Might As Well... Indiana Promotes Manager

[jeffsu]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3935126

Might as well do this now... not like you're getting any worse! Go Team Manager!

[IlliBraves]

This whole debacle just keeps getting more and more hilarious!!!

[Murph]

I'll go ahead and mention Matt Roth....

[TheAsianSensation]

Meh, no big deal.

[cpacmel]

Anyway, last night's humiliating 22 point drubbing at the hands of the lowly Northwestern Wildcats (75-53) was followed by Tom Crean's comment...

I love it. The LOWLY Northwestern Wildcats. Northwestern has 5 top 50 wins, including a win in East Lansing. A very respectable RPI around 78.

They aren't an NCAA team, but they certainly aren't lowly either.

[SaintLouBrave22]

Correct me if Im wrong, but Northwestern has never appeared in the NCAA tournament right?

[Scouter]

Correct me if Im wrong, but Northwestern has never appeared in the NCAA tournament right?

Correct.

[TheAsianSensation]

Northwestern has been living on the bubble until the past couple of weeks. If he said it 2 weeks ago he'd be justified. As is their profile is too damaged.


That said, there's a difference between saying "I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the tournament" (Crean's quote) and "They're likely to be in the tournament". Big difference.

There's a lot of coaches very guilty of overhyping their middle-to-bottom teams in the league, though. (Hi, Gary Williams)

[mportsch]

Tornado is correct that Crean's statement doesn't make much sense - Northwestern's a decent team this year, but they are almost assured of missing the NCAA Tournament (unless, of course, they win the Big Ten Tournament). Even if Northwestern wins out (including games at Purdue and Ohio State) and then reaches the Big Ten title game (and loses there), they'd be sitting at 21-12 (9-9). According to RPIForecast.com, that would give them an RPI around 47th. They'd certainly be on the bubble, but by no means would they be assured of a bid.

It has to be frustrating for Northwestern fans to think of how close they were to actually being an at-large contender, though - they lost big leads late against both Purdue and Illinois. Flip those two games into wins, and Northwestern would have a great shot at securing a bid over the next two weeks. As it is, I'd be pretty shocked to see Northwestern pull off an at-large bid.