[NU Sports] The white elephant in the living room

[Michael Vance]

Actually, though it hasn't been a slam-dunk in the last few years, with 
the mid-majors getting a lot more respect, it was not that long ago that 
a winning -- and sometimes even .500 -- conference record (along with a 
near-perfect non-conference record) in one of the major conferences 
would guarantee you a spot in the big dance.  I'm still not sure that it 
will require winning the conference tourney, either.  But things have 
changed and I think that with our non-conference schedule it'll take a 
10-8 conference record and one win in the Big Ten tournament to have a 
chance at a spot in the field of 65.  The strength (or lack thereof) of 
our non-conference schedule will definitely hurt us, and the end of the 
conference schedule is not kind, with two tough road games (PU and dOSU) 
to finish the season.  But if we defend home court (Chicago State, 
Illinois, Michigan, dOSU, and Iowa) and win at Indiana, that would give 
us 18 wins and a .500 conference record.  So steal one more road game 
(Iowa, Minnesota, Purdue, or dOSU) and that's 19 wins overall with a 
winning conference record.  Throw in a first round win (and hopefully 
more) in the conference tourney to get to 20 wins and our chances are 
not bad.  Not great, but not bad.

I know, I'm an optimist, but this is by no means impossible the way that 
they're playing right now.  But notice that I didn't use the capital T 
word.  Wouldn't want to jinx anything.  :-)

-Michael

hakirsch at aol.com wrote:
> The T word ?
>
> They don't send teams who go .500 in conference to the NCAA (unless they win their conference tournament). Now the NIT is another story
>
> But still congrats are in order for winning 4 out of 5 in conference. I don't know when the last time (if any) that has ever happened
>
> Harry
> ------Original Message------
> From: wildelk2 at aol.com
> Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
> To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Sent: Jan 31, 2009 3:54 PM
> Subject: [NU Sports] The white elephant in the living room
>
> ?? Ok; say we win tonight, convincingly, do we talk about the "T" word?? Coble , at times, has looked like an All-American.? Moore provides leadership abilities as well as a healthy dose of treys.? Thompson is the glue as well as athleticism.? Carm has pulled the right strings as he's injected Nash into 20-25 minutes a game, and Jeremy has been a big pain in the ass for opposing offenses.
> ? The rebounding remains questionable, and we need to get more turnovers to have a chance.? I contend that this group has figured out something "between the ears", as we didn't play our best vs. IU, yet still figured out how to win.
> ? If we can beat Wisconsin, we can start to think "of other things".? If we lose, I can handle staying in a win 2 of 3 mode, and we'll see in a couple weeks.
> ? Also, Wisky's lost 5 in a row since thrashing us in Madison.? Let's throw gas on the fire.?? Cats 68? Wisky 62.
>
> ????????? GO CATS!!!??????????? Erix
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