Good luck with that in the Big 10!
2025-2026 MBB computer projections thread
- Thread starter Sigmapolis
- Start date
At least a 50-50 possibility it ends up as a loss...
...but...
Darn I wish the LV organizers had set up a game against Michigan or Gonzaga.
St. John's was good. Glad to have played them.
Creighton is melting down. Oof.
Syracuse is yo-yoing up and down. Whatever.
Swapping out one of the latter two for a clash of titans would have been fun.
Yep, that was March of 2017 when we had the 5 senior starters and lost to Purdue.
Yeah. Would be good to know where we stand. Two feast weeks in a row we are in a loaded field and get one game against a top team. At least Maui it was against Auburn who was #1 for a good chunk of the year.
We had the same problem last year after the Auburn game.
Auburn was great. More of that.
But having lost and went over to the losers' side of the bracket...
#79 Dayton
#82 Colorado (woof had to play them three times last year)
(Torvik rankings.)
Super disappointing considering Auburn played #33 UNC and #63 Memphis. Would have been fun to watch Tamin Lipsey kick Tyrese Hunter's ass one last time before he was done with college ball.
I don't know if I can expect 3/3 great matchups but 2/3 would be nice one year.
Totally agree. UConn losing all three in Maui blew that whole tourney up. Had they made any attempt at seeding we would have seen Auburn in the finals and not on day 1.
Same thing happened in Maui back in 2019 also. We lost to Arizona right away then ended up playing San Diego St and Illinois before they were good.
Still way more pissed about what happened in Vegas. We lost to Auburn so we got what we got. ISU won both games in Vegas and they just stuck us with a sh!t opponent for... reasons. Since we are affiliated with this tournament for the foreseeable future I hope the conference stands up for its members going forward and makes sure we don't get hosed like that again.
Creighton showed some life blowing out Xavier on the road at least. In the top 50 in Kenpom now.
We should call Touré the Tourminator.
Yeah, but seems to happen with ISU a lot. I bet you ask the plentiful of cbb fans on the coasts their perspective of ISU and it's probably along the lines of yeah I've picked them to go far a lot the last how many years and they always lose early. Where we see these other programs like Tech and Creighton go on these runs.
"down early, couldn't close the gap" seems to be the common them in the recent tourney appearances. not isolated to any coach in particular.
2011-2012: eventual champion Kentucky in round of 32
2012-2013: mothereffing Aaron Kraft
2013-2014: Niang-less against eventual champion UConn
2014-2015: team that was used to shooting their way to victory picked the wrong game to be cold
2015-2016: down early, couldn't close
2016-2017: down early, couldn't close
2018-2019: nearly forgotten game/team, underperformed against inferior opponent
2021-2022: overachieved by all accounts
2022-2023: ice cold shooting
2023-2024: down early, couldn't close/ screwed on seeding & matchup
2024-2025: down early, couldn't close
Always lose early? They've made two Sweet Sixteens in 4 seasons and the other two had injuries (last season) or a super streaky feast or famine group in '23.
Are these same people raving about Creighton and Tech's runs that are general outliers? They've had several early exits or not even making the tournament.
Should we prefer ISU not even make the tourney like in '23 for Tech?
Tech Seasons
Creighton seasons
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
Most of this is perception, and since most fans don't care about any other team, they don't notice that all these other programs are having the same types of experiences, often even worse. The tournament is all about being there often with capable teams. Eventually you should catch lightning in a bottle and get hot, or get the right matchups.
Is Creighton melting down though? They for sure aren't the level they have been the past few years. Looking at their losses, while some of them are blowouts, the only loss they have that might be considered meh is Kansas State and they made a game of it in the end. Still a loss though.
Again, I am not saying they're good. I just am not sure they're bad.
#7 Gonzaga
#4 Iowa State
A solid Baylor team
#15 Nebraska
Kansas State
Not many teams would come out of that with a win.
At least they're playing good teams out of conference. And they are still top 50 KenPom and Torvik.
I see what you're saying, but no one here is saying "oh yeah, I'd rather just not make the tounrey in the first place". You know that's not true.
This is the worse than the "if you're not happy with an 8 win season let me tell you about how bad we were 30 years ago" regarding our football program.
I think they're OK but maybe a 'down' year for them so far in not winning any of those.
Juet looked and had forgotten they had 12 losses in their recent EE run so who knows where things will fall in three months.
I actually think many act like if it's not a FF run it's not even worth going, just like they act like ISU's season is 'over' or meaningless if they don't win 10.
In those cases, I would completely agree with you. That's ridiculous.
It's one thing to say "we underperformed" when we get knocked out by a lower seed like we have many years. Or when we say "we gave away a few games and could have had 10 wins instead of 8".
The "yeah, just be grateful we are where we are" response to that is ridiculous too.
I think you have to look at it through the lense that they beat the hell out of us pre-season and everyone had that pegged as a quad 1 game on the schedule. Right now they are a bubble team. That is pretty bad for Creighton based on pre-season expectations. If ISU had performed similarly so far this season fans would be having a meltdown.
