Vandy game and how it could affect postseason

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state13

The Sycamore Level
I know it doesn't really matter, but if we beat Vandy, do we start getting top 25 votes? Just wondering what everyone thinks. Our SOS is 40th right now but that means nothing at this point in the season. Beating Vandy would be a nice feather in the cap and would be helpful if we do not win the MVC tourney. I really think this is an extremely important game for us and would be a crutch to lean on if our performance in the conference season is not as good as we hope it will be. I guess my question is, assuming we don't finish in the top two in the MVC, is Vandy a must win?
 
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state13 said:
I guess my question is, assuming we don't finish in the top two in the MVC, is Vandy a must win?
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Absolutely.

Without beating Vandy, our non-con record will more than likely end up being 8-3.

If we finish 12-6 in the MVC for third (like we did last year)...that would be put us at 20-9 overall.

Lets give us 2 wins in the MVC tourney just for good measure. Our overall record would then be 22-10......doubtful it's good enough for an at-large.

Change it to where we beat Vandy, and everything else stays the same (mentioned above)....gives us an overall record of 23-9....good enough for an at-large? Tough to say, but doubtful....but maybe.
 
33 wins -- we're in !

Could be wrong of course, but beat Vandy, win 23 games, advance to the MVC championship game on CBS and we don't get into the tournament ? ? ?
I'd have to disagree -- that should be enough to get us a bid (of course we know how the powers in the selection committee work so its not a 100% lock, but it should be - especially given how many good teams it appears the MVC will have this year). If things go as they should, the MVC should likely be a THREE (3) team NCAA league.
 
Oops, I forgot about the Brackbuster.....assuming we win that, it'd give us 24 wins. 24-9 with a win over Vandy...I feel better about that for an at-large bid, but I'm still skeptical.
 
state13 said:
I know it doesn't really matter, but if we beat Vandy, do we start getting top 25 votes? Just wondering what everyone thinks. Our SOS is 40th right now but that means nothing at this point in the season. Beating Vandy would be a nice feather in the cap and would be helpful if we do not win the MVC tourney. I really think this is an extremely important game for us and would be a crutch to lean on if our performance in the conference season is not as good as we hope it will be. I guess my question is, assuming we don't finish in the top two in the MVC, is Vandy a must win?
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It will help (although it with the way Vanderbilt has been playing it may not help immediately). I assume they'll pull it together once the SEC starts. Overall still a tourney team and beating them would be a nice feather in ISU's hat.
 

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vandy is quickly heading south with the injuries and suspenion; a win won't mean as much now as I imagine their ranking is tumbling
 
Westbadenboy said:
Could be wrong of course, but beat Vandy, win 23 games, advance to the MVC championship game on CBS and we don't get into the tournament ? ? ?
I'd have to disagree -- that should be enough to get us a bid (of course we know how the powers in the selection committee work so its not a 100% lock, but it should be - especially given how many good teams it appears the MVC will have this year). If things go as they should, the MVC should likely be a THREE (3) team NCAA league.
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Not necessarly, take that resume that you posted and couple that with wins vs. the MVC elite Creighton and Wichita State and then your in. You don't beat Creighton and you don't beat Wichita (we were 1-4 during conference play last year) then your out. How is it possible? Well Missouri State went a combined 5-1 vs. Creighton, Indiana State and Wichita State last year, was 23-7 and still access denied. Is the MVC up this year? Presumably... So even at my point, beating the upper half doesn't assure you of anything. Having a ranked Creighton team and an inproved UNI team does indeed help.

Yes Vandy is a must win if you want an at-large bid. I would offer this, if you have a must win game in December then your probably not worthy of at-large consideration. You want in the big dance you need to do 2 things. 1 finish in the top 3 in the Valley and 2 get hot in late April and early March. We have a waysto go before we are a complete product - we haven't seen a complete game yet. Done talking about at-large bids for this team until they prove worthy of such discussion. Sorry losses to Minnesota and Bosie State don't allow you to be part of the conversation.
 
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"Done talking about at-large bids for this team until they prove worthy of such discussion. Sorry losses to Minnesota and Bosie State don't allow you to be part of the conversation."

Well, that may be true, but the idea of the post was that a win over Vandy would throw them into the discussion. Our chances for an at-large bid are slim-none if we don't beat Vandy. Let's face it, barring some miracle, we'll probably finish conf. at somewhere around 7-5 which leaves us with 7-8 losses. This doesn't cut it for an at-large, unless you have 2-5 good wins. As of now, we have none. After we play Vandy, UNI, Creighton, WSU, we will have had several opportunities. we don't beat all of these teams at least once, we don't get in. Most mid-majors don't get the luxury of playing quality opponents every game. We've got to take advantage of these opportunities, especially since they are so few and far between.
 
