posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 2:29 PM
by
mike.hlas
NIT-picking
Barring winning the Big Ten tournament, the Iowa men's basketball team is headed to the NIT. If its record is good enough to get an NIT berth, that is.
What does this mean? It means that Iowa lost to Penn State, a dubious achievement it shares in the Big Ten with Northwestern and only Northwestern. Not good.
It means this will mark the sixth-straight season the Hawkeyes haven't won an NCAA tournament game. Six years. Not good.
It means those nonconference losses to 7th-place Missouri Valley Conference team Drake and last-place Pacific-10 Conference team Arizona State weren't aberrations. Not when you lose to the team that had been alone in last in the Big Ten, a team with a 13-game losing streak coming into the game. Not good.
Oh, but Iowa is a young team. Uh huh. Ohio State is a young team. "Young'' Iowa is led by a senior, Adam Haluska, who deserved to be surrounded by better play from his "young" teammates Wednesday than he was. They're called rebounds, Hawkeyes. Grab some.
It's easy to pile on after a game like this, but let's face it. The Big Ten was set up this season for Iowa to squeeze out an NCAA berth. Minnesota, Northwestern and Penn State are lousy. Purdue, Michigan, Illinois -- nothing special. Only Wisconsin and Ohio State are anything special. While Iowa can still finish 9-7 in the conference with a home win over Illinois Saturday in Carver-Hawkeye, it would still be just 17-13 overall.
If the Hawkeyes lose to the Illini and bungle their Big Ten tourney first-round game, they end up 16-15 and the NIT would probably skip right past them. Wouldn't that be something? Something not good.
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