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Not being 16th would be sweet for winner of Friday’s Iowa-Northwestern men’s game
The loser in this matchup of teams with 6-11 Big Ten records will be in danger of being excluded from the conference’s tournament
Feb. 27, 2025 12:58 pm, Updated: Feb. 27, 2025 2:17 pm
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Calling Friday’s Iowa-Northwestern men’s basketball contest in Evanston, Ill. a big game would twist the definition of “big” into a pretzel.
The two teams have identical records of 15-13 overall and 6-11 in the Big Ten. Neither will advance to the NCAA tournament barring the acquisition of industrial-strength bags filled with pixie dust.
Nonetheless, the 8 p.m. tilt at Welsh-Ryan Arena has implications. The winner will be in far-better shape to qualify for the March 12-16 Big Ten tournament than the loser.
Unlike every previous Big Ten tourney, every team in the conference doesn’t automatically participate. With the addition of the four teams formerly in the Pacific-12 Conference, the Big Ten was up to 18 members. For a less-unwieldy tourney, it opted to limit the event to the top 15 finishers in the regular-season.
Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern and USC are tied for 13th-place at 6-11 with three games remaining. Penn State (5-13) and Washington (4-13) bring up the rear.
After his club lost at Indiana Wednesday, Penn State Coach Mike Rhoades said this about the bottom three teams being excluded from the league tourney:
“I think that’s horse (bleep) to be honest with you. Everybody bangs their chest about student-athlete experience, and we’re in the Big Ten, and we’re keeping three teams out of it?
“There’s a lot of hypocrites right now in college athletics when it comes to ‘We want to take care of the student-athletes and student-athlete experience,.’ We’re in the Big Ten, and we’re keeping people out of it.”
When asked Thursday about Rhoades’ comments, Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said “I stand with Mike on that.
“The coaches were not in favor of that. I don’t understand the reasoning for it. There are so many factors that have happened throughout the course of the season that would impact your ability to make the tournament or not.
“I think everybody that signs to play in the Big Ten should have an opportunity to play in the Big Ten tournament. It’s not that much more money, it’s not that much more planning. I just don’t understand the reasoning behind it. It makes no sense. We voiced that opinion.”
Should Iowa lose tonight, it will need to either beat Michigan State in Iowa City next Thursday or win at Nebraska on March 9 to have a chance of finishing above 16th. If the Hawkeyes don’t win again, they will finish no better than 16th for tiebreaking purposes since they lost to Minnesota and USC.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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