2020-2021 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

What was the worst seed to win the Tournament?

I do not recall offhand but I do remember that Illinois was the only #11 seed to ever win a game back during the Big11Ten era and they won three, advancing all the way to the CG before losing.

[Brutus Buckeye]

The Wolverines won it as an 8 seed in 2017. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

In fact the Wolverines have three of the bottom four seeds to win it all. 

Their 8 seed is the record in 2017
Iowa won it as a 6 seed in 2002
Michigan won it as a 5 seed in 2018
and Michigan won the inaugural BTT as a 4 seed in 1998
Every other time the champion has been a 3 or better. 

[medinabuckeye1]

Ok, found it, here is the B1G media guide which has all the tournament history. Where applicable I'm including vacated results because we care here how the seeds performed not whether or not they subsequently had to vacate the win.

Link:
https://bigten.org/documents/2020/11/9//2020_21_Media_Guide.pdf?id=6836

The Big11Ten Tournament started in 1998 and continued as an 11-team tournament for 14 years from 1998-2011. In those 14 years:

• #6 went 13-1 against #11 - This makes sense because the worst team in the league is typically terrible.
• #6 went 8-5 against #3 - This is the stand-out stat because #3 is a better team and should win most of the time.
• #4 and #5 went 7-7 against each other.

The sample size issue is very real. In the 4/5 game:

• #4 won the first five (1998-2002) then
• #5 won five straight (2003-2007) then
• #4 won one (2008) then
• #5 won two (2009-10) then
• #4 won the last one on equal rest (2011)

And the other question was lowest seed to win it:
That would be #6 Iowa in 2001 in Chicago, they:

• Beat #11 Northwestern 72-55 on Thursday, then
• Beat #3 Ohio State 75-66 on Friday, then
• Beat #7 Penn State 94-74 on Saturday, then
• Beat #4 Indiana in the CG on Sunday.

That was an odd year because both #2 Michigan State and #3 Ohio State lost their openers on Thursday. That cleared a path for the Hawkeyes then #4 Indiana took out #1 Illinois in the other semi-final which gave the Hawkeyes a very unusually easy path to the Championship. I'm not knocking Iowa, they still had to take advantage and they did but 11-3-7-4 is a remarkably light path.

Seeds below #6 to make the CG:

• #11 Illinois in 1999 lost to #1 MSU.
• #9 Iowa in 2002 lost to #2 tOSU.
• #8 Ohio State in 2003 lost to #2 IL.
• #10 Illinois in 2008 lost to #1 UW.

[medinabuckeye1]

Wisconsin's lead looks pretty secure and if it holds up, the bracket tomorrow will be 100% chalk.

[Brutus Buckeye]

And the other question was lowest seed to win it:
That would be #6 Iowa in 2001 in Chicago, they:

• Beat #11 Northwestern 72-55 on Thursday, then
• Beat #3 Ohio State 75-66 on Friday, then
• Beat #7 Penn State 94-74 on Saturday, then
• Beat #4 Indiana in the CG on Sunday.

That was an odd year because both #2 Michigan State and #3 Ohio State lost their openers on Thursday. That cleared a path for the Hawkeyes then #4 Indiana took out #1 Illinois in the other semi-final which gave the Hawkeyes a very unusually easy path to the Championship. I'm not knocking Iowa, they still had to take advantage and they did but 11-3-7-4 is a remarkably light path.

Seeds below #6 to make the CG:

• #11 Illinois in 1999 lost to #1 MSU.
• #9 Iowa in 2002 lost to #2 tOSU.
• #8 Ohio State in 2003 lost to #2 IL.
• #10 Illinois in 2008 lost to #1 UW.

I had searched it out upthread while you were typing this, and it was #8 Michigan in 2017. 
They beat #9Illinois in R2
They beat #1Purdue in OT in the quarterfinals. 
They beat #4Minnesota in the semifinals. 
They beat #2Wisconsin in the final. 

Wasn't that the year that their plane crashed en route to the BT BBT? 

[bayareabadger]

Wisconsin's lead looks pretty secure and if it holds up, the bracket tomorrow will be 100% chalk.

Not looking great at the moment. 

[ELA]

I do not recall offhand but I do remember that Illinois was the only #11 seed to ever win a game back during the Big11Ten era and they won three, advancing all the way to the CG before losing.

The semifinal win over OSU was a fantastic game.

For the first 8 tournaments, MSU never had to play a Thursday game, and Illinois never failed to advance to Saturday.  Both streaks were broken in the same tournament (2006), when MSU was a 6 seed, and had to play Thursday.  Beat #11 Purdue, and then beat #3 Illinois on Friday.

This year is the first in the 24-year history of the tournament that Michigan State is not playing on Friday

[medinabuckeye1]

I had searched it out upthread while you were typing this, and it was #8 Michigan in 2017.
They beat #9Illinois in R2
They beat #1Purdue in OT in the quarterfinals.
They beat #4Minnesota in the semifinals.
They beat #2Wisconsin in the final.

I was only looking at the 11-team tournaments so I didn't include #8 Michigan in 2017.

[medinabuckeye1]

In the 11-team era most of the league's teams took a turn in the cellar:

• 6 Penn State, 02, 03, 04, 05, 07, 10
• 3 Northwestern, 00, 01, 08
• 2 Indiana, 09, 11
• Ohio State, 98
• Illinois, 99
• Purdue, 06

Since then the teams in the cellar (#12 then #14) have been:

• 4 Rutgers, 15, 16, 17, 18
• 2 Penn State, 12, 13
• 2 Nebraska 20, 21
• Purdue, 14
• Northwestern, 19

[847badgerfan]

Well, I was wrong. The Badgers won a game. And almost didn't.

[bayareabadger]

Well, I was wrong. The Badgers won a game. And almost didn't.

I was so relaxed until the last couple possessions. I figured if you can get it to fouling Davison range, you’re probably set. And they just kept flubbing it. 

In the plus side, they should only have one “lose and it’s humiliating” game left, barring upsets. So we’re close to the found money portion of the season. 

[ELA]

This fan-less season has brought me more around to this.  The caliber of play, the way the game is called, college basketball is not a good product at all anymore.  I'll never quit on it, but, and similar to college football, I'm more addicted to the "vibe" and my love for MSU than I am to the product on the court.


https://twitter.com/Graham_Couch/status/1370065774862303235?s=20

[medinabuckeye1]

This year is the first in the 24-year history of the tournament that Michigan State is not playing on Friday

Even after considering how good MSU has been over that stretch, that is an amazing run. It is shocking that they managed to either pull or avoid the Thursday upset for 24 straight years, amazing.