2018-2019 B1G Basketball Thread

[TyphonInc]

I don't know a lot, but looking at the NET rankings: 

49   49   Penn St.   Big Ten   14-17   4-9   1-2   9-6   0-0
51   51   Indiana   Big Ten   17-14   3-9   1-0   13-5   0-0
52   52   Nebraska   Big Ten   17-15   2-9   3-1   11-5   1-0
55   55   Ohio St.   Big Ten   18-13   5-7   1-0   12-6   0-0
56   56   Minnesota   Big Ten   19-12   2-9   4-0   13-3   0-0
I don't think any of these teams should feel safe. And a #55 beating a #51 on a neutral court doesn't appear to me to be a significant enough win to move the needle past the bubble status. 

[mcwterps1]

The Maryland play book with Turgeon is to lose to weaker teams on a big stage.

[FearlessF]

Tim Miles would appreciate that, but I still don't think it saves his job

[medinabuckeye1]

I don't know a lot, but looking at the NET rankings:
49 49 Penn St. Big Ten 14-17 4-9 1-2 9-6 0-0
51 51 Indiana Big Ten 17-14 3-9 1-0 13-5 0-0
52 52 Nebraska Big Ten 17-15 2-9 3-1 11-5 1-0
55 55 Ohio St. Big Ten 18-13 5-7 1-0 12-6 0-0
56 56 Minnesota Big Ten 19-12 2-9 4-0 13-3 0-0
I don't think any of these teams should feel safe. And a #55 beating a #51 on a neutral court doesn't appear to me to be a significant enough win to move the needle past the bubble status.

Obviously I can't know for sure what the committee will do with their fancy new NET ranking but my guess is that they will compare it to other rankings to look for outliers and go from there.  For those "other rankings", I'll use the Massey Composite that @ELA posts every Tuesday so here are those teams with their composite ranking added:

• NET, Team, Composite, since then and/or next:
• 49, PSU, 56, vs #56/43 Minnesota tonight
• 51, IU, 44, lost to #55/46 tOSU
• 52, UNL, 55, beat #100/88 RU, vs #26/21 UMD
• 55, tOSU, 46, beat #51/44 IU, vs #8/5 MSU
• 56, MN, 43, vs #49/56 PSU

If they were to go strictly by NET ranking then PSU would have a better shot than MN and would probably be a lock with a win over the Gophers.  That said, I think that most of us don't believe that a 17-loss PSU is anywhere close to the bubble.  

I think that @TyphonInc has a point in that 55>51 wouldn't necessarily get #55 out of the woods but if you look at it through the lens of the composite rankings that was #46 over #44 which almost certainly locks things up for #46 because they will now be low-40's and have basically nothing to lose in their game against #8.  

[grillrat]

This would have been a damn interesting year to have played our BTT game where we got to draft players and see who could get the most overall points in the tournament.

[mcwterps1]

I really want Turgeon gone.

[bayareabadger]

Good for Miles being all chipper here. He knows he's done, but he's getting the most from it. 

I want him to lose by 35 tomorrow. I also am a little annoyed because losing to MD on Friday would be fully explainable. Losing to Neb would be less so, and I'd like to not see MSU again. 

[bayareabadger]

My point was that it was easier for crappy conference teams because they don't have to be as good.  You can't say that I'm wrong unless you can refute THAT point.  
I'm fine with your statement that you don't think that matters.  Ok, agree to disagree.  Saying that my point is irrelevant (to you) or arguing that my point is irrelevant generally is not the same thing as saying that I am wrong.  
I disagree wrt Gonzaga.  They are an example of a crappy-conference team that gets into the NCAA Tournament every year (20 straight, about to be 21).  Their streak proves that it is possible for a crappy-conference team to make the tournament consistently.  
I'm willing to accept SOME teams getting in that are clearly not as good as the others but I think that as currently formulated there are too many of those.  As I explained above, there will be ~21 auto-bids that wouldn't be good enough to get an at-large invite.  That is almost 1/3 of the total.  IMHO, that is too many.  


