2018-2019 B1G Basketball Thread

[ELA]

Illikainen leaving UW

[betarhoalphadelta]

Carsen Edwards the first B1G player of the week.

[JerseyTerrapin]

BS
Melo never "flopped" and you know it.
The school of "flopping" is across the hall from "floor-slapping", and we all know who attended them.
Melo made contact while driving.  He never flopped.

Exactly.  One can argue that he got a lot of calls when he was the one who initiated contact.  But anybody who calls that flopping has never seen Greg Paulus play.  If an announcer said Melo was a flopper, it's a lazy observation based on hearing complaints about the calls he got his first year...

[847badgerfan]

Illikainen leaving UW

Kinda surprised he lasted as long as he did. Would have been nice to know this a little earlier than yesterday.

[ELA]

Minnesota killed one of the cooler vibes in college basketball by brightening the Barn, and not only that, they went WAY over the top and made it blinding.

[ELA]

Massey composite rankings (19 rankings), with last week in parenthesis...

• Duke (5)
• North Carolina (3)
• Kansas (1)
• Virginia (2)
• Gonzaga (8)
• Villanova (4)
• Tennessee (10)
• MICHIGAN STATE (7)
• Auburn (20)
• Florida State (17)
• PURDUE (12)
• Nevada (14)
• OHIO STATE (-)
• MICHIGAN (11)
• Syracuse (19)
• Kentucky (6)
• NEBRASKA (-)
• Clemson (15)
• Virginia Tech (22)
• West Virginia (9)
• Oregon (24)
• Mississippi State (-)
• Texas Tech (23)
• Marquette (-)
• Kansas State (16)

• 33. Indiana (41)
• 34. Penn State (37)
• 36. Maryland (33)
• 44. Wisconsin (32)
• 59. Northwestern (67)
• 60. Illinois (86)
• 66. Iowa (62)
• 69. Minnesota (74)
• 79. Rutgers (119)

[ELA]

Davison tries to create 14 block-charge situations a game. It is annoying as all hell. Damn kid committed 4.2 fouls per 40 last year, when they desperately needed him NOT to do that.

Paid off there.

[boilerbanger]

Those rankings are baffling to me.  There are some real flyers in there.

[NickSmith4Three]

Trent Frazier would have been nice to have last night against Georgetown.  Guard play should be pretty darn good for the Illini but the interior defense is poo.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently I missed some kind of first half.

[ELA]

Michigan kept playing the defense they had been playing, but started shooting.

Last game they trailed Holy Cross at home at halftime, today they lead Villanova on the road by 27

[MichiFan87]

I certainly didn't see that coming. I'm trying not to get too excited, but this defense might be the best in the country (now #3 on Kenpom after entering tonight at #6). It's kind of weird how similar of a strategy they have now like the football team (strong defense especially against 3s / passes and now forcing more TOs, driving more than shooting 3s (run v pass) while not committing turnovers).

The first few games were frustrating to watch, but clearly the fact that Norfolk and Holy Cross play zone defenses, was part of it, as well as perhaps lack of motivation against outmatched competition.The main difference tonight was turnovers (21 forced to 7 committed) and, of course, shooting. Paschall and Booth both looked bad, and they were still the leading scorers. The other major stats were basically even.

On offense, Brazdeikis and Matthews were the primary scorers, though Simpson, Livers, and Poole all played better, as well. There's still a lot of room for improvement, but I think by January, it will be pretty good, as the players get comfortable in their roles.

George Washington and South Carolina or Providence are next in this tournament in Connecticut. GW is bad and neither of the other two appear to be that good, as they've played some of the same teams (Norfolk and Holy Cross are two of the teams in the lower-profile part of the tournament and provide the guarantee games) and have been challenged and even lost..... Then North Carolina is coming to Crisler for the ACC Challenge.

[ELA]

Big Ten in general looks really good on the very early returns.  Few tourneys this weekend as well.  UM's isn't what was hoped, as already mentioned, with GW, South Carolina, and some other scrub I think.  But Purdue is in one that could result in a matchup with a top 15 VT, and Iowa has a 4 team one with Syracuse, Oregon and UConn.  Chance to make some more noise.  Rutgers hosts St. John's, who is just outside the Top 25, tomorrow as well.

[MichiFan87]

The BigTen is arguably the best league in the country so far with neither of the two losses (Michigan State to Kansas and Illinois to Georgetown) being an upset, compared to 5-10 good wins so far, depending on your standard for a good win. Meanwhile, quite a few power-conference teams have already suffered questionable-at-best losses (Baylor, Notre Dame, Boston College, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, California, South Carolina, Wichita, Washington State).

10 teams are in the Kenpom top 40 while Minnesota and Northwestern are 49 and 50, Illinois at 77, and Rutgers at 118. That's a predictive ranking system, of course, as opposed to a results-based one, but even so, it's a good indicator. In looking at Michigan's schedule again, I can see them winning the conference but just going 14-6 or 15-5.

Of course, there are still a lot of non-con games left, including most of the toughest ones, but it's a very good start.