2024-2025 B1G Basketball Thread

[ELA]

Did Caleb Love break Iowa State? 

[FearlessF]

Clones in big trouble

[ELA]

Clones in big trouble

Larry Eustachy will drink to that

[FearlessF]

[ELA]

Massey Composite Rankings - 48 computers (last week in parentheses)

• Auburn (1)
• Duke (2)
• Alabama (5)
• Houston (3)
• Tennessee (6)
• Florida (7)
• PURDUE (8)
• Iowa State (4)
• MICHIGAN STATE (10)
• Texas A&M (15)
• Texas Tech (17)
• Kansas (9)
• Marquette (11)
• WISCONSIN (13)
• St. John's (18)
• Arizona (20)
• Kentucky (14)
• ILLINOIS (12)
• MARYLAND (22)
• MICHIGAN (19)
• Missouri (-)
• Ole Miss (21)
• Gonzaga (23)
• Saint Mary's (-)
• Louisville (24)

• 29. UCLA (33)
• 33. Ohio State (36)
• 34. Oregon (25)
• 46. Nebraska (54)
• 52. Indiana (52)
• 53. USC (61)
• 60. Penn State (49)
• 61. Iowa (56)
• 62. Northwestern (50)
• 76. Rutgers (80)
• 90. Washington (97)
• 95. Minnesota (88)

[ELA]

My 2/4 SOR/KenPom bracket update.  Now giving regular season championship to 1st place team

NCAA TOURNAMENT
SOUTH

• #1 Auburn vs. #16 Merrimack/American
• #8 ILLINOIS vs. #9 Connecticut
• #5 Arizona vs. #12 Liberty
• #4 St. John’s vs. #13 McNeese
• #3 Iowa State vs. #14 UNC Wilmington
• #6 MARYLAND vs. #11 Drake
• #7 Clemson vs. #10 Gonzaga
• #2 Texas A&M vs. #15 Lipscomb

EAST

• #1 Duke vs. #16 Bryant/Little Rock
• #8 Mississippi State vs. #9 West Virginia
• #5 MICHIGAN vs. #12 VCU
• #4 Missouri vs. #13 Yale
• #3 MICHIGAN STATE vs. #14 High Point
• #6 Oklahoma vs. #11 San Diego State/SMU
• #7 OREGON vs. #10 BYU
• #2 Florida vs. #15 Milwaukee

MIDWEST

• #1 Alabama vs. #16 Southern
• #8 Baylor vs. #9 Utah State
• #5 Kentucky vs. #12 Arkansas State
• #4 WISCONSIN vs. #13 Akron
• #3 Kansas vs. #14 Northern Colorado
• #6 Creighton vs. #11 OHIO STATE
• #7 Louisville vs. #10 Georgia
• #2 PURDUE vs. #15 South Dakota State

WEST

• #1 Tennessee vs. #16 Central Connecticut State
• #8 UCLA vs. #9 New Mexico
• #5 Ole Miss vs. #12 UC San Diego
• #4 Texas Tech vs. #13 Samford
• #3 Marquette vs. #14 Grand Canyon
• #6 Memphis vs. #11 Vanderbilt/NEBRASKA
• #7 Saint Mary’s vs. #10 Texas
• #2 Houston vs. #15 Norfolk State

NIT
CHAPEL HILL

• #1 North Carolina vs. #8 Morehead State
• #4 PENN STATE vs. #5 San Francisco
• #3 Arizona State vs. #6 Villanova
• #2 UC Irvine vs. #7 Cleveland State

ORLANDO

• #1 Central Florida vs. #8 Florida Gulf Coast
• #4 NORTHWESTERN vs. #5 Stanford
• #3 IOWA vs. #6 LSU
• #2 Xavier vs. #7 UNC Asheville

WINSTON-SALEM

• #1 Wake Forest vs. #8 Towson
• #4 Dayton vs. #5 North Texas
• #3 USC vs. #6 TCU
• #2 Arkansas vs. #7 Marist

BLOOMINGTON

• #1 INDIANA vs. #8 Omaha
• #4 Cincinnati vs. #5 Boise State
• #3 George Mason vs. #6 Georgetown
• #2 Pittsburgh vs. #7 Jacksonville State

All Big Ten Teams

• Purdue - moved up from #3 seed to #2 seed
• Michigan State - dropped from #2 seed to #3 seed
• Wisconsin - #4 seed
• Michigan - moved up from #6 seed to #5 seed
• Maryland - moved up from #7 seed to #6 seed
• Oregon - dropped from #5 seed to #7 seed
• UCLA - moved up from #9 seed to #8 seed
• Illinois - dropped from #6 seed to #8 seed
• Ohio State - dropped from #10 seed to #11 seed
• Nebraska - moved up from NIT #3 seed to NCAA #11 seed (Play-In)
• Indiana - moved up from NIT #2 seed to NIT #1 seed
• Iowa - moved up from NIT #4 seed to NIT #3 seed
• USC - moved up from out to NIT #3 seed
• Northwestern - dropped from NIT #2 seed to NIT #4 seed
• Penn State - NIT #4 seed
• Rutgers - moved up to #2 team out of NIT
• Washington - moved up to #9 team out of NIT
• Minnesota - dropped to #15 team out of NIT

[bayareabadger]

Admittedly, IU got jumped early and did show some fight getting it closer at points, but good lord that team is sloppy. 

