See where various bracket experts listed the Hawkeye men's and women's teams this week.
How in the world is it almost February? I wrote about this in last week's bracketology update, but the college basketball season really does go by so quickly.
It's been a quiet week for Iowa men's basketball, with its lone game of the week already taking place against Rutgers on Tuesday, but it's been anything but for Jan Jensen and the No. 10 Iowa women's basketball team.
The Hawkeyes opened the week with a dramatic overtime win over No. 15 Maryland in College Park on Thursday, and close out the stretch with a home matchup against No. 12 Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.
But where does this leave Iowa in the latest bracket projections? National analysts around the country are starting to hone in on the brackets as we get closer to March, but before we can get to those, we have to reveal each Iowa squad's NCAA Evaluation Tool - commonly known as the NET ranking.
According to the official NCAA website, the NET ranking is defined as this: The NET includes more components than just winning percentage. It takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses.
The NET ranking also determines the quality of wins a team can have to booster its NCAA tournament resume. The NCAA created a quadrant system to break this down. Quadrant 1 wins are considered the best, while a Quadrant 4 loss is considered to be detrimental to a team's tournament resume.
Using the quadrant system, which was in its fourth season in 2020-21, the quality of wins and losses will be organized based on game location and the opponent's NET ranking.
Using the quadrant system, which was in its fourth season in 2020-21, the quality of wins and losses will be organized based on game location and the opponent's NET ranking.
- Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
- Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
- Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
- Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
With all of that being taken into consideration, here's where both Iowa basketball teams rank in the NET:
Women's Basketball: No. 12
The Hawkeyes are in the midst of a brutal stretch of games, but they've converted every opportunity thrown their way thus far. Michigan State and Maryland were both big Quadrant 1 wins, and Iowa's next three games (Ohio State, at USC, at UCLA) are all additional Q1 opportunities. The Hawkeyes are in great shape to secure a hosting seed in the NCAA tournament.
Men's Basketball: No. 22
Iowa finally secured its first Quadrant 1 and road win of the season by beating Indiana last Saturday. Its formula to secure an NCAA tournament bid for the first time in three years is simple - avoid bad losses and pull off some additional upsets. The Hawkeyes' upcoming stretch this week (USC, at Oregon) won't provide them any Q1 opportunities, but it's a good chance for Iowa to stack more wins before Purdue comes to town on Valentine's Day.
Women's Basketball Bracketology Update:
Charlie Creme, ESPN: No. 2 seed
Bracket was released on Jan. 23Connor Groel, CBS: No. 2 seed
CBS doesn't release a women's bracket, but they released a seed list on Jan. 20. Matthew Walter, The Next Hoops: No. 3 seed
Bracket was released on Jan. 21 Men's Basketball Bracketology Update:
Joe Lunardi, ESPN: No. 8 seed (East)
Bracket was released on Jan. 23 CBS Sports: No. 7 seed (Midwest)
Bracket released on Jan. 23 Joe Rexrode, The Athletic: No. 7 seed (West)
Bracket released on Jan. 20 Join the Community
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