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Ohio State vs Nebraska 20 Feb 2016 @ 7:00 PM on the BTN

Tate played his heart out tonight, again. I love the kid, hes got what it takes to lead this team. The last 5 games hes progressively gained more and more confidence, to the point hes at now where he KNOWS he can drive to the basket and get a layup or get fouled. The more he does that the better off this team is, because then it leads to situations like in tonight's game with the double team where he can kick it back out for open shots on the perimeter. As he gets better at assessing the situation he will only get that much better and in turn make his team mates better as well. Also, Loving played hard tonight and im proud of his effort point blank period, good job Marc!

The main problem I see with underclassmen is they are so overwhelmed that they really can only focus on their on individual games much of the time, so the team game suffers. But as they gain experience and grow up a bit things start to slow down and they can now begin to think about making the players around them better as well as themselves. I think that our young guys are starting to get out of that haze and whether or not we see a major difference in these last few games, I feel like overall throughout the season each guy has improved and at least tried to play better team basketball. This team will get it and put it all together, Thad wouldn't have it any other way, it just might take next season to see it take fruition. Even from a game like this there are positives to take from it and that's what coach is focused on, now we gotta turn those positives into a couple big time wins against the conference top dogs...Ive seen this team at their best, play like we are capable and we can do it damnet!! GO BUCKS!!!!!
 
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It will take no less, and even that may not be enough.

Winning 2 of 3 to close out the regular season and winning a game in the BTT would put us at 21-12 overall, 12-6 in conference, with wins in 6 of our final 7 regular season games, including 2 wins against top 10 teams. The notion that "even that may not be enough" is just silly.
 
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Winning 2 of 3 to close out the regular season and winning a game in the BTT would put us at 21-12 overall, 12-6 in conference, with wins in 6 of our final 7 regular season games, including 2 wins against top 10 teams. The notion that "even that may not be enough" is just silly.

If our RPI is still hovering around 50? No, it's not. Our RPI, BPI and kenpom rankings (all of which are monitored carefully by the committee) might not get us there. Keep in mind that "in-conference" means nothing to the committee.
 
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If our RPI is still hovering around 50? No, it's not. Our RPI, BPI and kenpom rankings (all of which are monitored carefully by the committee) might not get us there. Keep in mind that "in-conference" means nothing to the committee.
The only good thing if there is a good thing losing to the likes Memphis, etc. was that it was early in the season.....
 
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If our RPI is still hovering around 50? No, it's not. Our RPI, BPI and kenpom rankings (all of which are monitored carefully by the committee) might not get us there. Keep in mind that "in-conference" means nothing to the committee.

If we knock off two top 10 teams in three tries to close out the season (the committee repeatedly has said it weights late-season performance, FYI), the RPI, BPI and Kenpom rankings will all increase substantially. There seems to be some real confusion around here as to just how soft the bubble annually has become once the field expanded to 68.
 
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If we knock off two top 10 teams in three tries to close out the season (the committee repeatedly has said it weights late-season performance, FYI), the RPI, BPI and Kenpom rankings will all increase substantially. There seems to be some real confusion around here as to just how soft the bubble annually has become once the field expanded to 68.
You still have to be one of the - what- 36 best at large? - to make the Dance. We have a long way to go to get there. And I'm not sure where you got the "late season performance" criterion, as I don't find it in the official list found here.
 
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Yeah, but you can't just ignore 3 losses outside the top 100 because they occurred earlier in the year. Wisconsin has 2 top 10 wins (MD and MSU) and they are far from a lock right now.

Late season performance might not be official, but there is little question the committee gives a bit more weight to late versus early season performance and I think that would certainly hold true for evaluating an inexperienced team like OSU.

Finishing 2-1 puts us in a pretty good spot, but I think it falls a bit short of calling us a lock.
 
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You still have to be one of the - what- 36 best at large? - to make the Dance. We have a long way to go to get there. And I'm not sure where you got the "late season performance" criterion, as I don't find it in the official list found here.

It's only something committee members reference year-in and year-out in "exit interviews," whether it's in the official list or not.

OSU's currently in the very low 60s in Kenpom and BPI. It's not a stretch that they would be in the 40s by winning two of their last three. At that point, they're a lock, whether they win in the BTT or not. I would think this goes without saying, but just in case it doesn't, there's a fair bit of overlap between the top 36 RPI and the automatic bids.

Here's the way I see it playing out, given the opportunities that MSU and Iowa (each ranked in the top 8 in this week's AP and Coaches' polls) present:

In:

- Win 2 of last 3 against MSU and Iowa (even with a first round BTT exit)
- Win 1 of last 3 against MSU and Iowa, and win at least 2 games in the BTT

Close call (i.e., depends on whether there are a lot of upsets in Championship Week):

- Win 1 of last 3 against MSU and Iowa, and win 1 game in the BTT (assuming that win is against MSU, Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa or Purdue)

Out:

- Win 1 of last 3 against MSU and Iowa, and lose first game in the BTT
- Lose last three games (unless, obviously, OSU takes the BTT)
 
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