Continues tomorrow night. Now I always criticize posters who start threads that say “this is the biggest game of our season” or “this is the biggest game of the coaches career,” however, this game is huge without question!
The “Path to a BYE” Thread!!!!
- Thread starter AreYouNUTS
- Start date
It’s a must win as far as this season is concerned. We need to start winning these games.
Its a must win IMO
Getting swept by a down Northwestern would be quite the disappointment as well as put RU in jeopardy of finishing last again
Getting swept by a down Northwestern would be quite the disappointment as well as put RU in jeopardy of finishing last again
I think it might actually be better to come in 11th place, gives us a winnable game in the first round against the 14th seed. Maybe a chance to win 2 games again. It's not like we are going to win the tournament so a bye isn't really a big deal other than "bragging rights" about not playing on day 1.
Win as many games as possible, get the highest seed possible, beat whatever team we play, hopefully on Thursday not Wednesday
Game is crucial if we want a bye.....and a bye is a VERY good goal
I actually agree with some of what HR said except that I wouldn't want to lose just to get in 11th. Just that there are some positives to playing day 1.
Of course you should try and win every game and just see where you finish.
Regardless. Big game. BIG game. Lets see who shows up. Close loss is not gonna be cool either. Must win.
Getting the bye gives the team more rest than having to play on day 1. Plus, I like the "bragging rights" of showing clear improvement as a program by not having to play on the first day.
Yes, I'm not saying lose on purpose or "tank" NBA style, of course win as many games as possible...but let's say we happen to be in a tie for 10th and the tiebreaker seeds us 11th..it wouldn't be the worst thing. Play the 14th seed and if we win play the 6th, rather than playing the 7th seed and if we win then playing the 2nd seed.
I think some of the fans talking about must wins are a little ahead of themselves a bit.
There's no program that continues to need to play well in the remaining 7 games more than RU does. As much as we want to believe that we have closed the gaps between Northwestern, PSU, Nebraska etc, the freshman have to play more consistently in order to change the minds of the rest of the league.
That doesn't happen with one game or one win, it's established as a pattern over 20 B1G games.
The one sign that I think is going to be different these last 7 to 8 or so games is I think the rotation of players has been refined enough to know what to hope for from the frosh. It doesn't mean it will happen, but they're going to be playing minutes that will force them to perform. There's a big difference between thinking you might play 20 minutes if you're first 5 minutes on the court are good vs not.
If the staff lets the frosh play through some patches tonight, the upside is definitely there.
There's no program that continues to need to play well in the remaining 7 games more than RU does. As much as we want to believe that we have closed the gaps between Northwestern, PSU, Nebraska etc, the freshman have to play more consistently in order to change the minds of the rest of the league.
That doesn't happen with one game or one win, it's established as a pattern over 20 B1G games.
The one sign that I think is going to be different these last 7 to 8 or so games is I think the rotation of players has been refined enough to know what to hope for from the frosh. It doesn't mean it will happen, but they're going to be playing minutes that will force them to perform. There's a big difference between thinking you might play 20 minutes if you're first 5 minutes on the court are good vs not.
If the staff lets the frosh play through some patches tonight, the upside is definitely there.
The 14th seed just beat Michigan last night...
1st round bye would be a good small goal for the team and they should strive for it.
There is no margin for error as a bottom tier league team .The top seven ranked B1G teams have a cushion for some bad games but still will get a NCAA bid.
So the "trend" is lost the last 3. And if we do not win tonight its 4. With Iowa, Minny, PSU at home and Indy, MSU,and Iowa on the road.
I'm hoping for PSU win plus 1 of Minny and Iowa at home.
Ok, I'll trade you a lose tonight for which of the 3 road games left?
Or do you think going 2 and 5 fits your play well last 7 model?
No not a must win if we trade it for others. But even 2 and 5 is not a given, right? Is there a better game other than PSU there for the taking?
