A win at Minnesota would be giant if it were to come to that.

Michigan Tech 4 Days W 77-55
UCLA 7 Days W 55-52
Norfolk St. 3 Days W 83-49
Savannah St. 3 Days W 66-64
Maryland 3 Days L 75-70
EMU 6 Days W 91-60
Oakland 6 Days W 89-76
NCC 6 Days W 77-57
Ill (H) 3 Days W 74-64
Iowa (H) 3 Days W 64-49
NW (H) 3 Days W 68-59
OSU 3 Days L 72-54
PSU (H) 4 Days W 71-51

Record with 3+ Days Rest 11-2
Record with 0-2 Days Rest 4-9
(Those 4 wins were against Northeastern, Duke, Florida Gulf Coast, and IU)

I’d say most people would agree that even though we lost, the Maryland game was one of our better road performances of the year. If you take that game away, we’ve really only had one bad game after 3+ days off (OSU), and only one quality win with less than 3 days off (Duke). With extra rest, we’ve looked very impressive against UCLA, Illinois, Northwestern, and PSU.

To me, this says two things. First, obviously the extra rest allows the team to rest and since we’re not all that deep, we need to be fresh. Secondly, the more practices you have leading up to game, the more there is a chance to put in a coaching gameplan. I think this speaks volumes about JB’s ability to gameplan.

Here’s how the rest shakes out before the remaining 6 games
@ NW 4 Days
Minn 3 Days
@ Iowa 2 Days
Purdue 3 Days
@ Wisconsin 2 Days
@ Minn 5-6 Days

Given this, I expect a loss against Wisconsin. I think the short rest before Iowa could be canceled out by the extra rest before the previous two games. I also really like the extended rest leading to the last Minnesota game. If we only win three of the next five, that would be our play-in game.

In any case, does Northwestern blowing a 14 point lead with 5 minutes left against Illinois tonight make it more or less likely we can beat them Sunday?

There is a lot of time left in Trey’s recruitment so who knows.