I'm saying the same thing. Anything less than a 6-3 finish is a disaster for us. Hell, we beat Colorado on January 27th and that dipshit Lunardi still had the Buffs in the tournament and WSU out in his bracketology after that loss. We have almost no room for error.
I'll say that while OSU may be 11-2 at home...they are 3-2 at home against Pac-12 schools and they just got thumped by a pretty mediocre USC team. If we lose to OSU, we can forget about our tourney hopes. Below is what I'd like to see us do (green=win, red=lose). I'd prefer undefeated but it ain't gonna happen.
@ OSU
@ UO
Cal
Stanford
@ UA
@ ASU
USC
UCLA
UW
You can argue that we can afford to lose to UW at home and still get in but who wants that? The Cal loss doesn't look as bad as it did at the time but we have to beat them at home. If Cal can beat the LA schools and Oregon State, it increases the chances that they would be a Quad 2 loss instead of Quad 3 where they were at the time we gacked against them. Barring a big run by one of those teams on our schedule, you could argue that we need to finish 7-2 to make sure that we don't get moved out based on "tradition". Win at least one game in the Pac-12 tournament and I'd like our chances at making the tourney with a 24-9 overall record.
Now your being absurd.
WSU does NOT have to go 7-2, and WSU most certainly does not have to win 1,2,3 games in PAC tourny on top of going 7-2 to make NCAA tourny
CBS already has WSU in at #9.
Yes if you want a 100% GUARANTEED to make NCAA tournament, then 7-2, would be nice, required.
But if about a 59% to 63% chance to make NCAA tournament is ok, then 5,6 wins, + 1,2 PAC tourny wins.
If WSU finishes in 3rd, 4th place, whether that's 13-7, 12-8, 11-9, an or whether that's 3,4,5,6,7 more wins that gets WSU in at least 3rd, 4th place, then WSU is PROBABLY in NCAA tourny.
The ONLY way WSU does NOT get into NCAA tournament as a 4th in PAC 12 team, is if A LOT of the 30-0 type teams in conferences that usually only get 1 NCAA bid, gets upset, doesn't win their conferences 1 AQ bid, but despite that still get into the NCAA.
The PAC 12 is going to get 3,4,5 teams in NCAA tourny depending on how many AQ upsets there are.
If WSU is in 2nd, 3rd place in PAC 12, they are not going to take Colorado, Utah over WSU, if Colorado, Utah is 4,5,6 in conference.
ONLY 2 PAC 12 TEAMS IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF PAC 12 HAS GOTTEN AT LEAST 22 WINS AND NOT MADE NCAA tournament. 1 of them was ASU.
AND NO, ZIP, NADA, NONE, ETC, PAC 12 TEAM THAT HAS GOTTEN AT LEAST 23 WINS HAS FAILED TO GET INTO NCAA TOURNAMENT IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE PAC 12.
WSU does NOT have to get 24,25,26 wins split between regular season and PAC 12 tourny.
24,25,26 wins is either good enough, or almost good enough to WIN THE CONFERENCE, FINISH IN 1ST PLACE IN CONFERENCE.
WSU DOES NOT HAVE TO WIN CONFERENCE, FINISH IN 1ST IN CONFERENCE, FINISH 2ND IN CONFERENCE IN ORDER TO MAKE NCAA TOURNEY.
A 3RD PLACE CONFERENCE FINISH IS GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE NCAA TOURNY.
CBS, ESPN, and all the so called experts are saying that the Top 3,4,5 PAC 12 teams that finish in top 3,4,5 in Conference, WILL goto the NCAA tournament.