Well I'm just not convinced that at this moment in time Vandy is a good win. Nor am I convinced that we will go on the road an beat them. Let me put it like this, if you can't win at Bosie then your probably not going to win at Vandy. Fair?? Now its college hoops, anything can happen and that is why they play the game. I aint down on the Sycamores I just don't think we've played that well and at 6-2 we could just as easy be at 8-0 or 2-6. We have seen flashes of brillant play and flashes of pre 2011.
 
I agree with you. And you know college basketball is so much about hot and cold streaks, and I think we're catching Vandy at a good time. Trust me, when Vandy's at full strength, assuming they get there, they are a very good team. That being said, I am pesimistic about the chances that we would get an at-large bid based on what I have seen as far as mid-majors being selected in the past. Just think we will have to wow people to get the respect and recognition necessary to get chosen over B10, B12, etc. teams on the bubble.
 

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SycamoreStateofMind said:
Well I'm just not convinced that at this moment in time Vandy is a good win. Nor am I convinced that we will go on the road an beat them. Let me put it like this, if you can't win at Bosie then your probably not going to win at Vandy. Fair?? Now its college hoops, anything can happen and that is why they play the game. I aint down on the Sycamores I just don't think we've played that well and at 6-2 we could just as easy be at 8-0 or 2-6. We have seen flashes of brillant play and flashes of pre 2011.
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Have to disagree with your opening remark. On the road vs. Vandy or anyone else in the SEC is a good win any season. An at large on the line? Probably could lose the bid but don't think this game would gain one either. They are supposed to have their hero back in uniform for this game though.
 
Guys, I'd hate to see a huge meltdown on here if we don't win big in the conference. With what we've seen so far, another run in March is our only NCAA hope. I don't think we're at the point of contending in the MVC yet. With our inconsistency, other teams are gonna eat us alive. Right now we just need to be concerned with improvement, ' cause there's a lot of that needed...
 
I agree with SSOM, if we seriously want to be considered for an at-large bid come March we must win the Vandy game, and place top 3 in the MVC and do well in the MVC tourney (i.e. make the championship game). We also can't afford to be swept by CU, WSU, UNI, and MSU (the four teams I consider to be equal to or better than ISU in the MVC).

Losses to Minn. & BSU, while not bad losses, were losses we really needed to avoid. Had we won one of those games I think we'd be better off, but losing them both hurts. We just don't have that "signature" win.....yet.

Just gotta see how it all plays out I guess.

SycamoreStateofMind said:
Not necessarily, take that resume that you posted and couple that with wins vs. the MVC elite Creighton and Wichita State and then your in. You don't beat Creighton and you don't beat Wichita (we were 1-4 during conference play last year) then your out. How is it possible? Well Missouri State went a combined 5-1 vs. Creighton, Indiana State and Wichita State last year, was 23-7 and still access denied. Is the MVC up this year? Presumably... So even at my point, beating the upper half doesn't assure you of anything. Having a ranked Creighton team and an improved UNI team does indeed help.

Yes Vandy is a must win if you want an at-large bid. I would offer this, if you have a must win game in December then your probably not worthy of at-large consideration. You want in the big dance you need to do 2 things. 1 finish in the top 3 in the Valley and 2 get hot in late April and early March. We have a ways to go before we are a complete product - we haven't seen a complete game yet. Done talking about at-large bids for this team until they prove worthy of such discussion. Sorry losses to Minnesota and Boise State don't allow you to be part of the conversation.
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I agree that we need to play really well in conference and probably play in the championship game to make the tournament.Vandy is tall and quick,the type team we struggle against.We'll have to play almost perfect to win on their floor.We have to beat all the lower teams in league and hold serve at home against the better ones to have a good enough record to even be considered.We're still in the building stages of our resurgence as a program,last years' run at the end was definitely fun but even the most ardent fan has to admit that evrything went our way at the right time for it to happen.Not to say that can't happen more than once but our league is too tough most years and being consitently at the top is going to take a lot of work .Hopefully we get to enjoy a good competetive successful team for several seasons to come,I certainly hope so,it's fun!
 
Based on what I've seen so far, I don't think we are any better than a 3rd place team, maybe a 4th place team in the Valley. Too inconsistent, too weak on the boards,too many on court meltdowns, too many injuries preventing people from being 100% and too many mental errors from the sideline lead to my less than glowing prognostication. I really hope I'm wrong, but for some strange reason I've just got a bad feeling about the Conference schedule. Don't ask me why I feel this way--I can't explain it any better than I have. Don't ask me to back it up with facts--they don't exist. It's just a hunch,and eery feeling I have, and I don't like it. Here's hoping Arch Madness is good to us. Man, I hope I'm totally wrong.
 
Like last season, I hope we see steady improvement from game to game. Having a better start could help us go further, don't you think?
 
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