2018-2019 B1G Basketball Thread

[MaximumSam]

Not great shooting but some fun up and down basketball in the first half.  

[medinabuckeye1]

At the under-8 timeout the Buckeyes have a 17 point lead and the Worldwide leader asserts that their chances of winning are above 99%.  

Question for the group:
Is Minnesota safe?  I had been operating under the assumption that they were probably safely in with the IU/tOSU winner being the B1G's last tournament team.  Then I noticed that in @ELA 's composite rankings the Gophers are only BARELY ahead of IU/tOSU.  Meanwhile in the NET rankings the Gophers (#56) are behind Ohio State (#55) and Indiana (#51).  

[medinabuckeye1]

And as I was typing that IU was working on an 11-0 run to make it interesting again.  

[ELA]

Not sure what's better for the Big Ten.  If Indiana wins, both schools could get in, but both could get left out.  If OSU wins, we are for sure getting them in.

[847badgerfan]

I think Minnesota has to win tonight to get in.

[TyphonInc]

BUCKEYES!

[MaximumSam]

Bucks just have to make it interesting.  Whew, great win.

[bayareabadger]

Sorry IU. 

I honestly turned that off. Was confused why ELA was posting like it was still a question. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Yay! We might get to play in Dayton after we are done getting pantsed by Sparty. What a glorious season. If they make it out of the play in game a commemorative tattoo might be in order.

[medinabuckeye1]

BUCKEYES!

Bucks just have to make it interesting.  Whew, great win.

There were some strange runs to end this game. 

The Buckeyes were up by seven at the half and started the second half on a 5-2 run to make it a 10 point game.  Then for about six minutes that held relatively steady with the Buckeyes and Hoosiers trading pulling away a little bit and closing in a little bit.  Then:

• With 11:13 to go IU hit a bucket to close to within 10 points, 53-43.  The Hoosiers didn't score again for almost four minutes.  
• Between 11:13 and 7:15 to go the Buckeyes went on a 10-0 run to stretch the lead to 20, 63-43.  With just over seven minutes to go and a 20 point lead this looked to be over.  
• Between 7:14 and 3:40 the Hoosiers went on a 13-0 run to close to within 7, 56-63.  
• After that the Hoosier run continued but at a somewhat slower pace.  They actually closed to within just two points at one point but they just ran out of time as that occurred with 0:04 to go.  

[MaximumSam]

The Bucks got 17 from CJ and 18 from Woods.  They are tough to beat when those guys both give them good production.  Made up for the lack of bench today.

[FearlessF]

viewing the BTT in 4K today!!!

[medinabuckeye1]

I think Minnesota has to win tonight to get in.

I didn't think so before, but if the committee takes this new NET ranking seriously then you might be right.  The good news for Minnesota is that their opponent tonight is actually ranked higher than they are (PSU is #49 while MN is #56).  That means two things:

• If the Gophers lose it will not be THAT bad of a loss, and
• If the Gophers win it will be a pretty good win.  

The bad news for the Gophers is that PSU is actually favored.  

Lunardi has them as a #10 seed which would indicate that they have some breathing room, probably enough of a margin to be able to afford a neutral site loss to #49 PSU.  However, the NET ranking tells a different story.  Even using @ELA 's composite ranking, if they lose tonight they will definitely end up behind Ohio State.  

[TyphonInc]

I listened to the Game on the Radio, so didn't I see it. But Paul Keels called a play in favor of Indiana, that the refs gave to OSU, and I was curious what people who saw it thought?

Recalling what I heard: OSU up 3, Indiana had the ball, 30ish seconds left. Keels "[Indiana Player] drives the lane, gets fouled, and one! Indiana going to the line with a chance to, oh wait, they called that a charge? Kaleb Wesson steps in and takes a charge? How about that for defense, the big guy is guarding a point guard at the key and drops back to take a charge. On no, look there [Buckeye Player] totally hacked his arm before the charge. Buckeyes catch a break there."

OSU scores the next possession to go up two scores changing how the last 30 seconds play out. I didn't see it, but I trust Keels especially if as the Buckeye caller says the foul should have been on OSU. Basically just for yet another reason to complain about refs, not being able to keep up with the game.