This has been a constant with me since November. The only teams which worry me are Purdue,Ohio State and Michigan State. Illinois continues to be an internal mess and the Northwestern performance today against Brown,the 6th best Ivy was embarrassing. Penn State is currently in a rock fight with Delaware State,who lost to Columbia.The league is winnable,more so regular season than the tourney in my opinion.Happy New Year to all!
Big Ten
- Thread starter RU72
- Start date
We should be 2-0 and well on our way. Still seething. Lol.
Agree. This season is a huge opportunity for our experienced squad. The league is there for the taking from anyone. So why not us ?!
Why not us indeed... so much experience. Best defensive team. Best defensive player. Assist leader. One of the best bigs. Top coach. Elite home court
No one really scares me. Edey and Purdue will be tough but they are due to get knocked off. Would anyone really be shocked if Pike has a great gameplan and we upset them? Not me
No one really scares me. Edey and Purdue will be tough but they are due to get knocked off. Would anyone really be shocked if Pike has a great gameplan and we upset them? Not me
That is why getting robbed against OSU was so bigg!!!
Need to take advantage …
We need to take care of business tomorrow …and then we get three of the next five big ten games at the RAC
Very good sign is we lose a close game to Purdue , and take the next four …Maryland, Iowa, at northwestern and Ohio state
5-2/13-5 and on the cusp of the top 25 headed into the middle third of the league schedule
We need to take care of business tomorrow …and then we get three of the next five big ten games at the RAC
Very good sign is we lose a close game to Purdue , and take the next four …Maryland, Iowa, at northwestern and Ohio state
5-2/13-5 and on the cusp of the top 25 headed into the middle third of the league schedule
Top 4 should be the goal but we’re probably not good enough offensively to realistically win the league. We already have 2 bad losses in temple and seton hall simply because we have nights where we can’t score at all. I took us 30-1 to win the big ten before the year started so hopefully I’m wrong and currently Vegas has us down to 20-1 so they might be starting to believe.
I agree with you. There is no one in the league that Rutgers cannot beat. I actually thought they had a legit shot at the league a couple of weeks ago…and then I watched the Seton Hall game as my eyes bled out. You never know with this team.
If we can figure out how to protect the ball we should win even if we don’t score. 19 turnovers in that SHU game and it still came down to the last posession.
I try to leave that one behind but it’s really tough given the status of the league this year. A conference apology doesn’t really cut it.
I would not put too much stock into some of these sleepy tune up games before the conference games kick into gear. If we did that for other conferences, so be it, but I saw teams like Virginia struggle for long stretches vs Albany and Arizona coast through entire halves last week.
This thread had me thinking Northwestern lost and PSU went down to the wire. But PSU woke up and never led by less than 7 over the last 15 minutes, and Northwestern pulled out a 5 pt win that was an eight point margin before Brown hit a three with a second left. Now, if Brown had made FTs (11-22 today), maybe there would have been a different outcome.
7 of the top 25 per sagarin. Big ten is strong just like it always is. SMH.
Sagarin still using prior season data, though, as is kenpom.
4 of Top 25 in NET (this year data only), 3 of Top 25 in AP, 5 of Top 25 in Coaches' poll.
Right now the Big Ten has Purdue in the Top 5-10 across most rankings, and then a big chunk in the 15-50 range.
Thanks. Regardless big ten is a very strong conference. Let’s not pretend otherwise.
Purdue's weakness is its guards. For some reason, Ivey was PU's best guard in the last few years. Still, he was inconsistent. I think our length can give them problems. We need to make PU play defense. They are not a good defense. If they expend too much energy, it impacts how well they play offense. Also, we need to get out and run.
Big Ten is above average top-to-bottom - but it lacks true strength at the top. Right now, we'd probably only get 1 team better than 4 seed. The Big 12 has 3 teams in the NET Top 10, and the SEC/P12 each have 2.
Purdue is ranked #1 because they haven’t lost but IMO they are barely a top 10 team. They are very slow, and the guards are inexperienced and playing a little over their heads. They’ve beaten some good teams but after 20 conference games in the plodding, physical B1G, they will be even more susceptible to a quick athletic team in the tournament….like most B1G teams are.
It's also a bit of a meat grinder of a league with a fair amount of parity... going to be hard for many teams to climb up into the Top 15 from where they are right now with a mix of wins/losses against teams in the 25-50 range.
