In my 10 minutes of research, no team has ever received an at large bid with 15 losses. I think only 3 teams have ever received one with 14 losses and they all had no bad losses and a brutal OOC schedule.

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RidgewoodKnight13 said:

If Rutgers wins the next 3 they end the season on a 5 game win streak with two more Q1A wins.

Win two more in the b1g tourney and factor in a weak bubble, Harper not at full strength for 7 games and I think we go to Dayton.

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Probably not even at 21-15 (4 wins in the Big 10 tourney, to the finals - if RU finishes 10th or 11th and needs 4 wins to get to the finals). Those 2 bad losses ... and 15 losses ... and Purdue now struggling ...

Though at 21-15, RU would have at least 7 Quad 1 wins and a 12-13 or 13-13 Quad 1 and Quad 2 record.

unfortunately I still don’t think the committee cares about the conference tournament

Update - Conference records at 2/24/25, plus remaining opponents:

7. Illinois (9-8) ... Iowa, @Mich, Purdue
8. Oregon (9-8) ... USC, Indiana, @Washington
9. Nebraska (7-9) ... Michigan, Minnesota, @Ohio St, Iowa
10. Indiana (7-9) ... Penn St, @Washington, @Oregon, Ohio St
11. Ohio St (7-10) ... @USC, Nebraska, @Indiana
12. RU (7-10) ... @Michigan, @ Purdue, Minnesota
13. Minnesota (6-10) ... Northwestern, @Nebraska, Wisconsin, @Rutgers
14. USC (6-10) ... Ohio St, @Oregon, Washington, @UCLA
15. Iowa (6-10) ... @Illinois, @Northwestern, Michigan St, @Nebraska
16. Northwestern (5-11) ... Iowa, UCLA, @Maryland
17. Penn St (5-12) ... @Indiana, Maryland, @Wisconsin
18. Washington (4-12) ... @Wisconsin, Indiana, @USC, Oregon

RU has arguably the most difficult remaining schedule, with road games against 2 of the top 6 teams in the standings. Only Illinois and Penn State play 2 of the top 6 teams in the standings (no other team plays more than 1 of the top 6 teams), and each of them get at least 1 of those top games at home ... RU is the only team with both their toughest games on the road.

That said ... ONE more win by RU almost certainly locks them into at least 15th, if not better. One more win gets RU to no worse than 8-12: No way PSU and Washington go undefeated ... Northwestern would also have to sweep Iowa, UCLA and @Maryland - because an 8-12 RU has the tiebreaker over an 8-12 Northwestern (or presuming NW beats Iowa, even if RU is in 3-way tie with NW).

RU beats out USC for 15th - and likely Iowa (NW would edge out RU due to a win over Maryland) in a 4-way tie with NW, Iowa and USC. So RU might finish 14th in this scenario, behind NW, ahead of Iowa and USC.

If RU beats Minnesota, and a 5-way tie with Minnesota added ... I think RU beats out USC and Minnesota.

If RU upsets Purdue or Michigan, and beats Minnesota, finishing 9-11, they could finish as high as 10th in the league (maybe 9th, but that seems less likely).

Even in the extremely unlikely event if RU wins out with 2 upsets plus Minnesota, and finishes 10-10 ... anywhere from 8th to 11th in conference. FYI, still would have to win the Big 10 tournament for an NCAA bid (21-15, assuming winning out, no bye in the Big 10 tourney, and 4 wins to the final - not enough IMO ... though that WOULD have RU with 7-12 in Quad 1 ... and 5-1 or 6-1 Quad 2 ... 12-13 or 13-13 Quad 1 and 2 ... Just those awful losses.

Greene Rice FIG said:

I am not sure if there is anything that can be done with the parking deck.....you sit for 20+ minutes if you get it late.

If the game is 99.5% determined I am jogging to my car and leaving before it is standstill, especially at 14-14. SORRY

I left when JaMike got fouled up 8 with 14 secs left?

