What are your expectations for this team

[Bleedinggoldandblack]

The rest of the year. Their playing somewhat "tired" especially Smith. The Big tournament I see them as a 6th seed . March maybe 2 wins in NCAA's. Love our team , just not consistent enough with defense and need to score more to be an offensive team / hit your 3's. The big maple 🍁 factor has really been glaring as of late how much he carried team on his back , don't know how he physically did it. As for next year FF talk , long way from that , unless Jacobsen does a Clark Kent and comes back superman.

 

[BoilerMaker P]

My expectations for the rest of this season would be to handle this adversity, learn from it, and move forward. Finish the season at least 21-11. Win at least one game in the B1G tournament and make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. I would love for them to exceed these but that wasn’t the question.

 

[proudopete]

This team has overachieved all season until this last week. That has to wear on the players and now we are seeing the outcome of that.

I felt like this team was a 10 loss team and it’s starting to look like maybe they could be worse. But, I feel there are lessons to be learned and if the team learns them, we could see the January team reemerge as the season heats up in March.

I do expect they compete for the B1G tourney championship. They can still be a really good offensive team and at times they have played really good defense.

As far as the tournament goes I would say probably a 4-6 seed and maybe a sweet 16. If they get a good draw (unlikely) and shoot well perhaps they can surprise?

 

[Indy_Rider]

 

[PaBoiler78]

My expectations for the rest of this season would be to handle this adversity, learn from it, and move forward. Finish the season at least 21-11. Win at least one game in the B1G tournament and make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. I would love for them to exceed these but that wasn’t the question.

pretty much agree, although I think we win 2 in BIG10 T , win 2 games max in Dance and lose to a team like a VCU or Dayton ( just throwing out 2 names ). When the season began I guessed we would finish 5th or 6th in BIG10, right now I think we are the 6th best team in league

 

[Roeder]

My .02 worth.....Not giving up yet. Fell on rough times, but still not far from winning 2 of the last 3 games.

Even @ MSU if Braden plays like the B1G POY and MSU gives back the points off his 6 TOs that might have looked different.

Yes this team has flaws and will never win a Natty. With that said their is still plenty of room in the margins for this team to get hot and play their best at the end of the year.

 

[boilerzz]

This team was always a 15th to 20th best team in the nation. And according to all the metrics, they are still in front of that. Purdue has played 22 Q1/Q2 games (out of 27) and won 14 (only Auburn and Bama have won more). No one else in the country has played more than 20 Q1/Q2 games.

We were bound to take some losses. And with a back loaded B1G schedule, most of them were bound to happen late in the season.

 

[Chi-Boiler]

Sometimes it's the little things that turn a win to a loss or vice versa. We won a good chunk of those games in January by doing the little things. Getting in passing lanes, hitting 3s against the shot clock, taking care of the basketball. We did that for some impressive wins last month. I'm thinking mostly about the Oregon game for some reason. Right now, we're not doing any of the little things. This team is still talented, but they have to do the little things to win games right now, especially since the schedule got harder. Washington, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska....games like that we won on talent alone.

When you don't do the little things, you start to press and lose focus. That's happened the last few games. The defense is not connected. The offense isn't flowing. Too much ball-watching on BOTH sides of the court. Not enough movement, not enough hard work.

The good news is that each of the remaining 4 games are not as difficult as the last 3 were. 2 are at home. I still think we can win out, but each game is its own animal. We have GOT to cut down on the turnovers. We have GOT to get better balance as a whole. We've got to be connected as a team. Stop arguing with the refs. Play team ball. Turn the other team over and get out and run. Defend the PnR better. That was horrible last night.

As for the end of season prospects, on the table right now is still a double-bye. UCLA losing last night was pretty big, although beating them will be even bigger. Finishing 3-1 (14-6) should do it as long as Maryland loses another game. That should also keep us in the 4-5 range in the NCAA, slight chance of a 3. From there anything can happen.

 

[Dryfly88]

Sometimes it's the little things that turn a win to a loss or vice versa. We won a good chunk of those games in January by doing the little things. Getting in passing lanes, hitting 3s against the shot clock, taking care of the basketball. We did that for some impressive wins last month. I'm thinking mostly about the Oregon game for some reason. Right now, we're not doing any of the little things. This team is still talented, but they have to do the little things to win games right now, especially since the schedule got harder. Washington, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska....games like that we won on talent alone.

When you don't do the little things, you start to press and lose focus. That's happened the last few games. The defense is not connected. The offense isn't flowing. Too much ball-watching on BOTH sides of the court. Not enough movement, not enough hard work.

The good news is that each of the remaining 4 games are not as difficult as the last 3 were. 2 are at home. I still think we can win out, but each game is its own animal. We have GOT to cut down on the turnovers. We have GOT to get better balance as a whole. We've got to be connected as a team. Stop arguing with the refs. Play team ball. Turn the other team over and get out and run. Defend the PnR better. That was horrible last night.

As for the end of season prospects, on the table right now is still a double-bye. UCLA losing last night was pretty big, although beating them will be even bigger. Finishing 3-1 (14-6) should do it as long as Maryland loses another game. That should also keep us in the 4-5 range in the NCAA, slight chance of a 3. From there anything can happen.

Good post

That UCLA loss last night could be big. As you said we need Maryland to get another L and we have the tiebreaker over them. Maryland and MSU play each other still so that could be interesting.

If we can hang on for a 4 seed in dance, I think that would be pretty good for this season. I don't want any part of a 5 seed, but that is for sure in the mix now.