Minnesota will almost certainly nip a couple teams, which will be black marks for them, but will claw Minny up above 200.
If we are say 6-4 in over 2 possession games with 2 minutes to go. How we do in the 8 games that are close will determine if we are #1 or #5 or #10 or anywhere in between.
My fear is that we are a top 4 B1G for the 1st 38 minutes of the game and bottom 1/3 B1G for the last 2 minutes.
Our real record now stands at 2-4.
My fear is that we are a top 4 B1G for the 1st 38 minutes of the game and bottom 1/3 B1G for the last 2 minutes.
Our real record now stands at 2-4.
I am sleeping wherever and whenever and with whoever I want.
By comparison, current NET rankings vs. NET rankings on 12/30 of last year.... Big Ten is better at the bottom end, but not as strong at the top end.
Current (2 in Top 20, 9 in Top 50... 32.6 avg of top 10, 57.2 overall avg )
4 - Purdue
15 - Ohio St
21 - Indiana
24 - Maryland
28 - Rutgers
38 - Northwestern
41 - Illinois
47 - Wisconsin
50 - Penn St
58 - Iowa
67 - MSU
78 - Nebraska
81 - Michigan
249 - Minnesota
Last Year at this time (4 in Top 20, 10 in Top 50... 26.7 avg of top 10, 61.6 overall avg)
6 - Purdue
11 - MSU
15 - Illinois
19 - Ohio St
27 - Iowa
29 - Wisconsin
34 - Michigan
38 - Minnesota
43 - Indiana
45 - Northwestern
110 - Penn St
118 - Maryland
147 - Rutgers
221 - Nebraska
Current (2 in Top 20, 9 in Top 50... 32.6 avg of top 10, 57.2 overall avg )
4 - Purdue
15 - Ohio St
21 - Indiana
24 - Maryland
28 - Rutgers
38 - Northwestern
41 - Illinois
47 - Wisconsin
50 - Penn St
58 - Iowa
67 - MSU
78 - Nebraska
81 - Michigan
249 - Minnesota
Last Year at this time (4 in Top 20, 10 in Top 50... 26.7 avg of top 10, 61.6 overall avg)
6 - Purdue
11 - MSU
15 - Illinois
19 - Ohio St
27 - Iowa
29 - Wisconsin
34 - Michigan
38 - Minnesota
43 - Indiana
45 - Northwestern
110 - Penn St
118 - Maryland
147 - Rutgers
221 - Nebraska
Conference is very weak this year. Like very weak.
Then you can say the same for all of college basketball.
Michigan struggling vs C. Michigan, a Nebraska team owning Iowa. There aren't many teams that standout except Ohio St, Purdue and us, maybe a 4th Maryland. I still don't buy Indiana. The rest are just average teams, Minnesota bad.
I'll be the first to call a Rutgers upset over Purdue on the 2nd. Purdue did itself no favors by playing New Orleans and Florida AM the last two weeks, two of the 10 worst teams in D1, and we played a more competitive Bucknell and Coppin St. Purdue won't be ready for us.
I'll be the first to call a Rutgers upset over Purdue on the 2nd. Purdue did itself no favors by playing New Orleans and Florida AM the last two weeks, two of the 10 worst teams in D1, and we played a more competitive Bucknell and Coppin St. Purdue won't be ready for us.
I'm with you on the Purdue game.
NWU and PSU both won (PSU by double digits). Margin of victory in the Christmas-break games is not very important. A win is a win. Both of those teams will be very tough outs. NWU already beat MSU. And PSU smoked Illinois at Illinois.
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Big 10 lost a lot of talent yr over yr, including 9 of the first 43 players taken in the 22 nba draft. And a handful of others (including Ron) that got 2-way contracts
Excluding Purdue, only Indiana and Wisconsin are in top 25. And both are not teams you fear.
SEC and Big 12 are the 2 premier conferences by far.
I disagree. As usual, the conference lacks a truly elite team, but top to bottom there are a lot of tough teams which makes the league a real grind. The Big 10 has a good record this year against P5 teams which is a testament to that depth - lowly Nebraska beat No. 7 Creighton, Purdue beat Duke and Gonzaga, Ilinois beat top-10 UCLA, Iowa crushed top-20 ISU, MSU beat Kentucky and Nova, Indiana beat North Carolina, Wisconsin lost by 1 to No. 3 Kansas and beat Marquette.
Why are you discounting Purdue’s two 20-point wins over Duke and Gonzaga?