Even there, I grudgingly accept that there are a bunch of crappy-conference tournament champions who won a "tallest midget" competition and there is some benefit to giving them access in terms of entertainment value.  It just ticks me off when I hear people try to claim that it is biased against the little guy because it isn't.  It is clearly easier for a crappy-conference team to get in than it is for a quality-conference team to get in.  

I'll start with this. I wrote that last post on my phone. I didn't have the time to give it the fullest attention. 
When I called it a half truth, I mean this. 
As you said, a better team has a harder road. That's true. It plays tougher opponents. 
But there's the other side of the coin. A small conference team winning a great proportion of its games often means nothing. The teams have no say over conference opponents. They can try to game non-conference opponents, but building those up without a national brand isn't easy. Back in the day, Memphis and Gonzaga would play each other when more traditional powers wouldn't. Everything comes down to a single-elimination tournament.
Can we at least agree that everything coming down to a three-day stretch is it's own kind of difficulty? Either that or winning 30 games?
When one set of teams gets a lot of leeway and the other doesn't, people won't like it. I don't contest that it's harder to win seven games in the Big 10 than 13 in the Patriot League. But there is a position where two more Big 10 wins count and 16 in the Pat league don't. 
In aggregate, the smaller schools are favored. On an individual level, you'd rather be a team that could dance with 13 losses than head to the NIT with 3, even if the schedule is a different beast. 
Overall, the structure of college sports works against small schools. This we know. And the way to get an at large berth is built on a certain resource, and small schools have relatively little access to it. They have a different brand of access. One with less margin for error and a crueler point when it is lost. 
I see where you're coming from, and outside a few of the more snarly-parts generally agree. I hope you see a few of my points as somewhat solid, even if we don't fully agree. 

[FearlessF]

I really want Turgeon gone.

it would seem really odd for Nebraska to hire Mark in the next month or so.
but, Mark's hometown is only a couple hours from Lincoln

[mcwterps1]

it would seem really odd for Nebraska to hire Mark in the next month or so.
but, Mark's hometown is only a couple hours from Lincoln

He needs to go. 
Gary did more with less. We pride ourselves the most with basketball, and the NCAA TOURNAMENT, and Midnight Madness were all copied or morphed by Maryland influence.
This guy is the wrong guy for the job. 
I think he wants the Kansas job, and who knows, maybe they're talking. 
https://247sports.com/college/maryland/Article/Maryland-Basketball-Mark-Turgeons-Terps-Lose-Again-in-Big-Ten-Tournament-Nebraska-130079977/Amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[FearlessF]

Gary would be in his 70s now, but he was one of my favorite coaches

I would welcome the old man at UNL

[Brutus Buckeye]

Gary did pretty well in Columbus, so they say. A little before my time. 

[MichiFan87]

Regarding the argument about mid-majors' at-large chances compared to mediocre power-conference schools, the reality is that nobody is forcing those conferences to have a conference tournament. I really don't understand why some of them don't do away with them. The one upside is if the best team doesn't actually win the league in the regular season (no good examples in recent years but it happens occasionally) due to an inbalanced schedule, a stronger non-conference showing, or something else, but generally it results in a worse team representing the conference.

Conversely, South Dakota State and Hofstra would've been dangerous teams in the tournament and could make runs in the NIT. No disrespect to North Dakota State and Northeastern, but they're just not as good.... A few years ago was perhaps the most infamous example when Holy Cross won the Patriot League as a #8 seed. It just doesn't make sense that a team can hypothetically go 4-31 and make the NCAA tournament because they won those last 4 games. I know some leagues don't include everyone in their conference tournaments (the Ivy League even after it finally gave in to having one still limits it to their top 4), but most of them do.

[FearlessF]

Gary did pretty well in Columbus, so they say. A little before my time.

youngster
I started following Gary at Boston College in the early 80s
the Big East was known as the Coach's conference back then