2020-2021 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

Tournament performance over time by teams.

I'll do Purdue because we seem to talk a lot about their Tournament woes and Ohio State because they are my team:

Purdue has been to six straight Tournaments:

• #4 seed in 2021, lost opener.
• #3 seed in 2019, lost in E8.
• #2 seed in 2018, lost in S16.
• #4 seed in 2017, lost in S16.
• #5 seed in 2016, lost opener. 
• #9 seed in 2015, lost opener.

Comparing what those seeds typically accomplish to what Purdue actually accomplished:

• Purdue made three R32's, should be 4.51, down 1.51.
• Purdue made three S16's, should be 2.49, up 0.51.
• Purdue made one E8, should be 1.11, down 0.11.
• Purdue made zero F4's, should be 0.56, down 0.56.
• Purdue made zero NC's, should be 0.23, down 0.23.
• Purdue won zero NC's, should be 0.08, down 0.08.

Ohio State has been to three straight Tournaments:

• #2 seed in 2021, lost opener.
• #11 seed in 2019, lost in R32.
• #5 seed in 2018, lost in R32.

Comparing what those seeds typically accomplish to what Ohio State actually accomplished:

• Ohio State made 2 R32's, should be 2.01, down 0.01.
• Ohio State made zero S16's, should be 1.13, down 1.13.
• Ohio State made zero E8's, should be 0.58, down 0.58.
• Ohio State made zero F4's, should be 0.28, down 0.28.
• Ohio State made zero NC's, should be 0.11, down 0.11.
• Ohio State won zero NC's, should be 0.04, down 0.04.

[medinabuckeye1]

The only point I'd make about OSU and Purdue is that we can't use "they were in OT" and calling them bad bounces... Neither team should have been in OT against undermatched seed lines, if the seeding was anywhere near accurate. And if the seeding was accurate, Illinois was terrible.

MSU was a play-in game, so I'll give that one the bad bounce treatment. That could easily have gone the other way. Rutgers overperformed to be within 3 of Houston, so that's a positive. Wisconsin blew the doors off UNC, so that's also overperforming.

OSU and Purdue escaping round one wouldn't flip the script, unless you look at it PURELY from a W/L perspective. And I know you're more astute than that. When you're a 2 or 4 seed, you're simply supposed to win, and win handily. A close win isn't a good look at all. Sure beats a close loss though, for the fan!

I do get that. Obviously, Ohio State winning in OT as a #2 wouldn't be a great look, but I didn't credit/debit the conference for Illinois winning big (29 points) in their first round game either.

I'm only looking at W's and L's because I want to be objective. What if Illinois had pulled their starters sooner against Drexel and "only" won by 14? So what?

I don't think we care because the format suggests that we shouldn't. Look, if Purdue won six NCAA Tournament games each by one point in double OT they'd be the National Champions and nobody would say "yeah but they only beat the #16 seed by a point".

Another example is Thad Matta's first great Ohio State team (Oden, Connelly). They BARELY survived a #8 in the second round then won three more games before losing in the NC. I don't think anybody thinks less of that team because they almost lost in the second round.

The nature of the format is that close doesn't count for anything either way.

More specifically to this year, suppose tOSU and Purdue had pulled their openers out in OT then beaten Florida/Villanova in the second round. We wouldn't be talking about the too-close wins over Oral Roberts and North Texas, we'd be talking about the wins over Florida/Villanova, being in the S16, and upcoming games against Arkansas/Baylor. Nobody would care that our teams "almost" lost their openers. 

[FearlessF]

Hawks down 10 at the half

[Kris60]

Oregon is going to score 100 and that’s probably lowballing it.

[Riffraft]

"Hey,Ump you're missing a good game"

When I used to umpire high School Baseball/Softball. I have responded to this comment by saying where is it because it certainly isn't on this field. 

[bayareabadger]

Rick Majerus was an ass, but he was a hell of a coach, and I don't discount what he may have learned working under him in between head coaching stints.

That's true, but two tournaments in 10 years at Loyola will be a thing if it falls flat. 

Ironically, there's no good hook like this with Archie. He just didn't work. 

[bayareabadger]

Those aren't terrible losses individually but collectively our league should have done better.

I think this was kinda my thought. They should've done better in the dance, but the dance is a generally middling arbiter of conference strength. It's still fair to say it was a tough conference. Tough conferences flounder in the dance every year. It's part of the thing. 

[bayareabadger]

Every time I hear this about basketball, I feel queezy considering the exact same thing would happen in an expanded football playoff.

I mean, we have it happen during the extended "playoff" that is the regular season. That is until we stack teams up by loss number, make our tie-breaking choices and see how it shakes out. (I still want to make jokes about that A&M team)

[OrangeAfroMan]

I wish the ruling body had the balls to go all uncompromised computers back in 1998.  

[ELA]

I'm not sure any team in the country would win more than 1 against Gonzaga in a best of 7.

This feels like an A+ game from Oklahoma, who has some big wins this year...and they are down 12.

[Benthere2]

anyone else disappointed in the Big Ten?

seems like the conference is not representing to the true strength.  

do we have two teams left and they have to win today to go to the sweet 16

[rolltidefan]

good luck terps.

[HawkFrenzy]

Ohio State hasn't made it to the second weekend in almost a decade, something needs to change.

Now Iowa is working towards their 3rd decade. Tom Davis' final season was 1999, the last time Iowa made it to 16. Fans wanted a change because that wasn't enough and we got one. Be careful what you want, you just may get it.

[847badgerfan]

Now Iowa is working towards their 3rd decade. Tom Davis' final season was 1999, the last time Iowa made it to 16. Fans wanted a change because that wasn't enough and we got one. Be careful what you want, you just may get it.

That's what I say to all the clowns who want Greg Gard fired.