 

[Franisdaman]

Midweek games will always be a thing whether you like it or not. A scrimmage is not the same as an actual game. Unfortunately, for Iowa the school won’t let them travel far because they will miss classes and any decent teams in the area will not come to Iowa. Missouri has told Heller they will not come here.

thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, it sounds like good Iowa teams will always be in this position, where our RPI will not be good enough and we are always on the bubble. We fans just wish Iowa could figure out the RPI puzzle to avoid this.

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, it sounds like good Iowa teams will always be in this position, where our RPI will not be good enough and we are always on the bubble. We fans just wish Iowa could figure out the RPI puzzle to avoid this.

The 2015 Iowa team finished 2nd in the conference. They went 41-18 overall and 19-5 in conference. They went 1-2 at the conference tournament. They got an at large bid and went 2-2. The conference was much stronger, but their out of conference on paper was meh. Seems it's just as much of a crapshoot as anything to hope out of league opponents do well.

Baseball

The Official Athletic Site of the Iowa Hawkeyes, partner of WMT Digital. The most comprehensive coverage of Iowa Hawkeyes Baseball on the web with highlights, scores, game summaries, schedule and rosters.

hawkeyesports.com

 

[Franisdaman]

I’m stunned…..F the committee!!!! That was completely stupid leaving them out and all the selection show us talking about is poor NC State.

So, does getting selected to the NCAA Tournament all come down to our RPI (what does it have to be) and a winning record (what does it have to be)? Or, what exactly does it come down to? And once we have determined this, how do we win this stupid RPI Game???

It's frustrating. But I cannot imagine what Rutgers coaches, players & fans must be thinking.

 

[Franisdaman]

So the Big Ten has a team good enough to host a regional but not good enough to have more than 2 teams. This is soooo stupid!

Was anyone saying yesterday that RU had to beat Michigan to make the NCAA Tournament? I think "everyone" had RU safely in, win or lose.

Insane.

 

[Franisdaman]

They need to get with Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, and even Purdue to schedule non conference mid week games. All these schools are in the same boat. You need these mid week games to give non regulars a chance to get action and to develop pitching.

Iowa has GOT to avoid 40 loss teams like Western Illinois. Games like that kill your opponent record which is about 1/3rd of your RPI.

good idea to help solve this RPI game that the B1G obviously sucks at

someone else said we could play Creighton or Nebby in Des Moines

 

[Franisdaman]

They really had a chance to do this before every other conference had a network. They seem content on showing replays of OSU and Michigan spring games though.

Unfortunately, the B1G has a history of showing us how much they care about baseball.

* Like you said, the TV coverage ever since the B1G Network was created has been lousy

* BTN Plus games sometimes have only one camera (and sometimes no announcers!)

* Last season was conference only games, which was ridiculous

* Last season there was no conference tournament, which was also ridiculous

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

 

[DodgerHawki]

They really had a chance to do this before every other conference had a network. They seem content on showing replays of OSU and Michigan spring games though.

The ratings for baseball/softball on the big BTN are abysmal, that's why they don't show a bunch of games. It's as simple as that. There is a die-hard element of each fan base that will pony up for the BTN+ to watch the games streaming, so that's what the network does. I'm not saying it's right, it's just the network decides the cost of sending a full crew to a location to broadcast a game that nearly no one watches is not worth it.

 

[DodgerHawki]

The 2015 Iowa team finished 2nd in the conference. They went 41-18 overall and 19-5 in conference. They went 1-2 at the conference tournament. They got an at large bid and went 2-2. The conference was much stronger, but their out of conference on paper was meh. Seems it's just as much of a crapshoot as anything to hope out of league opponents do well.

Baseball

The Official Athletic Site of the Iowa Hawkeyes, partner of WMT Digital. The most comprehensive coverage of Iowa Hawkeyes Baseball on the web with highlights, scores, game summaries, schedule and rosters.

hawkeyesports.com

Yes. Warren Nolan's site goes back to only 2015, but the Big 10 for whatever reason was much better in 2015 than it was this year, at least from an RPI standpoint. Amazing that Iowa hasn't won a regular season title until Heller. Going 19-5 in league and not winning the title, mostly bad luck there. This year, finishing 1 game out of a tie for the title. Literally one game in the course of a 24-game conference season can go either way. The loss to Illinois was the one that comes to mind, had them down to the final strike twice and couldn't close the deal.

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

Yes. Warren Nolan's site goes back to only 2015, but the Big 10 for whatever reason was much better in 2015 than it was this year, at least from an RPI standpoint. Amazing that Iowa hasn't won a regular season title until Heller. Going 19-5 in league and not winning the title, mostly bad luck there. This year, finishing 1 game out of a tie for the title. Literally one game in the course of a 24-game conference season can go either way. The loss to Illinois was the one that comes to mind, had them down to the final strike twice and couldn't close the deal.

That Illinois team was unbelievably stacked. It was unfortunate. Most years what Iowa did will win the conference title.