[NU Sports] There is still hope

[Jonathan Hodges]

The thing is that the selection committee honestly does not care where a
team finishes in the conference standings (unless it wins the conference,
at which point it gets some extra weight), and instead focuses on the
entire body of work.  The fact is that NU needs 4 more wins to put itself
in a good spot (it's possible that one of those wins could come in the conf
tourney).  Just finishing tied or above certain teams in the conference
standings won't mean anything come selection time, and fewer than 4 wins
would find NU slipping down the bubble.

Jonathan

--
Jonathan Hodges
Contributor, HailToPurple
Web: http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
Twitter: @hailtopurple
Email: j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu



On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 7:41 AM, Beamsley, Jeff
<Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>wrote:

> Iowa lost to PSU last night.
>
> That means that there are now four teams tied for 7th in BT at 5-8, Minny,
> Illinoise, NU, and Iowa.
>
> The cats have the easiest schedule of these four with three unranked teams
> among the last five games (Minny, PSU, and Iowa).
>
> They simply have to take care of business to end up in 7th place in the BT
> conference.
>
> Minny has a better overall W-L record at the moment, but looking at their
> schedule they are likely to end up 1-4 over their last 5 which will leave
> them 6-12 in the conference and 18-13 overall compared with NU's projected
> 18-12.
>
> Illinoisy is also likely to go 2-3 over their last five which will leave
> them at 7-11 in the conference and 18-13 overall.
>
> Speaking of Illinoying, their fall from grace is facinating.  They have
> all of the talent and the big man that many on this list crave.  They also
> have a good coach who has had success in the NCAA tourney.  What they lack
> according to their own coach is mental toughness.  Weber blames himself,
> but I think it is a natural by product of recruiting divas.  You end up
> with a selfish bunch of kids who put themselves ahead of the team.  Weber
> was either unwilling or unable to change that mindset.  Without a
> commitment to team-first values, they folded like lawn chair in the face of
> adversity.  It will likely cost Weber his job.
>
> Say what you want about Carmody, but he gets this part right.  As we saw
> with Kevin Coble, Carmody is willing to show his best player the door
> rather than compromise his team-first approach.
>
> Hopefully that philosophy pays off in a demonstration of the cats' mental
> toughness in this late season run.  I look for Sobo to bounce back with a
> great game against Minny.
>
> Jeff
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