Versyp grabs record in familiar style (link)

[KODK]

A win ... again ...

Link: Win

 

[illiniboiler]

Indiana is not very good. Disturbing that twice in a row now we have let a bad team kind of make a run at the end at home. Now we are going to find out more about this team as we play Minn, OSU Iowa and Maryland in the next several weeks. Too bad that we seem to have only 7 truly healthy players. But this team is winning and that is not what was happening last year. I project a fifth place finish for them behind MD, MSU, OSu with Rutgers, PSU, Iowa, or Minn beating us how for 4th. Our D is remaining consistent though and that counts for a lot.

 

[TC4THREE]

Indiana is not very good. Disturbing that twice in a row now we have let a bad team kind of make a run at the end at home. Now we are going to find out more about this team as we play Minn, OSU Iowa and Maryland in the next several weeks. Too bad that we seem to have only 7 truly healthy players. But this team is winning and that is not what was happening last year. I project a fifth place finish for them behind MD, MSU, OSu with Rutgers, PSU, Iowa, or Minn beating us how for 4th. Our D is remaining consistent though and that counts for a lot.

How many more games do you think we will win? Remaining schedule below:

01/14/16 MINNESOTA 7:00 PM
01/17/16 at Ohio State 2:00 PM
01/20/16 NEBRASKA 7:00 PM
01/24/16 IOWA 3:00 PM
01/27/16 at Michigan State 7:00 PM
01/30/16 at Penn State 2:00 PM
02/02/16 MARYLAND 6:00 PM
02/08/16 at Wisconsin 7:00 PM
02/11/16 at Maryland 7:00 PM
02/14/16 MICHIGAN 2:00 PM
02/18/16 at Iowa 8:00 PM
02/22/16 at Nebraska 12:00 AM
02/25/16 RUTGERS 6:30 PM
02/28/16 WISCONSIN 12:00 AM

We're 4-0. We still have 5 games against Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Penn State. If we can take care of business in those, we'll have 9 wins and guarantee ourselves a winning conference record. Let's assume we don't beat Ohio State or Maryland at all. That puts us at 9-3 with the following games filling out our record:

01/14/16 MINNESOTA 7:00 PM
01/24/16 IOWA 3:00 PM
01/27/16 at Michigan State 7:00 PM
02/14/16 MICHIGAN 2:00 PM
02/18/16 at Iowa 8:00 PM
02/25/16 RUTGERS 6:30 PM

If we can split those, we're sitting at 12-6. I'm not sure where that would leave us in the standings but I think any of us would have signed up for that before the season.

With Minnesota being one of those swing games, I think this next game is extremely important. Win it and the game at Ohio State becomes a game where we go in playing with house money. If we lose it, we could be coming out of Columbus on a losing streak and in danger of falling into a very crowded middle of the pack.

 

[illiniboiler]

I think the sure loses are both MD games, at Msu, at OSu and at Iowa. that is 5 and we will prob lose one or two more so 12-6, 11-7 i likely. If win one or two in the BTT that should put us in the NCAA. I do not think we have the depth to go far, but I was not sure that we would even have a shot at the Dance and projected the WNIt when the season began. Am pleasantly surprised. Biggest concern is that the short bench could wear us down and cause us to lose more than what I said above. I always love teams that play good D tho and we do.

 

[TC4THREE]

I think the sure loses are both MD games, at Msu, at OSu and at Iowa. that is 5 and we will prob lose one or two more so 12-6, 11-7 i likely. If win one or two in the BTT that should put us in the NCAA. I do not think we have the depth to go far, but I was not sure that we would even have a shot at the Dance and projected the WNIt when the season began. Am pleasantly surprised. Biggest concern is that the short bench could wear us down and cause us to lose more than what I said above. I always love teams that play good D tho and we do.

Wow. We view this team very differently. I will concede likely losses to OSU and Maryland but I will not concede either Iowa game or the MSU game. Not saying we're the favorite in those but I don't see us as a big underdog either. We may not be very deep but the benefit of that is that our best players are almost always on the floor and right now we have 3-4 upperclassmen playing very well. We won at Michigan. We won handily at Northwestern. I'm going to give this team a fair chance against teams outside the top ten until they give me a reason to believe otherwise.

 

[illiniboiler]

I hope you are right but Iowa, msu and Osu are really, really good and winning on the road with a thin lineup is going to be very difficult. Not saying it can't be done, but think it is unlikely. In fact will be very glad if Osu and md do not blow us out on the road as they have most others in the Bt. But, again, want your assessment to be correct. thanks

 

[TC4THREE]

I hope you are right but Iowa, msu and Osu are really, really good and winning on the road with a thin lineup is going to be very difficult. Not saying it can't be done, but think it is unlikely. In fact will be very glad if Osu and md do not blow us out on the road as they have most others in the Bt. But, again, want your assessment to be correct. thanks

Well I have Maryland and OSU on that top tier. A blowout loss to them would neither surprise nor disappoint me. I just don't think that teams like Iowa or MSU are on that same tier and we should be able to play on their tier. Not going to be easy to win those games but it's not even comparable to Maryland or OSU I don't think.

 

[illiniboiler]

agree, those two programs are more than a cut above. The surprise is OSU as that coach has lifted them to be nationally competitive. a top rated player from my town just chose them despite a lot of pressure to stay home or go to UCOnn. Those are the kind of recruiting victories a team needs. Even tho OSu was destroyed by uconn (along with most others) they did beat MD by 10. But yes MSu and IOwa are close enough to us to be defeated by our Boilers. Here's hoping, No surprise, we are going to win and lose some of them and they may well be close.

 

[boilerluv]

As a realist, I understand that our chances against tO$U are slim. Some would say "slim to none," in fact. However, as an incurable optimist when it comes to PUWBB, I believe that on any given night--anything can happen. So while we are likely to be sent home with our collective tails between our legs and a loss that really hurts, we could also tough-out and scrape-out a very lucky win. Go Boilers!

 

[illiniboiler]

I will be rooting just as hard against reality. Our men sure showed that an underdog could win.

 

[TC4THREE]

5-0

01/17/16 at Ohio State 2:00 PM
01/20/16 NEBRASKA 7:00 PM
01/24/16 IOWA 3:00 PM
01/27/16 at Michigan State 7:00 PM
01/30/16 at Penn State 2:00 PM
02/02/16 MARYLAND 6:00 PM
02/08/16 at Wisconsin 7:00 PM
02/11/16 at Maryland 7:00 PM
02/14/16 MICHIGAN 2:00 PM
02/18/16 at Iowa 8:00 PM
02/22/16 at Nebraska 12:00 AM
02/25/16 RUTGERS 6:30 PM
02/28/16 WISCONSIN 12:00 AM

Worst case scenario is we go 0-3 against OSU and Maryland. Hopefully we can get the Penn State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin games for 5 more wins. That leaves 5 games against Iowa (2), MSU, Michigan, and Rutgers. If we can win 3 of those 5 that leaves us at 22-7 (13-5). At this point I feel like that this is a realistic scenario for us. If we slip it could be worse but if this team keeps playing well they are capable of better as well. A win at Ohio State on Sunday might completely blow up expectations.