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Lost to Northwestern at home earlier in the year? Guess we'd better turn Welsh-Ryan into Assembly Hall North and win by 5.
Led Wisconsin by 10 at the half in Madison? Who needs to play the second half? We sure don't!
Have the arena postpone a game against Iowa? Of course we'll beat them 12 days later! Why wouldn't we?
3 games left in the season, and we still have a shot to be in the upper third of the conference standings come tourney time? Well, that just goes without saying, of course that was destined to...we need to win all three to finish 9-9, and that's still possible? Huh.
You may remember my first article about how crazy conference play has been this year. It's not really gotten better, unless you're a fan of the Badgers, in which case things have improved to the point where you're pretty much locked into your usual top 4 conference finish. Please don't disappoint in the NCAAs (again).
Indiana has been pretty much the yo-yoest of teams this year, taking down three different ranked teams at home (including Iowa last night), while losing at least one game to every team in the bottom half of the conference besides themselves. And they could still be the 4 seed in the Big Ten Tourney. It's unlikely, but possible.
Here's how: First, IU has to win out (vs. OSU, vs. NEB, @Michigan) to finish 9-9 in conference play. Ohio State needs to lose out (@IU, vs. MSU), thus giving IU the tiebreaker against them at 9-9. Iowa needs to win no more than one of their last three games (Purdue, @MSU, Illinois) to be tied or behind IU. Nebraska also needs to win no more than one of their last three games (Northwestern, @IU, Wisconsin). Finally, Minnesota can't win out (@Michigan, Penn State). If all of those scenarios play out in the Hoosiers' favor, Indiana gets the first round bye as the 4th seed, and would face the winner of the 5/12 game. Assuming the Hoosiers aren't that lucky, they're destined for a Thursday game, probably needing to win at least twice to have NCAA hopes (yes, those still exist, just barely) or #1 NIT seed hopes.
It's been a weird year, to say the least.