That's a surprise to me. I'm not a betting man but I would go with the Gophers.
its a must win in that losing is going to hurt the teams overall standing and seeding wise so the chance to finsh decently sort of goes away with a loss tonight. Its a tough stretch of games to close and this could be the most winnable of the bunch other than PSU. I would rather get a win out of the way and break a losing skid sooner than later . Getting swept by Northwestern is losing the perception battle. Have to beat teams in your vicinity and RU is 4-3 in those games.
Going to use this thread to just post the most Rutgers-friendly outcome for each night in the Big Ten.
Tonight, we want Ohio State to take care of Illinois at home. That would put us into a tie with Illinois although they of course have the tiebreaker.
On Saturday, we want Purdue to beat Penn State, Northwestern to beat Nebraska, and Minnesota to beat Indiana.
Tonight, we want Ohio State to take care of Illinois at home. That would put us into a tie with Illinois although they of course have the tiebreaker.
On Saturday, we want Purdue to beat Penn State, Northwestern to beat Nebraska, and Minnesota to beat Indiana.
pretty sure we are mathematically eliminated from double bye contention.
The extra game will just be good practice
The extra game will just be good practice
I was trying to work out a way we could still win the conference but Michigan and Michigan State play each other once more so somebody will get to 12 wins while we can top out at 11-9.
Besides I am really worried about Penn State playing better and wanting to get revenge on our home court
You want disrespect.....look 1st at Nebraska
http://www.barttorvik.com/bubble-guide.php?team=Nebraska
then RU
http://www.barttorvik.com/bubble-guide.php?team=Rutgers
http://www.barttorvik.com/bubble-guide.php?team=Nebraska
then RU
http://www.barttorvik.com/bubble-guide.php?team=Rutgers
its all about OOC.....Nebby if they go 4-2 the rest of the way are setting themselves up for a bid at 8-12/18-13
Someone needs to get in Pikiell's ear about it. From all the quotes I've seen (not to mention how we've actually scheduled) he has zero interest in scheduling non-conference games that would allow us to be rated highly in the NET.
It's really not hard to just schedule teams you should beat but that aren't total cupcakes. Schedule more teams in the 100-200 range than the 200-300 range, and avoid the complete anchors like Maine altogether.
Because if we ARE somehow a bubble team next year, a weak SOS is going to sink us. Virginia Tech under Seth Greenberg had three seasons where they had a winning Big East record and missed the tournament because they played NOBODY in the non-conference.
Also it's likely that the Big Ten will not be as good next season. Last year was worse than usual, this year is better than usual. So you can't count on the league propping you up. Otherwise you end up like Nebraska last season.
Iowa and RU have the approximate same ranking OOC, they just went undefeated in OOC, blitzing UConn and I think Oregon at MSG in back to back nights. We played St. John's Seton Hall and Miami, which usually would mean a better ranking.
RU got hurt with Eastern Michigan being not as good and too many soft games, but we had a ton of freshman....., Maine, Columbia, Fordham, FDU and Drexel types are the reason why RU could finish at .500 this year, despite a rugged B1G slate........next year, we are committed to visiting UMass, hosting Seton Hall and probably hosting for the ACC/B1G for 3 of the 10 OOC games. How well the 7 other games are scheduled will matter. It can't be all RAC games, my guess would be a Vegas type of tournament or Barclay center game like Virginia and Vanderbilt a couple of years ago, would be fine to boost the schedule.
Seton Hall can't be the toughest OOC game on next years schedule, there has to be a couple of additional games beyond the B1G/ACC mixed in. Maybe we schedule a road game with an old Big East program to add a layer of competition or get into a "local" game on the road against a St. Joe's or Temple type of program that is close enough for fans to get to, if they want a different venue for a game.
Playing 20 to 22 B1G games is really enough of a litmus test. The fact that Nebraska and Indiana have wins on their resume like Seton Hall, Marquette, is enough evidence that the league wins can carry enough clout and both are somehow still alive despite having a bad league record so far...... The problem is, if you are RU, if you don't schedule up, you place all of your eggs into the conference schedule being enough. This year, the B1G is at worse 2nd or the best conference. Maybe it won't be next year with so many dominate players leaving the conference.