Like, when Woodson gets canned, it will be so very much on him. 

[LetsGoPeay]

Woodson and this team are so bad. He's made his bed relying on the transfer portal and NIL. He's too lazy to go see a McDonald's All-American 1.5 hours from Bloomington and would rather throw together a poorly assembled bunch of mercenaries so he can spend more time on the golf course and in his cigar lounge with his primary benefactor Quinn Buckner. Then he has to play with his misfit toys because he's paying for them even though they fit together as well as a Goodwill jigsaw puzzle. Some of the higher-paid ones have to play even though they are lazy, entitled, and could care less about actually winning (Ballo). Top off that wonderful melange of crappiness with Woodson's tactical ineptitude and stubborn refusal to play modern basketball, or at least employ or not alienate and drive off an assistant who might help him evolve and you get what IU has become. We've got Ewing and Oakley in the age of Steph and Klay. Four years of Mike Woodson has done more to make IU a football school than one year of Curt Cignetti.  

[grillrat]

Woodson and this team are so bad. He's made his bed relying on the transfer portal and NIL. He's too lazy to go see a McDonald's All-American 1.5 hours from Bloomington and would rather throw together a poorly assembled bunch of mercenaries so he can spend more time on the golf course and in his cigar lounge with his primary benefactor Quinn Buckner. Then he has to play with his misfit toys because he's paying for them even though they fit together as well as a Goodwill jigsaw puzzle. Some of the higher-paid ones have to play even though they are lazy, entitled, and could care less about actually winning (Ballo). Top off that wonderful melange of crappiness with Woodson's tactical ineptitude and stubborn refusal to play modern basketball, or at least employ or not alienate and drive off an assistant who might help him evolve and you get what IU has become. We've got Ewing and Oakley in the age of Steph and Klay. Four years of Mike Woodson has done more to make IU a football school than one year of Curt Cignetti. 

So....Extension?

[ELA]

Remember when 2018 MSU as a whole was less than the sum of its parts, because they had 2 NBA players, and won a Big Ten title, but every MSU was pissed?

Anyway how is Illinois doing?

[FearlessF]

something about pissing off the illinois coach pleases me

[grillrat]

Big game for OSU tonight.  OSU has great metrics and a couple of good wins on the resume, but they just don't have enough wins overall yet to justify a tournament spot.  If they can pull off winning all the home games (Maryland, Washington, Michigan, NW, & Nebraska) and pick up at least one road game (Nebraska, USC, UCLA, & IU), they would finish 19-12 and that would probably be enough to get them in.
If they drop this game tonight though, they will probably have to pull off at least 2 or 3 or the road games to make up for it.

At this point, MSU, Purdue, Michigan, UCLA, Wisconsin, and Maryland are likely tournament teams.
I'm starting to question Illinois though.  The Arkansas and Oregon wins are starting to look not nearly as impressive as they were earlier in the season.  The Missouri win is probably their best win so far.  With games left @Minn, UCLA, MSU, @Wisc, Duke (N), Iowa, @Mich, & Purdue, I could see them dropping at least four of those games and finishing 19-12.  Might get a little dicey at that point.

[ELA]

I'm starting to question Illinois though.  The Arkansas and Oregon wins are starting to look not nearly as impressive as they were earlier in the season.  The Missouri win is probably their best win so far.  With games left @Minn, UCLA, MSU, @Wisc, Duke (N), Iowa, @Mich, & Purdue, I could see them dropping at least four of those games and finishing 19-12.  Might get a little dicey at that point.

Their computer numbers are still pretty good.

I think they'll be ok, but at some point you have to actually do it.  They are 5/6 of the way through the easiest portion of their schedule (Maryland, Northwestern, @Nebraska, OSU, @Rutgers, @Minnesota) and they need a win just to go .500 in it.  After that its UCLA, MSU, @Wisconsin, neutral vs. Duke, Iowa, @Michigan, Purdue.  Even if they handle business at home, plus a road win at Minnesota, that ends them at 20-11 overall and 12-8 in the conference.  That should be fine, but some 1 seed is going to be pissed to see Illinois-Gonzaga playing in the 8-9 game in their region

[LetsGoPeay]

In the next couple of days, there should be an announcement about Woodson "retiring/resigning" effective at the end of the season. I know the rest of the Big Ten will miss him.