2021-2022 B1G Basketball thread

[MaximumSam]

Man, the Gophs with a pretty convincing road win over a pretty lifeless Michigan team.

[RestingB!tchFace]

So much for the Gophers finishing last in the Big Ten.  They might be a tournament team.  Should be ranked this week.

Absolutely incredible.

[ELA]

Man, the Gophs with a pretty convincing road win over a pretty lifeless Michigan team.

Starting to think Juwan Howard is just Penny Hardaway, except he inherited some kids who had the benefit of Beilein as opposed to an empty cupboard

[MaximumSam]

Starting to think Juwan Howard is just Penny Hardaway, except he inherited some kids who had the benefit of Beilein as opposed to an empty cupboard

I don't understand why Houstan is playing so many minutes. They have other guys, and so far he hasn't given them much on either end of the court. Also Minny basically didn't guard their point guard unless he came into the lane.

[ELA]

I don't understand why Houstan is playing so many minutes. They have other guys, and so far he hasn't given them much on either end of the court. Also Minny basically didn't guard their point guard unless he came into the lane.

Because he's a McDonald's AA, and you won't get the next disappointing class without selling them on unlimited playing time

[MaximumSam]

Because he's a McDonald's AA, and you won't get the next disappointing class without selling them on unlimited playing time

I mean I guess, but playing him so much to so little reward is just killing his draft stock. Better if he played much less and scouts could still imagine him being a great player.

[bayareabadger]

I don't understand why Houstan is playing so many minutes. They have other guys, and so far he hasn't given them much on either end of the court. Also Minny basically didn't guard their point guard unless he came into the lane.

I did not realize they were rolling out a tank-sized lineup. 

[bayareabadger]

Starting to think Juwan Howard is just Penny Hardaway, except he inherited some kids who had the benefit of Beilein as opposed to an empty cupboard

The weird thing about Penny is you'd think he'd roll up all the talent, roll the ball out, fly up and down, score, be undisciplined and whatnot.

And yet, his last two teams have been hell on wheels on defense, just awful on offense. They just have some awful point guard problems. (And with his top assistant, he shouldn't even need to be in the damn gym and they should roll out some kind of coherent basketball product. It's just odd)

[ELA]

Purdue came back from down 12 with 6 minutes left to beat NC State

Baylor's defense is absolutely shutting down Villanova, 45-27 with 5 minutes left.  They are going to be #1 next week

[medinabuckeye1]

I'm curious what kinds of tiers people are thinking about at this point.  To me:

Tier 1 based on performance: Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin

Tier 1 based on potential: Michigan, Illinois

Maybe that's too many in tier 1, but otherwise it's just Purdue at tier 1 and these other teams at 2.

Tier 2 I guess would include teams like Indiana, Northwestern, Rutgers, Minnesota and Iowa.

Then round out Tier 3 with Nebraska, Maryland, and Penn State.

We should get this set up soon but I haven't had time to make the schedule chart yet so I'm pretty far from having it ready to go.  If anybody wants to take this over, I'll gladly share the spreadsheet from prior years which you can then use as a shell to add in this year's schedule and the results thus far to create the predictions.  

On the subject of tiers, I think:
Tier 1:

• Purdue - I would have had them alone in their own tier but then they went on the road and lost at Rutgers so maybe they aren't quite as far ahead of the rest of the league as I once thought (or they are and that was just an off night).  
• Ohio State - Heading into the Dook game in the challenge the Buckeyes were a VERY unimpressive 4-2 and I'd have put them down at least a tier.  Then they knocked off the Blue Devils and backed it up with a blowout win over the Badgers so maybe?  I'm still not completely convinced.  The Buckeyes just seem like the kind of team that might knock off one of the best teams in the league then turn around and lose to one of the worst in their next game.  Ie, I see this as a "high ceiling / low floor" team where you really never know what you are going to get.  
• Michigan State - Izzo.  
• Wisconsin - Despite the big loss in Columbus they still strike me as one of the better teams in the league but I guess I'd say they are on notice.  

Tier 2:

• Michigan - Maybe.  Like @Abba said, they have a LOT of potential but they've just looked like complete crap too many times.  
• Illinois - I think.  
• Indiana - maybe?
• Northwestern - I think?
• Rutgers - The win over Purdue is great but it was at home and they still are the same team that got blown out in Champaign.  
• Minnesota - Crushed Michigan in Ann Arbor, lost convincingly at home to MSU.  
• Iowa - They are 0-2 but both were close and @PU, vs IL is a pretty tough way to start.  

Tier 3:

• Nebraska - Not good.  
• Maryland - So bad that they fired their coach in December.  
• Penn State - Not good.  

We may need more tiers.  Tier 2 is probably too big but I don't know that we've seen enough to determine how to break it up yet.  

[medinabuckeye1]

If anybody wants to take this over, I'll gladly share the spreadsheet from prior years which you can then use as a shell to add in this year's schedule and the results thus far to create the predictions. 

Nobody is jumping on this?  LoL. 

[ELA]

Looking at where the sort of natural breaks are in KenPom

1: Purdue
2: OSU, MSU, Illinois, UM
3: IU, UW, Iowa
4: NW, Maryland, Minnesota
5: PSU, Rutgers
6: Nebraska

[FearlessF]

9: Nebraska

[medinabuckeye1]

Looking at where the sort of natural breaks are in KenPom

1: Purdue
2: OSU, MSU, Illinois, UM
3: IU, UW, Iowa
4: NW, Maryland, Minnesota
5: PSU, Rutgers
6: Nebraska

This is fine with me but I would appreciate more input from other posters because it is a lot of work to set it all up and I don't want to get too far into that without having consensus.