2019-2020 B1G Basketball Thread

[ELA]

Yeesh, top of the Big Ten.

OSU looks better than expected, but that Cincy win looks not quite as good.

Maryland and Michigan look as expected, but haven't played anyone yet

Purdue and MSU both look worse than expected.

Wisconsin looks a lot worse than expected

[847badgerfan]

Wisconsin is no gouda.

[MichiFan87]

We'll find out a lot more about Michigan in the next 3 days, but they have beaten Creighton. Hopefully Wagner can at least play some limited time as a backup this week....

Tomorrow's game against Iowa State will probably be close, but Michigan appears to be slightly better. ISU also hasn't beaten anyone yet (though all their wins were blowouts) and lost at Oregon State.

If they win then they probably face North Carolina, which would obviously be a challenge, though they lost a lot from last year, and even Elon gave them somewhat of a challenge, whereas Michigan dominated Elon pretty well. Notre Dame also gave them a decent game..... Alternatively, Alabama is probably not going to be very good this year, considering they've already lost to Penn and Rhode Island (both of which could be top 100 teams to be fair).

On the other side, Gonzaga will probably get to the Championship Game. Tomorrow's Oregon - Seton Hall game probably determines who gets the 3rd place and 5th place games, whereas Southern Mississippi is clearly the worst team in the field..... Michigan would have struggle to matchup against Gonzaga, but match up okay against the Pirates and Ducks (who they'll play in Crisler in a few weeks, anyway).

Overall, going 2-1 would be a good outcome.....

[bayareabadger]

Wisconsin is no gouda.

Yeah, I didn’t even watch because I was tied up with other things. Did a double take at the score. 

it’s weird because this team has the ability to not suck, but it’s Just bombing out. 

[medinabuckeye1]

OSU looks better than expected, but that Cincy win looks not quite as good.

As an Ohio State fan I am optimistic but not yet entirely convinced because Ohio State's lofty top-10 ranking is based almost entirely on the Villanova win and one game can be a fluke. Maybe Ohio State really is that good or:

• Maybe Villanova sucks and was overrated, or
• Maybe Ohio State just had an unusually good game that night, or
• Maybe Villanova just had an unusually bad game that night.

[ELA]

Well, I guess we could have lost at home to a mid major coming of a loss to Rutgers.

So it could always be worse

[Brutus Buckeye]

Yeah who did Dook lose to?
I know it was the Lumberjacks, but didn't catch the name of the school.

[Hawkinole]

This is a bit off-topic, but it does not deserve its own thread on a football fan site, so I am putting it here. In men's basketball:

Grinnell College 172
Providence-Manitoba 95

https://pioneers.grinnell.edu/news/2019/11/24/record-breaking-first-half-sends-pioneer-mens-basketball-team-to-easy-win-over-providence.aspx?fbclid=IwAR3hixG4TLycr8PcsaoeM2UjFLiIUW-fgO27V9UyXKQ-4Kne-dOUPSgT9Yw

Grinnell College established a new school mark for points in a half by erupting for 95 in the opening 20 minutes, breaking the previous best of 94 on Nov. 20, 2012.

[FearlessF]

just north of I-80

Iowa kids

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yeesh, top of the Big Ten.

OSU looks better than expected, but that Cincy win looks not quite as good.

Maryland and Michigan look as expected, but haven't played anyone yet

Purdue and MSU both look worse than expected.

Wisconsin looks a lot worse than expected

Purdue has lost to Texas (KenPom #32) and Marquette (#29) and took care of business easily against cupcakes. MSU has lost to Duke (#4) and Virginia Tech (#48), slaughtered cupcakes, and beaten Seton Hall (#19) and Georgia (#67). 

Better than losing to Evansville (#186) or Stephen F Austin (#222).

I'll be honest that I expected MSU to beat a team like VTech. While Purdue lost three key starters (and our offensive sparkplug), I figured MSU would hit the ground running a little more easily. But I don't think they necessarily look a lot worse than expected. KenPom still has them listed as top-10 in both offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency. 

Losing a few games this early in the season isn't anything to fret over. The question is whether the right pieces are in place to round into form once conference play starts.

[ELA]

Yeah, I'm not necessarily worried about either, and it's why I didn't group them with Wisconsin, but I expected both to be better than this.

I don't really think Texas, Marquette or Virginia Tech are any good.

Texas got boat raced by Georgetown

Marquette got crushed by Wisconsin, and nearly lost to Robert Morris

Virginia Tech followed that MSU loss by getting beat by nearly 30 by Dayton

[MichiFan87]

Michigan is an equally exciting and frustrating team to watch, now, especially against good teams.

Michigan shot it really well and the half court defense was solid, overall. The problem was there were way too many dumb turnovers, especially those that resulted in layups at the other end, and they also committed too many dumb fouls.

Franz Wagner started and played major minutes but was a big culprit on the dumb fouls part, as he fouled out, which was a rarity for anyone under Beilein, much less a guard (though Mo Wagner committed a lot of dumb fouls as a freshman).

Teske had two dumb moving screens early which kept him on the bench for the rest of the first half and then had some other fouls that forced him off until late, when he helped clinch the win..... Consequently, Castleton played a lot and made some nice plays on offense but also looked fairly bad on defense to the point that Austin Davis came in during the first half, as well, and actually looked okay.

Simpson had a double-double of points and assists, but also had a lot of dumb turnovers. Brooks and DeJulius both hit some big shots and made some nice plays, as well, while also making mistakes.

Livers had a pretty good game overall hitting some big shots but also forced a few. Johns had some good moments and also some bad mistakes.

Nunez still played some in the first half but not in the second half. He's clearly the worst defensive player, even though he hit a 3, so I don't think he'll be in the rotation for much longer (he probably played today partly to mitigate the fatigue factor for the next two days for the rest of the rotation).

Overall, if they can limit their turnovers and bad fouls, they'll be able to compete with anyone in the country and certainly the BigTen. We'll see what happens the next two days, though....

[MichiFan87]

Yet another game where Michigan looked great at various periods of the game and then made some dumb mistakes to keep the game close, but I'll take the win, of course.

Nunez didn't play at all today, so Michigan will probably have a consistent 8-man rotation going forward unless/until he improves on defense or Bajema emerges. I'm not expecting either to happen, though, and fortunately Brooks and DeJulius are playing pretty well despite being somewhat out of position, especially when they both play along with Simpson.

Still too many turnovers and dumb fouls (especially with Simpson and Livers fouling out), but I still think that's a fixable issue. It's surprising that it's an issue in the first place considering how foul and turnover averse Michigan was under Beilein.

Tomorrow should be an even bigger challenge, though....

[mcwterps1]

Happy to beat Temple. 

Not sure how good they are, but beating 2 Seniors and 3 Juniors is a positive.