When Nicholson went down, the game was tied. When Buie landed on his left hand and took several minutes to shake off the pain, the crowd has to have gone dead silent.
The Cats stayed within range most of the way, but in the end Iowa’s offense was a bit too good. Cats lose at home 87-80.
Let’s hope the injury reports aren’t more bad news.
Mike Nolan
Statistically, we lost because Iowa ended up taking more shots. Shooting percentage and free throw percentage were a virtual dead heat and 3-pt shooting was completely identical. But with a significant rebounding edge, including 7-3 on the offensive boards, they took 60 shots to our 52.
-Michael
Last night’s home loss dropped us from 48 to 53 in the NET rankings. 8-9 seed, here we come. But at least we’ve still a good shot at a double-bye in the conference tournament.
Nebraska and Wisconsin are duking it out for the 4th double-bye. Iowa stuck its nose into the tent yesterday, though since they only have one game left they would need a lot of help to get the double-bye.
Unfortunately, we lose the individual tiebreakers against any three of those teams. Wisconsin and Iowa beat us head-to-head in our only meetings this year. We split with Nebraska, so it goes to the next tiebreaker, which is record against each team, starting at the top of the standings. We lose immediately because Nebraska beat Purdue in their only meeting, where we split. It’s based on winning percentage, regardless of number of games played.
So here are the scenarios, I think:
-We win out (13-7): we stay alone in third
-We split (12-8) and Wisconsin loses at least one (likely, since they finish at Purdue): We finish third or fourth, depending on whether Nebraska wins @Michigan
-We split (12-8), Wisconsin wins out: We finish fifth; we lose the 3-way tiebreaker if Nebraska also wins out; if the Huskers lose to Michigan, we lose the 2-way tiebreaker against Nebraska because they went 1-0 against Purdue, while we split 1-1
-We lose out (11-9): We finish anywhere from fourth (if Wisconsin and Iowa also lose out and Indiana beats both Minnesota and Michigan State; Nebraska would be alone in third at 12-8 or wins the tiebreaker against us at 11-9) to being in a 4-way tie for fifth with Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan State. I haven’t figured out where we come out of that logjam, but it could be as low as the 8-seed, having to play on Thursday and then facing Purdue on Friday
That’s how important that Iowa game was.
-Michael
Thanks for the analysis, Michael. Figuring out tiebreaks give me migraines. 
Mike Nolan
Gonna be a lot tougher now, without Nicholson.
About a month ago, I felt we had a realistic shot at the Sweet Sixteen. Now, I have my fingers crossed that we even get selected.
Shawn
Is it official that Nicholson is out? I haven’t found anything searching yet.
I still haven’t seen anything from NU, but Louis Vaccher at Rivals reported he’s been told it’s the case. Supposedly, he fractured his foot. I’m not sure whether it’s a Lisfranc, or something less onerous.
Really stinks for us if it’s true, and it seems likely that it is.
Shawn
Louis is the reason I gave up on Purple Reign…
He was always closer to the action than I was.
Go B1gCAts
rl
Losing Nicholson would really hurt our chances in the remaining games, but it’ll give the freshman more experience that may pay dividends next year. Buie is going to be difficult to replace in any event, but maybe they can find a big center in the portal or in HS.
I haven’t heard much about NU basketball recruiting, though, and these days many players are pretty much committed by the end of their junior year. But NU’s success last season and this season may appeal to some players.
Mike Nolan
John-
Thanks, that’s a very helpful site! It would have taken a lot less time for me to figure things out if id known about it! It did confirm that we get the 8 seed in that 4-way tie for 5th scenario.
-Michael
It amazes me that so many people spend time putting together sites like that, these days it seems like there’s not much you can’t find SOMEWHERE on the net.
(But I suppose I shouldn’t be amazed, after all, I’ve been doing these sports lists since the early 90’s just for the fun of it.)
We have two incoming recruits next year. They’re doing really well in high school, but are in the Barnhizer or Martinelli mold in that, although very good high school players, have been a bit under the radar from a recruiting standpoint.
Unfortunately, neither of them are point guards, so that seems to be a strong recruiting need.
Shawn
I started a separate thread with an article about KJ Windham the other day. He’s more like Barnhizer than you may realize. Brooks was Indiana Mr. Basketball runner-up (to Caleb Furst, who is at Purdue) despite leading the state in scoring. Windham is a Mr. Basketball finalist, probably won’t win it, but could still end up having the biggest impact on his college team of any of the finalists.
-Michael
Sorry, I must have missed your Windham thread. I would gladly take another Barnhizer!
Shawn
I made a newbie mistake creating the new thread. Here’s the link to the article. It’s really about his entire family – he’s the youngest of four – and their legacy, not the least of which is four, possibly five, state basketball championships:
A family tradition: Windhams leave legacy at Ben Davis beyond basketball
-Michael
I’m always curious about the academic provenance of the incoming athletes.
https://www.homes.com/school/indianapolis-in/ben-davis-high-school/z52s9wnzbj05k/
Hopefully the family overachieved in an otherwise marginal school that has only 16% math and 45% reading proficiency.
Definitely minority majority student body, but that doesn’t determine quality. I don’t see stats for the poverty rate of students, which generally is a better judge of the school quality. Unfortunately if the school is lower quality the people with the means will flee to magnet, private, or parochial schools which further degrades the quality of the school.
It is crazy the number of AP courses offered now at 32 for this school. My high school in Kansas with 2,000 students only had 6(Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, English, US Government, Computer Science) that I recall in 1989. I believe I was the only one who took the US Government exam in my year and I don’t think more than one other person took the Computer Science exam.
I just read the article, Michael. It’s very cool. Seems like a good sign that he’s fought back from injury successfully. Thanks for sending the link.
Shawn
The subject is still accurate, so I’m continuing this thread rather than starting a new one. We were in it until the end tonight at Breslin, but couldn’t overcome the Spartans’ final surge around the 2-minute mark. On the bright side, IU’s win in the Barn improved our worst-case scenario. Here’s the update after tonight’s games:
-We beat Minnesota (finishing 12-8) and Wisconsin loses at least one (likely, since they end the season at Purdue): We still finish third or fourth, depending on whether Nebraska wins at Michigan
-We beat Minnesota (12-8), Wisconsin wins out (vs. Rutgers Thursday, at Purdue Subday): We finish fifth; we lose the 3-way tiebreaker if Nebraska also wins out; if the Huskers lose to Michigan, the Badgers finish third and we lose the 2-way tiebreaker against Nebraska because they went 1-0 against Purdue, while we split 1-1
-We lose to the Gophers (11-9): We finish anywhere from fourth (if Wisconsin and Iowa both also lose out and Indiana beats Michigan State; Nebraska would be alone in third at 12-8 or wins the tiebreaker against us at 11-9) to being in a 3-way tie for fifth with Iowa and Michigan State, from which we end up with the 6-seed (Iowa gets the 5, being 2-0 against us and MSU; we win the tiebreaker against MSU by being 1-1 against Purdue, where they were 0-1)
-Michael