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The entire issue with the parking deck is that the police restrict the exit flow at hospital road. They allow 10-15 cars to exit then hold them for 20+ cars leaving the surface lots. They should make yellow exit right and make green exit left but use the outside lane on hospital road. This would help keep the deck moving, PERHAPS??? Not an easy solution given limited space/exit points.

Johnny Reznik (Goo Goo Dolls) lives in Westfield. I've seen him a bunch of times at Target and ShopRite in Clark, Kings in Garwood. Low key but he's unmistakeable in person.

Bryce Dortch won me over yesterday. Not his 9 points. Kid plays D. I hope we keep him.

used to see celebs regularly at work when a daily cable morning show was shooting on the floor below me, we were separated by a staircase.
Saw Maroon 5 and Adele before they were famous. My favorite artists though was Dropkick Murphys doing their Christmas song live
Biggest celeb was probably Stallone. Didn't meet him but saw him in person.
My co-worker helped P Diddy find the bathroom.
Then a bunch of random encounters from Keifer Sutherland to Nick Lachey (next to him at a urinal).

LotusAggressor said:

Good teams shoot well AND play defense.

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Every team has strengths and weaknesses and it’s not realistic to assume we’re going to have the resources to recruit a collection of guys who excel at everything.

The bottom line is we recruited a collection of transfers with poor individual defensive efficiency profiles. When you pair that with a collection of frosh the outcome is likely to be a poor defensive team overall.

There’s a lot of debate about flaws in the defense efficiency metric from individual players, but pretty much all of the criticisms point to situations where a kid with good looking numbers doesn’t end up producing as well as hoped on D. That happens sometimes, sure, but other times it works out for us.

The opposite is rare with transfers and Pike is batting zero so he should stop trying. In simple terms - history says that RU transfers who come in with bad def efficiency stats under Pike don’t help us win.

I love that guy, really.

He's right about the travel thing being hard on the west coast teams, but they also have the benefit of eastern teams (especially Rutgers and Maryland) going out there (tough travel, different time zone) and playing twice in a short span of time. Several teams have stumbled in that situation. The Terps got swept by Washington/Oregon. So in my opinion it's not the huge disadvantage he's talking about. It has to be considered both ways if it's brought up at all.

I didn't listen long enough to hear the comment about the 6:00 p.m. start, but I feel like maybe he's got a point there. If they played earlier they could get home at a decent hour. But the schedule is controlled by TV networks, and that's why these programs are taking in so much money. Got to live with it, and I'm sure he feels the same way...

People are going to chant whatever they’re going to chant.

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Didn't participate in the game thread and I don't want to come across as one who doesn't recognize a solid effort and great results. The offense and bench is really coming on. A bit too scary at the end but the foul shots mattered! They always do and we made them big time. Besides the development of Grant and Dortch, as noted JMAc being under control and Zach is making captain like plays not called scoring. He's busting it on defense and his enthusiasm for that Dorch finish after his pass is great to see. JW also under control (or at least finishing lol) and Acuff? Nice.
Now if we could just dribble less, move more, and learn to pass the damn ball better. And the lane is an EZ Pass express lane for the other team...but we're clearly guard play. Unfortunately the woulda-coulda-shoulda is now firmly back in play. BUT just keep getting better and give us a solid ending to the season.

essexknight said:

Davis seems to have improved quite a bit as a shooter under this coaching staff.

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I would suggest you could insert "player" for "shooter"

I truly hope that JMike stays for his Jr and Sr years, many of us will be very happy he did

LotusAggressor said:

The people quoted in the article sound like posters on this board.

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Lanni reads the board. That article could have quoted most of us. The only thing missing is the lack of NIL resources is the biggest reason we have the supporting cast we have.

I find the entire thing F'ed up. Everything, on both sides. But yeah, lets give to NIL, these poor kids need it!!!

JMike's FT% jumped from .600 to .684 in a single game