See where both Hawkeye squads end up after a mixed week of games.
Saturday is Valentine's Day, which means we're halfway through the month of February.
In college basketball, February means it's put-up or shut-up time. Every game down the stretch is crucial if you want to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament and get a high seed.
Iowa women's basketball is poised to do just that after ending its three-game skid against No. 25 Washington on Wednesday, but the men's team is in a different bout. The Hawkeyes had a golden opportunity to run their winning streak to seven games against lowly Maryland, but sputtered from the start and fell, 77-70.
The loss could have major implications for Iowa on Selection Sunday, and it may have dropped it in this week's latest bracket projections. But before we get to those, we have to look at each team's NCAA Evaluation Tool, or 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.
- 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
The number of Quadrant 1 wins and Quadrant 3/4 losses will be incredibly important when it comes time for NCAA tournament selection and seeding.
With all of that being taken into consideration, here's where both Iowa basketball teams rank in the NET:
Women: No. 14
Iowa is in a terrific position to claim an NCAA hosting seed for the fourth time in five years. The Hawkeyes own seven Quadrant 1 wins after defeating Washington, and they really don't have any bad losses up to this point.
Men: No. 26
Iowa only had two Quad 1 wins on its resume entering the Maryland game, and the dreadful loss to the Terrapins leaves the Hawks with little room for error. A massive three-game stretch against Purdue, Nebraska, and Wisconsin now awaits. One win in that span will be massive, but two wins might be enough to erase the Maryland defeat.
Women's Bracketology:
Charlie Creme, ESPN: No. 3 seed
Bracket released on Feb. 13 Matthew Walter, The IX Basketball: No. 4 seed
Bracket released on Feb. 11 Autumn Johnson, NCAA March Madness: No. 3 seed
Bracket released on Feb. 10 Men's Bracketology:
Joe Lunardi, ESPN: No. 8 seed (South Region)
Bracket released on Feb. 13 Erick Smith, Eddie Timanus, Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY: No. 9 seed (West Region)
Bracket released on Feb. 13 CBS Sports: No. 8 seed (West Region)
Bracket released on Feb. 13 Looking for a FREE Hawkeyes community?
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