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SpiderNation

nu2u

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Aug 10, 2006
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Mixed expectations about the Iowa draw on the Richmond BB message board.

They are feeling good, as they should, about their win over Davidson and the A10 tourney championship. Always interested to read other fans views and perceptions of the Hawkeye team/program.

It's still early, but poster "KE Spider" is emerging as a Spider fan to keep an eye on....

"My Hoo son, a season ticket holder and a very good judge of basketball, saw Iowa take down UVA by a point in late November. Sees a lot of Spider games too. He believes we are easily capable of beating Iowa.
I'm going with my family and my Spider family. We will get this done! (He believes we win the second game too).
-
and-
"Spiders are little different than most teams in how we approach the game. Over emphasize some aspects and under emphasize others IMO. Nevertheless, if you haven't seen or played us before, it can be disconcerting. Thought we had a good chance to win today. Believe even a better chance Thursday."

Mark KE down as excited for Richmond to face Iowa.
 
Easily capable.
Capability is a poor standard to judge a matchup. Any team is capable of defeating any other team in the tournament. For instance, in this matchup Iowa could shoot 25% on FGAs, play poor defense, and the Murrays score less than 10 total points while Richmond shoots above 50% and makes every free throw. That's probably a loss. That probably won't happen. Probabilities make Richmond a heavy underdog.
 
Capability is a poor standard to judge a matchup. Any team is capable of defeating any other team in the tournament. For instance, in this matchup Iowa could shoot 25% on FGAs, play poor defense, and the Murrays score less than 10 total points while Richmond shoots above 50% and makes every free throw. That's probably a loss. That probably won't happen. Probabilities make Richmond a heavy underdog.
I agree. I'm nervous only because I have hopes for this team to get far and it only takes one off night to end those dreams. Looking at their results, I expect a comfortable win.
 
Hawks are a completely different team than we were in Nov. Losing NPOTY and 4 of 5 starters will expectedly be a little bumpy early, but obviously they have the horses and they are just finding their stride late in the season. Don't know anything about Richmond so won't speculate, but if you have second hand information saying one game months ago is telling anything about this matchup you might as well admit you have no clue. Which is fine! Just what makes these matchups so much fun!
 
I agree. I'm nervous only because I have hopes for this team to get far and it only takes one off night to end those dreams. Looking at their results, I expect a comfortable win.
I'm with you there. I will be anxious until each game is decided, This Iowa team has shown great resiliency others haven't. They also have a cohesiveness which will help a great deal also. This team has a lot of weapons. Still, they don't call it "March madness" for nothing.
 
For once I am not much concerned by the first game. While the Spiders have a cool team name, we should smother them on defense, out rebound them and out shoot them. They will struggle with the traps.

Providence is the perfect second round opponent. Our BPI is 14, Providence 42. They have been playing well but so has Iowa and we've been beating better opponents.
 
For once I am not much concerned by the first game. While the Spiders have a cool team name, we should smother them on defense, out rebound them and out shoot them. They will struggle with the traps.

Providence is the perfect second round opponent. Our BPI is 14, Providence 42. They have been playing well but so has Iowa and we've been beating better opponents.
Per Lunardi, Iowa is arguably the second-best team in the country, behind Gonzaga, since February.

My concern is coming off the high of winning the BTT. It's a tougher tournament than the A10, we had three tough games (out of the 4 we played), and have to be a bit drained physically and emotionally.

Then again, we also do NOT have to deal with the same four-games-in-four-days scenario that we had for the BTT.

This should be a fun tournament to watch, going back to the true regional/pod format.
 
I’d think first 5 minutes will be dogfight, after that I think Hawkeyes settle in and play like they are capable of playing and take or stretch the lead. I could be wrong and Hawks come out focused and just blow the game open right from the tip but Spiders are experienced and don’t give up easily
 
I'm much less concerned about these matchups than I was last year, which is weird (lower expectations going into the year?).

FiveThirtyEight has Iowa as the favorite to make the sweet sixteen at 60%.

 
Richmond got extremely lucky in the A-10 tourney. Dayton was beating them by double figures when right at the end of the first half Dayton's PG sprained his ankle and couldn't play in the second half. Dayton held the lead for a while, but just couldn't hold on without their PG. I don't think Richmond gets out of the Semis without that injury.

They are decent, but being realistic, they were not an at large team without winning their conference tournament - they finished 6th in a league that got 2 bids. I follow the A-10 pretty closely (my brother went to Dayton and I live about 3 miles from Davidson's campus and attended a couple of games this year). It wasn't a great year for the A-10 and Richmond didn't finish that high in it. Could they beat us? Of course, they are a decent Division 1 basketball team. But if I were picking a 5/12 upset, this wouldn't be the one for me.
 
Per Lunardi, Iowa is arguably the second-best team in the country, behind Gonzaga, since February.

My concern is coming off the high of winning the BTT. It's a tougher tournament than the A10, we had three tough games (out of the 4 we played), and have to be a bit drained physically and emotionally.

