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One out of three was all they needed

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Fitz51

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Oct 21, 2008
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Really, winning one of the three games against Purdue, Wisconsin, and Maryland was enough, with or without our full complement of players.

Winning the remaining two that we "should" win - Rutgers and Illinois - and take one of the three against Indiana, Michigan or Purdue, and the 'Cats will be fine.
 
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mikewebb68

Senior
Oct 24, 2009
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Indiana is also playing like they are done at this point, so that might move into the "should" win column as well.
 
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EvanstonCat

Senior
May 29, 2001
50,761
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Fitz51 said:
Really, winning one of the three games against Purdue, Wisconsin, and Maryland was enough, with or without our full complement of players.

Winning the remaining two that we "should" win - Rutgers and Illinois - and take one of the three against Indiana, Michigan or Purdue, and the 'Cats will be fine.
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Yeah, but that only held if we held court against Illinois. Beating Wisconsin more than makes up for losing against Illinois, but then it's not the same as 1-2 and beating Illinois. And having lost to Illinois already doesn't give me great comfort that we will definitely do what we "should."

Scottie Lindsey, we need you to come back!
 
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pawildcat_rivals209725

Senior
Sep 15, 2006
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mikewebb68 said:
Indiana is also playing like they are done at this point, so that might move into the "should" win column as well.
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Until they get Lindsey back, it's difficult to see a "should" win remaining. I was surprised they could beat Wisconsin without him and was glad to be wrong about that. I see Purdue as the least likely win as the Cats don't match up well with them.
 
Alvious

Alvious

Junior
Sep 6, 2010
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Just my two cents, but in order to feel confident on Selection Sunday I think we have to beat Illinois, Indiana, and Rutgers, as well as beat Michigan or Purdue. Anything less than 12-6 and I think we're going to be very nervous on March 12.
 
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wildelk2

Redshirt
Oct 19, 2007
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Fitz51 while I agree with you the $64,000 dollar question is....Lindsey playing on Saturday? Rutgers will fight us tooth and nail as they're not the tomato cans like they have been. I'm of the opinion that with the win against Wisconsin, if we finish with eleven conference wins or more we'll get in, and that includes the Big Ten Tournament. If we finish 11-9? (1-1 in BTT) It may be tight but we'll get the berth.

Obviously, if we can beat Rutgers and Illinois we'll only need to win one more game out of the last three (Indiana, Michigan, Purdue) to finish 11-7 in regular season, and even if we lose the first game in the Big 10 tournament 11-8 should get us in with additional wins against Wake Forest and Dayton. While I'll be squirming if we end the season with 11 conference wins, I believe it would be enough.

This is a worse case scenario folks. Even with Lindsey missing I still think we'd play enough defense to go 3-2 or 4-1 the rest of the way; maybe 5-0 if Lindsey comes back healthy. I think we'll be 12-6 heading into the BTT. My .02.
 
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mikewebb68

Senior
Oct 24, 2009
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pawildcat said:
Until they get Lindsey back, it's difficult to see a "should" win remaining. I was surprised they could beat Wisconsin without him and was glad to be wrong about that. I see Purdue as the least likely win as the Cats don't match up well with them.
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You may have been surprised, but if we can beat Wisconsin without Lindsey, we can beat anyone in the BIG. And it was not a unicorn game where we just played out of our minds and Wisconsin play terribly; imo, it was an NCAA tournament caliber game, particularly on defense, where we were simply better than a top-tier team. That should provide a lot of hope for the remainder of the season.

We actually did not play that badly against Maryland, we just were not expecting the need to double Melo due to his poor recent performances, and obviously it cost us. If we treated him from the beginning of the game like we were going to make anyone on Maryland but Melo beat us, I believe the result may have been different.
 
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mikewebb68

Senior
Oct 24, 2009
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Fitz51 said:
Michigan beats Wisconsin. Uh oh.
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Uh oh what? Michigan is a top-30 Kenpom team who has been amazing at home. I doubt that Wisky was even much of a favortie. Glad we get Michigan at home, as Michigan has been a completely different team on the road...
 
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Fitz51

Senior
Oct 21, 2008
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mikewebb68 said:
Uh oh what? Michigan is a top-30 Kenpom team who has been amazing at home. I doubt that Wisky was even much of a favortie. Glad we get Michigan at home, as Michigan has been a completely different team on the road...
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Uh oh, I said!
 
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