I'M SURE YOU'VE HEARD OF BRACKETOLOGY BUT WHAT ABOUT NIT-OLOGY? Well, it's real and NIT-ologist Mike Scullen has the Iowa Men's basketball team on the bubble. Scullen's latest projections were updated March 3rd and here's the bracket. Northwestern, Illinois and Northern Iowa are in; Iowa has the chance to knock Illinois from the Big Ten Tournament Thursday.
Even if Iowa beats the Illini it's still not likely they are headed to the NIT. Mike Hlas, of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, writes that a loss for Iowa on Friday and you can forget the NIT. In Hlas' article he explains why the NIT is a tougher tournament to get invited to and predicts the CBI as Iowa's post-season tournament destiny. The CBI has never had a Big Ten team in their field of 16. Hlas adds that Iowa could easily draw three home games in a row with decent attendance at early round games.
IOWA'S NEW OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR GREG DAVIS MET WITH THE MEDIA YESTERDAY. You can read the transcript or watch the video on YouTube. Davis talked about his time before and at Texas. He mentioned Ricky Williams, Colt McCoy and Vince Young. He also discussed the reasons why he applied at Iowa and what he intends to do to prepare for spring practice.
Here are the most interesting items from his 30 minute Q&A:
- Davis was a candidate for the job Ken O'Keefe accepted at Miami with Joe Philbin
- Davis will re-apply for his job sometime within the next year because of EOE
- Iowa won't run 4-5 wide receiver sets
- Davis will coach from the press box on game day
- There will be a lot of changes to the offensive playbook
BECAUSE CONFERENCE EXPANSION RUMORS ARE STILL AN EXCITING TOPIC? SBNation's Georgia Tech Blog From the Rumble Seat says there's some talk of the Big Ten looking their way for conference expansion. According to the rumor the Yellow Jackets, Notre Dame, Rutgers and Maryland would join the Big Ten forming a 16 team league by 2016.
SPRING PRACTICE IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER AND HAWKEYE INSIDER IS ALREADY LOOKING AT POSITION BREAK DOWNS. Rob Howe at Hawkeye Insider is running an At a Glace series breaking down the Hawkeye football roster by position. There have been four installments that are a free read on Howe's usually subscription required site. The positions covered so far are the tight ends and fullbacks, wide receivers, running backs, and the quaterbacks.
SB NATION'S CORN NATION LOVES SOME BIG TEN BASEBALL. And we love them as an excellent read to review each and every week of the season. Corn Nation has a week three review that covers the wins and losses for all of the league.
Other links:
- Not sure if this is worth $1,000 but it's still cool
- Men's basketball attendance on the rise
- The latest On Iowa Podcast
- Freshman Becky Stoughton will compete in the 500 and 1,650 free
- Stanford, tight end U?
- All the College Big Ten Fight songs in under 6 minutes
- Hawkeye gymnasts thriving on rings pressure
- Check out Dr. Tom Davis via On Iowa Live
- Female Student To Try Out For LSU Tigers Football Team Tuesday
- Miami University coach Charlie Coles retires