[Mick]

[quote author=JPRI link=topic=12672.msg145694#msg145694 date=1449316372]
Yeah, you would have to been a real believer to predict we would win 10 regular season games after watching that NW fiasco.
Although NW did turn out to be a much better team than we realized at the time.

I think if we'd all known NW was a top-15 team, there probably would have been at least a bit less panic.  Guess it turns out you can conclude very little from game 1.
[/quote]


I generally throw out Northwestern as a competitive contest.  I'm a firm believer that if your players and coaches are getting up at 4:45 a.m. body clock time and you have a performance that depends upon strength, dexterity, teamwork, visual acuity etc., you are in for an absolute stinker of a game, pretty much no matter what. 

My kids used to play competitive volleyball and were usually ranked around #8-10 nationally.  One year, they were absolutely loaded, just had a killer team.  two of their players ultimately played on the national Pan Am roster, one was a multi-year All American for Stanford, and their entire starting seven went on to play D1.  When they were 17, they had to play an 8:00 a.m. game in Atlanta against a team from Maryland, a state where there is no established boys volleyball program -- at all -- against a team that was considered to be about #25 to #30 in the national rankings.  And they lost in a close match.  They looked like they'd just crawled out of sleeping bags.

Michigan had the same fiasco against Utah in a night game at altitude there.  I think the selection committee is smart enough to understand that.

[Mick]

[quote author=JPRI link=topic=12672.msg145694#msg145694 date=1449316372]
Yeah, you would have to been a real believer to predict we would win 10 regular season games after watching that NW fiasco.
Although NW did turn out to be a much better team than we realized at the time.

I think if we'd all known NW was a top-15 team, there probably would have been at least a bit less panic.  Guess it turns out you can conclude very little from game 1.
[/quote]


I generally throw out Northwestern as a competitive contest.  I'm a firm believer that if your players and coaches are getting up at 4:45 a.m. body clock time and you have a performance that depends upon strength, dexterity, teamwork, visual acuity etc., you are in for an absolute stinker of a game, pretty much no matter what. 

My kids used to play competitive volleyball and were usually ranked around #8-10 nationally.  One year, they were absolutely loaded, just had a killer team.  two of their players ultimately played on the national Pan Am roster, one was a multi-year All American for Stanford, and their entire starting seven went on to play D1.  When they were 17, they had to play an 8:00 a.m. game in Atlanta against a team from Maryland, a state where there is no established boys volleyball program -- at all -- against a team that was considered to be about #25 to #30 in the national rankings.  And they lost in a close match.  They looked like they'd just crawled out of sleeping bags.

Michigan had the same fiasco against Utah in a night game at altitude there.  I think the selection committee is smart enough to understand that.