Then again, we also do NOT have to deal with the same four-games-in-four-days scenario that we had for the BTT.

This should be a fun tournament to watch, going back to the true regional/pod format.
In 2011 Uconn had to win five games in five days just to make the tourney. They won their next six.
 
I'm much less concerned about these matchups than I was last year, which is weird (lower expectations going into the year?).

FiveThirtyEight has Iowa as the favorite to make the sweet sixteen at 60%.

thanks for the link - they give ISU a 33% chance of winning the 1st game.
 
I'm much less concerned about these matchups than I was last year, which is weird (lower expectations going into the year?).

FiveThirtyEight has Iowa as the favorite to make the sweet sixteen at 60%.

You know what's interesting about this is the crazy parallels between the Iowa men and women this year. Both won the B1G championship. Both have a NPOTY candidate and conference scoring champion leading them. Both teams are top 7/8 favorites to make it to past each round to the finals according to 538.
 
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Another thing I thought about is beating Indiana and Purdue on their "home" court should really give the guys a lot of confidence. Those were tournament environment games. It's very likely the crowd in Buffalo will jump on the Richmond side hoping to see an upset. I like to think it won't faze our guys.
 
No one wants a piece of this Iowa squad right now. I’ve never seen an Iowa team finish the season like this. They are playing with so much confidence. I’m more worried about SDSU beating Providence and then shooting 70% from 3 against us in the next round. I could unfortunately see something like that playing out because it’s March.
 
For once I am not much concerned by the first game. While the Spiders have a cool team name, we should smother them on defense, out rebound them and out shoot them. They will struggle with the traps.

Providence is the perfect second round opponent. Our BPI is 14, Providence 42. They have been playing well but so has Iowa and we've been beating better opponents.
SDSU very likely will take down Providence.
 
No one wants a piece of this Iowa squad right now. I’ve never seen an Iowa team finish the season like this. They are playing with so much confidence. I’m more worried about SDSU beating Providence and then shooting 70% from 3 against us in the next round. I could unfortunately see something like that playing out because it’s March.
SDSU does have good 3PT shooters on their roster (especially Scheierman) but they have not seen the kind of length of Iowa while playing Summit League opponents and Joe T. will frustrate them for sure.

Oral Roberts made a run to the E8 as the Summit League champs last year. In some ways, SDSU is better but they don't have the PG OR has, a big difference.
 
Richmond should be excited. But that excitement might be tempered a bit if they watch the Northwestern tape or Rutgers or Indiana or Purdue. There's no reason why any team shouldn't be looking forward to playing in the NCAA tourney. But that excitement often dwindles in the midst of reality. So let's play the game and see how it goes.
 
Anything can happen in the NCAA tournament. Every team is there for a reason, so there are no automatics.

I just hope Iowa maintains the edge they had the past month or so, and through the conference tournament. Do that, and winning this game shouldn't be a problem, but in this tournament, you take a day off and it could be a short stay. I take every opponent seriously.
 
SDSU very likely will take down Providence.
Wouldn't surprise at all. SDSU is ranked way higher on Kenpom. I still have SDSU PTSD after seeing Iowa get drilled by them a few years back. Rather face Providence.
 
I'm not going to worry until there is a reason to do so. Actually watched the Rich/David. game yesterday and the Spiders were really fortunate to have won that one. I thought we would really struggle with the Purdue bigs, but really, we didn't. I believe in this team. They just seem to be able to play against any style right now. And having the best player in America (Yes, Keegan was robbed by the B1G) doesn't hurt. Let's get this thing going!
 
I'm much less concerned about these matchups than I was last year, which is weird (lower expectations going into the year?).

FiveThirtyEight has Iowa as the favorite to make the sweet sixteen at 60%.

Iowa has a 3% chance of winning the whole thing. That isn't insignificant.
 
if you win your conference tourney the confidence in your team should be high, nothing wrong with that. Also 5/12 upsets happen all the time so it would be foolish to take them lightly
I think we'll see a 5/12 upset this year but it's not likely happening in Buffalo.

I think NMSU-UConn is a better candidate.
 
I think we'll see a 5/12 upset this year but it's not likely happening in Buffalo.

I think NMSU-UConn is a better candidate.

I also think that Providence / SDSU is more of a traditional 5-12 match up and Iowa / Richmond is the 4-13.
 
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Per Lunardi, Iowa is arguably the second-best team in the country, behind Gonzaga, since February.

My concern is coming off the high of winning the BTT. It's a tougher tournament than the A10, we had three tough games (out of the 4 we played), and have to be a bit drained physically and emotionally.

Then again, we also do NOT have to deal with the same four-games-in-four-days scenario that we had for the BTT.

This should be a fun tournament to watch, going back to the true regional/pod format.

Any team that’s seeded 12 or lower is coming in on the high of winning their last season-defining game. The fact that they also had four games on four days, all of them close, Thursday-Sunday is a huge break for us in these circumstances. Usually the mid-majors have a chance to calm down off the high for a few days and focus before they learn the opponent.
 
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