HoosierDom

It's a little better than that seems, too. While the matrix was updated this morning, the individual components that make up the matrix weren't all updated this morning, so a lot of those have not priced in the Illinois win. Those that were updated today have a noticeably better seed for us. 11 still sounds right, but a comfortable 11.

Looks like an 11 seed, I would consider us a favorite against anyone being listed as a 6 and I'm not scared of any of the 3 seeds. A blessing in disguise that we're not likely to move up to a 10 or a 9.

Didn't we learn our lesson the first time we played them? Race should not be a main press breaker.

Geronimo is up on his feet cheering, so seems it isn't too bad.

Letting big men go at each other is pretty standard and has gone both ways - the push Kofi got away with was pretty egregious, though. The lack of calls on Curbello is not the way games are usually called and we are not getting away with the same garbage... as I am typing this they call a ticky-tack foul on Rob that they would not call on them.

It was a good no-call. He got the ball before some after the fact incidental contact.

You're allowed to take 5 steps when the ball is behind your back?

Somebody explain to me how the conventional wisdom still seems to be Michigan is in while we are right on the bubble? They are now one game ahead of us in conference, but have absolutely zero quality out of conference wins and some pretty questionable loses.

How does TJD not have enough awareness to just throw the ball off the guys foot?

TJD just has no touch. I guess it's not his fault, I don't know if you can learn it, he just doesn't have it.

If we just take the last 12 games (an admittedly arbitrary period of time specifically chosen because it supports my point) he is shooting 40% on 25 attempts. That's a number opposing teams have to respect.

That's where we are now. If you get rid of our worst loss (maybe 2nd worst) and replace it with a win, that changes things significantly. If you want to say it wouldn't have been an overly impressive win, then you have to acknowledge it was a bad loss.

I think he's done after this one. He didn't actually play last year, but that still counts as his covid year. He has had 4 full years of college basketball, plus his freshman year that counted as a medical redshirt despite him playing some and plus last year he didn't play at all.

He's not a guy that can create off the dribble (or off of anything, really), and I have a hard time seeing that change by next year, but I don't think it needs to for him to be an effective starter. If he can defend and rebound, he's already a likely starter. I'm assuming we won't have both Trace and Race back, so we are going to need guys that can do those two things. Add to that his energy on the offensive glass and if he can consistently knock down an open 3, which he has shown hints of, he is a very valuable role player. With any luck we will have more guys who can create their own shot next year (X, Hood-Shfino, Bates, Galloway (sort of), maybe even Banks) so Geronimo's shortcomings will be less needed and his strengths will be more valuable.

2 wins and we're almost definitely in unless there are a lot of bid thieves. One win and we have a lot of rooting to do but a reasonable chance.

Sure, if mini-TJD plays, but what if regular TJD plays?

I haven't come across a definitive answer as to whether he is still eligible for a redshirt, but if he isn't, the issue is he isn't even getting the mop-up minutes. He's played a total of 6 minutes in conference play. If he is in line to be a regular contributor next year, it seems like you have to find a way to get him some time, somehow. When Durr was suspended, Duncomb still didn't see action. It sure seemed to me that coach had some lingering issues with Durr, still no Duncomb.

If he wants to play in the NBA, he should stay in the US. Hopefully we have our NIL situation figure out so that Trayce will make more money at IU than the D-League. If he wants to go to Europe, I would assume he could get into one of the top leagues and be comfortably into 6-figures. We probably won't be able to beat that, but if he goes, I think there's very little chance he ever puts on an NBA uniform. So, it's a question if he's willing to give up that dream.

How do the transfer rules work now? For guys who used their one free transfer, can they transfer again without sitting out under the old grad-transfer rules? If not, Durr, Stewart, Kopp and X would all seem heavily incentivized to stay.

I don't know the language of their rule, but rules have context. The rule, regardless of the exact language, would treat retaliation differently than an instigator. It would treat violence in an athletic setting differently than violence in an academic one. There is no chance the school has a rule that is so broad and absolute that it would require Howard to be fired. They might want to make a PR move and fire him - they might be even be happy to have an out to ditch him (though, I doubt they are there), but there is no chance the rule binds them to action.

It was more than just taunting though, Gard physically grabbed Howard and tried to stop him from walking past. Also, not sure what the OSU assistant that actually got hit was up to, but he clearly had his hands on a Michigan player right before Howard swung. If I was in charge of the world, Gard would be out 2-5 games; the OSU assistant would be the same with potential for more after I heard more audio; and Howard would be out the year, but I probably wouldn't fire him.

The point was to influence the refs, not the players.

Exactly. I think he had to do it and I think it helped.

If X and at least one of Race/Trayce stay, I think we will be just fine. Will still need a transfer big, but not a savior. If we lose all 3 of those guys, then things start to look more bleak.

Since 2011 we have more Final 4 teams than any other conference and are second to the Missouri Valley (with a very small sample size) in first round record. The article I found didn't list overall record, but it's hard to say there's some systemic problem with those facts.