2022-2023 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

Now we are down to just two teams with five losses.

They play each other tomorrow. 

[ELA]

Rutgers was probably the team least equipped to handle an injury.  They only played 6.5 guys as it was.  3 straight losses since the torn ACL is exposing how horribly thin theybwere

[847badgerfan]

I'm pretty tired today. Stayed up to watch UW get a win. Glad for that, else I'd be tired and mad.

[bayareabadger]

I'm pretty tired today. Stayed up to watch UW get a win. Glad for that, else I'd be tired and mad.

A friend wanted to do some kind of the anti-Valentine’s Day shindig. I almost opted out, but decided to be social.

I did not expect the host to make steak for everybody, but it meant that I missed the whole first half. Then I got home, and things seem to be going well, so I did not want to mess with the karma, so I’m staying from watching the rest and I’m catching up on replay.

The seam is shockingly good at generating decent to good shots that it doesn’t hit.

[medinabuckeye1]

I'm thinking that last night's results were not good for the league's NCAA chances.

The three winners are all under .500 in the league even after wins.

The three losers are all over .500 even after their losses.

The wins probably will not be enough for UW, UNL, and PSU while the losses make it much less likely that M will get in and hurt seeding for RU and IL.

Since my team is out, I'm looking at this purely from a league perspective and I don't mean to be negative but I don't like this set-up. I think we are going to wind up with a slew of 7-10 seeds that will each have almost no chance to make the S16 because they'll all be up against some of the best teams in the nation in the first weekend. 

[Abba]

Plus, if Purdue drops to the 2 line, they would have to play a 15 seed the first round, instead of the S16 round like last year.

[ELA]

Sounds unlikely that MSU-Minnesota will get made up, because Minnesota already is making up the COVID cancelled game with Illinois

[ELA]

https://twitter.com/jeffborzello/status/1625708735417950209?s=20&t=rapG_6LdKDPB-B7lUUVshg


https://twitter.com/Jus10Stenz/status/1625847858619375616?s=20&t=Wx2j7IPe7DvhZGs9uL1ehg

[847badgerfan]

^^^ Love that.

A tweet by a former Badger...

[medinabuckeye1]

Plus, if Purdue drops to the 2 line, they would have to play a 15 seed the first round, instead of the S16 round like last year.

I hope the Purdue fans don't get too upset with me for saying this but history suggests that if our league's NCAA success is mostly dependent on the Boilermakers making a deep run we are in trouble. 

I hope I'm wrong.

[ELA]

Sounds unlikely that MSU-Minnesota will get made up, because Minnesota already is making up the COVID cancelled game with Illinois

Which, obviously sports aren't what matters right now, and its unclear if all the basketball players stayed on campus.

But since this is a basketball thread, from a basketball perspective, I'm torn on this.  On one hand, MSU would be losing the closest thing to an assured win (home vs. Minnesota).  Considering how bunched the standings are, losing that win, could mean the difference between being in like a 4 way tie for third, and finishing in 6th, or whatever.  I also said, coming off the Rutgers loss, I almost thought MSU needed to win 6 games, between their final 8 regular season games, and the BTT.  They won the first 2, but this removes a *chance*, and by chance I mean nearly assuredly.  How will the committee view a 19-12 MSU team that didn't play Minnesota at all (they didn't have a game scheduled there), vs. a 20-12 MSU team with a home win over Minnesota?

On the other hand, does a win over Minnesota help the actual resume?  Surely not nearly as much as a loss hurts it.  Remember Wisconsin fell 8 spots in the NET when they barely beat Minnesota at home.  So absent a blowout win, probably doesn't impact MSU's resume positively.  And considering MSU has games scheduled for every remaining weekday and weekend window, they would have to work some things around to squeeze it in.  Which certainly can't help in some of the remaining 50/50 games (@Michigan, vs. Indiana, @Iowa, @Nebraska).  So is it worth squeezing it in, to put them on short rest for one of those?  Remember how bad Northwestern looked on short rest against Michigan last week, after they had to makeup their COVID game with Wisconsin.

Because Minnesota has to makeup their COVID postponment game, they basically every other day as is.  2/18, 2/20, 2/22, 2/25, 3/2, 3/5.

My only thoughts would be to move the Minnesota-Rutgers game from Thursday 3/2, up to Tuesday 2/28, same day as MSU-Nebraska.  Then play MSU-Minnesota on Thursday, 3/2.  Or move Minnesota-Wisconsin up from Sunday 3/5, to Saturday 3/4, and then tack MSU-Minnesota onto the end on Monday, 3/6.

[medinabuckeye1]

Considering how bunched the standings are, losing that win, could mean the difference between being in like a 4 way tie for third, and finishing in 6th, or whatever.

In the current projection it doesn't change MSU's seed.

With a win over MN, MSU was projected to finish 12-8 and in a five-way tie for 2nd-6th. However, MSU loses that tie so they get the #6 seed.

Without the assumed win over MN, the Spartans would be projected to finish alone in 6th place.

[ELA]

In the current projection it doesn't change MSU's seed.

With a win over MN, MSU was projected to finish 12-8 and in a five-way tie for 2nd-6th. However, MSU loses that tie so they get the #6 seed.

Without the assumed win over MN, the Spartans would be projected to finish alone in 6th place.

Yeah, but what are the chances everything goes according to script?

[bayareabadger]

If UW’s two best players could play to 80 percent of their ability the rest of the way, that would be super. 

If they could also backdate than and flip 1-2 dumb close losses, would like that too.