2018-2019 B1G Basketball Thread

[847badgerfan]

I agree. They looked good. Watched it without sound though. When is that blowhard going to retire?

[medinabuckeye1]

"#1" OSU the only B1G team to lose a home game?

We all knew that the #1 ranking in the RPI replacement thing was not going to last.  I think @MaximumSam posted that mostly in jest.  
That said, the thing I am looking forward to finding out is if that home loss was mostly because Ohio State just isn't that good, or mostly because Syracuse is a matchup nightmare.  

[medinabuckeye1]

So a few thoughts on the Challenge:

First, it was nice to get back to not losing.  It flat sucked that the ACC jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first 10 of these from 1999-2008.  That said, most of those were close and it always seemed to me like we generally got screwed based on which teams did not participate:

• From 1999-2004 we had 11 members in the old Big11Ten and they had nine so two of our teams sat and there were nine games each year except that in 2001 one of the games was cancelled so there were only eight.  
• From 2005-2010 we had 11 members and (I think) they had 12 so one of their teams sat and there were 11 games each year.  
• From 2011-2013 there were 12 games each year.  I think we each had 12?  
• From 2014-2017 there have been 14 games each year with all teams playing.  

This was also a nice recovery from last years 3-11 disaster.  

For my own team, ugh.  Five years ago the Buckeyes were 7-6 in this thing and I think that they were the only B1G team with a winning record.  Since then the challenge has not been kind to the Buckeyes:

• 2018:  Lost at home to Syracuse by 10
• 2017:  Lost at home to Clemson by 14
• 2016:  Lost at Virginia by 2
• 2015:  Lost at home to Virginia by 6
• 2014:  Lost at Louisville by 9

It has been so long that the last time Ohio State won a B1G/ACC Challenge game the opponent was a team that is now in the B1G.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

I just felt sick after watching that game last night.

Purdue's final game in the Charleston tournament was one thing... Purdue jumped out to a big lead in the first half, but then in the second, Virginia Tech Could.Not.Miss. Seriously, we'd play good defense for 27 seconds, force them to jack up a contested 3, and they'd hit it. It's hard to beat any team that can do that.

But last night against FSU was different. They were frustrating us defensively the whole first half. We couldn't move the ball, we got sloppy and had lots of turnovers, and Carsen's shot wasn't hitting [yes he had something like 13 in the first half, but it was on a lot of volume]. In the second half, the team cleaned it up. We figured out how to get by them on defense, we figured out our lineup, and we ended up erasing their 12-point halftime lead, and at one point late I believe we were up 7.

And then we went right back to our first-half ways for the last 3 minutes of the game, and even THEN should have won. Only a boneheaded move by Cline, allowing FSU to tie him up when they had the possession arrow, and a good shot by FSU to go up 73-72 with 5.2 seconds left, turned the game.

It feels like a signature win was right there for the taking, in a game that we were underdogs, on the road. And we folded. 

Now we have to go on the road to a red-hot UM, followed by MD at home and Texas on the road. This team needed to win at least one of this 4-game stretch, and now a game that they had within their grasp is a loss, increasing the pressure on the next three.

[ELA]

I think it's pretty clear Michigan is easily the best team in the conference right now.  It's early, things can change, but for now, that much seems obvious.  Particularly considering how underwhelming MSU, OSU, Purdue, UW, Iowa and Minnesota were in the Challenge.

Tough to say one way or another about Indiana, Duke will make a lot of teams look bad.  But among the contenders, the only team that didn't underwhelm was Maryland.  That's a really good Virginia team, playing in November, when Bennett can still win, and the Terps gave them all they could handle 

[Entropy]

UNL won on Monday
PSU, Iowa and Wisky won on Tuesday
Rutgers, NW and Michigan won on Wednesday

Basically... the lower half of the BIG carried the league in the challenge.  Is that a sign of depth?  

[ELA]

Forgot about Nebraska on Monday.  Count them among the contenders who played well.  I also care less at this point about W/L vs. how you looked.  UW and Iowa both got wins, but looked not good in close home wins over lower tier ACC teams.  While Maryland had a very impressive close loss to the #4 team in the nation.  Northwestern won a game between two non factors.

PSU had a nice win, but already has a loss to DePaul, so I'm not sure what that means.  They may have just pulled an upset.  Not ready to call them a contender.

[Entropy]

UNL is not a contender.    I'm not offended by you leaving them off.   TT proved that.  They're a bubble team and a good win or a bad loss will put them in or out.  

[mcwterps1]

Yeah, but Maryland played, at home, against an ACC rival.

You saw the "best" we had to offer.

I don't expect a young team like ours to take a few games seriously, and get embarrassed.

[ELA]

Yeah, but Maryland played, at home, against an ACC rival.

You saw the "best" we had to offer.

I don't expect a young team like ours to take a few games seriously, and get embarrassed.

Yeah, I'd agree that was Maryland's best.  But it was pretty damn good.  It's not like that was Virginia's C game.  Cavs played well too, and Terps almost got em.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yeah, but Maryland played, at home, against an ACC rival.

You saw the "best" we had to offer.

I don't expect a young team like ours to take a few games seriously, and get embarrassed.

Feel free to tell the team not to take the Purdue game seriously... kthxbye 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Forgot about Nebraska on Monday.  Count them among the contenders who played well.  I also care less at this point about W/L vs. how you looked.  UW and Iowa both got wins, but looked not good in close home wins over lower tier ACC teams.  While Maryland had a very impressive close loss to the #4 team in the nation.  Northwestern won a game between two non factors.

On that metric, I actually score the Boilers pretty well... They went on the road to the #15 team in the nation, and as a young and relatively green team held strong against a VERY long and athletic team. That the team rallied from its first half mistakes and deficit to actually come back and lead was pretty solid.
Much like UMD, as @mcwterps1 points out, it's a very young team growing as they go. Replacing the 4 seniors is not easy, and you can see that Painter is experimenting and learning his rotation as much as the players are learning their roles. 
But I think the pieces are there for this team to be VERY dangerous in February and March.

[MichiFan87]

I wasn't expecting you all to be so deferential to Michigan. They did keep the #1 defense ranking in Kenpom by a decent margin over Virginia, while the offense rose to 25th to get them to 6th overall. In a lot of ways, this team is reminiscent of Virginia's and Wisconsin's best teams in recent years.

As I mentioned before the season, Michigan is fortunate to avoid trips to Lincoln, West Lafayette, and Columbus now that Ohio State is a surprise team, again. I think they'll lose at least 3-5 games even if they stay healthy. Beilein hasn't ever lost fewer than 6 games in a season (and that was at Nazareth and LeMoyne) or fewer than 8 games at the power-conference level (which was the first national title losing team), and that team similarly strong at 16-0, so I don't necessarily think this team easily gets to 30+ wins.

The other big concern I forgot to mention earlier is that Michigan still needs Johns and/or DeJulius to be break into the rotation in case of injury, foul trouble (the one downside to being so good defensively is that there is a greater risk of fouling than in past years), or someone having a really bad game for whatever reason. The current 7-man rotation is great, to be sure, but being able to go 10-deep (Austin Davis being the other borderline rotation player) when necessary would be nice.

[LetsGoPeay]

5* PF Trayce Jackson-Davis of Center Grove HS south of Indy has committed to IU.

Bring on Keion Brooks now.