Sunday, February 27, 2011

Big Ten Women's Tournament Bracket Set

With the conclusion of this afternoon's games we now know the seeding (unless I yet again failed to understand the tournament seeding process but I think I got it this time). 

Here are your match ups

Thursday, February 24, 2011

More Women's Big Ten Tournament Talk

I am editing this since I didn't realize the Big Ten tiebreakers were so convoluded.  Here is what you should root for this Sunday:

Iowa to win
Ohio State to beat Wisconsin (we will not get a first round bye if the Badgers win)
Illinois to beat Michigan (a win by the Illini keeps us in the talk even if we lose and garauntees Michigan is on the other side of the bracket)
The rest of the games cannot affect our tournament seeding unless I have again misunderstood the incredibly idiotic tie breaking procedure.

This is what the bracket will look like if iowa, Ohio State and Michigan win Sunday (Wisconsin will almost certainly lose and if Michigan loses theybecome the six seed and Wisconsin is the fifth)

Seeds
1. Michigan State
2. Penn State
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State
5. Iowa
6. Wisconsin
7. Purdue
8. Northwestern
9. Minnesota
10. Indiana
11. Illinois

This is a worst case scenario (which is also very likely sadly) since Ohio State will be coming in on a six or seven game win streak and even if Iowa beats them there is the matter of facing Michigan State in the second round.  Root for Wisconsin or Illinois Sunday (if both  win we are in pretty much the same boat we are now). We could really use another crazy weekend.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

WBB Big Ten Tournament: Would You Rather.....

The Big Ten has been extremely tough this season in women's basketball which means that the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis will be really difficult.  If the Iowa Women are going to navigate the minefield seeding is everything.

I am not sure if you are familiar with the game "Would you Rather?" but it basically presents two (often disturbing but not always) scenarios in which a person chooses which would hypothetically be the easier to endure.  An example would be something like, "would you rather beat Nebraska or Wisconsin in a football game?".

I bring this up because seeding for the Big Ten tournament is decidedly a "pick your poison" type situation.  To understand this, here are the Big Ten standings (as of right now):

1. Michigan State 12-2 (24-3)
2. Penn State 10-4 (21-7)
3. Michigan 9-5 (16-10)
4. Wisconsin 9-5 (14-12)
5. Iowa 8-6 (20-7)
6. Purdue 8-6 (18-9)
7. Ohio State 7-6 (16-9)
8. Northwestern 6-9 (17-11)
9. Minnesota 3-11 (11-16)
10. Indiana 3-11 (9-17)
11. Illinois 2-12 (7-20)