Rutgers out
Penn State 10
Texas A&M 7
Nevada in as 11
very little change on the top 6 lines from going into the tourney. Miami still on the 5 line.
Nc State 11 seed above Dayton
thought this was the case last year but not its pretty much confirmed.
Even worse they must not even watch the games. Committee chair cites that RU had an unfortunate injury and we had enough games to evaluate after the injury and they weren’t the same team. That part we can get some agreement . But obviously the Committee did not watch us against Michigan and Purdue. Pike makes a crucial decision to start Derek and not only does it inject offense into the team but we get our swagger back and look like a different team.
We are on a neutral court and we beat a real team , Michigan , who every one had a bubble team coming into the game and we not only win but win by double digits and probably break a record defensively holding Michigan to 1 Fg for 19 of the first 20 minutes of the second half.
Then we take an early lead against a Purdue , not many people did that in their 35 games , 1 point game at half , and go toe to toe to the final whistle losing by 5 to a team the Committee decided was the # 1 seed. It was clear to anyone watching , we got our swagger back , we lost because our miss layups and free throws not what Purdue did , and we finally looked like the pre Mag team or a team that finally adjusted to losing a player and anyone would say “They look like a tourney team . The Committee chair cites that as the main reason and they do not even do their job. It is disgusting.
It has nothing to do with Quad 1 /2 wins , we had plenty for inclusion , even without OSU , it had little to do with non conference schedule directly only indirectly. After Mag we lost to Minnesota on the miracle and lost 3 home games to Nebraska , Michigan and Northwestern at home , a place we hardly ever lose and probably the biggest factor in their mind that we are not the same team if we have lost 3 straight RAC games . So if we weren’t 2-6 post MAG and beat Minnesota and won at least 1 of the home games we would have been 4-4 and then they couldn’t use that as an excuse or reason to keep us out. They conveniently ignored the 2 wins were road wins , Wisconsin and Penn State , teams that were on the bubble and desparately needed those wins and we beat Wisconsin without Caleb. . What selective bullshit they pulled.
They seemed to ignore the Temple loss and not hold it against us and even ignored Seton Hall loss as they should have but not our final 2-6 forgetting about the tourney games and to watch them. All the work has to be in the regular season.
But to not watch the BIG 10 tourney at all when they say they first meet on Wednesday , where they obviously came to that point saying Rutgers is not the same , but then supposedly watched Thursday and Friday before setting the field on Saturday. How could they not watch and come to the conclusion that the entire BIG 10 had come to , Rutgers swagger is back and they can do damage in the tourney or Painter saying that is clearly an NCAA team. “.
Back to the out of conference. , it would have meant zero without the 2-6 down the stretch. But because the 2-6 down the stretch , if we had a better win than Wake Forest # 90 NET even though by 24 , which was totally ignored , but had only 2 Quad 4 games instead of 7 , and beaten Miami we might have gotten in. That is why playing in a holiday tournament and winning should be part of the schedule to give us some wiggle room if we falter in conference like with Minnesota. Not playing tougher OOC in tourneys on neutral sites places us in the 9-11 seed lines every year and not in the 6-8 range to be safe on Selection Sunday. So indirectly OOC scheduling matters for seeding and to give us breathing room.
Regardless , this is like the biggest screw job ever. We were on 101/105 brackets on Bracketmatrix at 96.5 % of the brackets . No team on 95% of the brackets since they starting doing this has ever been left off. Clearly the Committee screwed us royally. The Ultimate RU Screw.