2024-2025 B1G Basketball Thread

[ELA]

It's the Nebraska basketball of comedies

[FearlessF]

yup, greatest sports movie of all time! 

[Brutus Buckeye]

I was surprised to see OSU nab a ten seed in an 18 team league. That is until I read the names of the teams ranked beneath them. Not exactly a who's who of the cbb world.

[medinabuckeye1]

Tomorrow's slate all on peacock:

• #11 Minnesota vs #14 Northwestern, 330
• #10 Ohio State vs #15 Iowa, 6pm
• #12 Rutgers vs #13 USC, 830pm

Tickets are available for the comically low price of just $2 so @MarqHusker or any other residents of the Indianapolis area, if you want to see bad basketball tomorrow afternoon/evening your ticket will literally cost less than either your parking or your meal.  

I don't mean to view this too much through my Ohio State lens, but as I see it the only game of interest is the Ohio State vs Iowa game.  The five teams not named Ohio State playing tomorrow are all either 16-15 (NU, IA, RU) or 15-16 (MN, USC) and they are all ranked between 56-92 in NET, 47-89 in KenPom, and 49-87 BPI so they have little-to-no chance of making the Tournament outside of an extremely unlikely run of five wins in five days to actually win the BTT.  Granted, some of them could probably get in with a 4-1 run to the CG and Northwestern might even sneak in with a 3-1 run to the Weekend.  Regardless, their Tournament chances are on life support and it doesn't look good.  

Ohio State is in a different spot.  The Buckeyes are a game better overall at 17-14 and finished a game better than the next best Wednesday team in the league at 9-11.  They are also 20 spots higher than the next highest Wednesday team in NET, 13 spots higher in KenPom, and 14 spots higher in BPI.  

The consensus prognostication right now has the Buckeyes heading to Dayton for a play-in game.  Thus, Ohio State's Tournament hopes are dependent only upon beating Iowa on Wednesday (and *MAYBE* Illinois on Thursday).  This game by itself has a meaningful impact on Ohio State's Tournament chances.  If they lose they are almost certainly out at 17-15 overall and sub .500 in the league but if they win they can do no worse than 18-15 overall and that probably sneaks them in due to their very good (for a bubble team) computer rankings.  

[medinabuckeye1]

Comparing Bubble teams:
These are Lunardi's 16 Bubble Teams including the last four byes, the last four in, the first four out, and the next four out.  The format is NET Rank among the 16, NET Rank, Team

• 33 Baylor, 17-13
• 36 Ohio State, 17-14
• 37 Utah State, 24-6
• 39 Arkansas, 19-12
• 40 North Carolina, 20-12
• 42 Texas, 17-14
• 44 Xavier, 21-10
• 45 Boise St, 21-9
• 46 Oklahoma, 19-12
• 51 SDSU, 20-8
• 52 Indiana, 19-12
• 54 Villanova, 18-13
• 55 Colorado State, 22-9
• 62 UC Irvine, 26-5
• 66 Dayton, 21-9
• 68 Wake Forest, 21-10

The Buckeyes match Texas with the worst records among the bubble teams but they are propped up by their computer rankings which have them second highest among this group trailing only Baylor.  

One problem for the B1G teams is that a lot of these teams *SHOULD* improve their records in the league tournaments because they play in crap leagues where they will not encounter any quality teams until at least the semi's.  

For the B1G bubble teams, the story is different.  Ohio State starts with Iowa (69 NET) then gets Illinois (15 NET).  Indiana starts with Oregon (29 NET) then gets Michigan State (11 NET) so they each get a winnable but challenging game #1 and then a nationally top-15 opponent.  The back side of that, of course, is that losses will not hurt the B1G bubble teams as badly and wins will help them a LOT.  

[FearlessF]

Tomorrow's slate all on peacock:

• #11 Minnesota vs #14 Northwestern, 330
• #10 Ohio State vs #15 Iowa, 6pm
• #12 Rutgers vs #13 USC, 830pm

well, there's a chance for me since I'll be on the road and sitting at a bar tomorrow evening.
The bar might have Peacock

[MarqHusker]

I often do drop in on a session at the B1G tournament, there's no way it will be tomorrow's session.      usually a hooky (matinee) session with day drinking.   weather is so fantastic this week, I may bail on that altogether and play golf/fish instead.

[FearlessF]

good idea

[ELA]

last time these Huskers asked for a Peacock friendly bar, it had a very different meaning

[Brutus Buckeye]

$2 for all three games? 

On top of that you get a chance to be one of those drunken, obnoxious Northwestern fans for a game. 

How could you resist. 

[ELA]

I very much hope MSU does not draw Northern Colorado as their 2-15 matchup.  That team looks WAY better than where their resume will seed them

[ELA]

I frequently understand when bad decisions are made for money.  But this Big XII tournament court Ido not understand 

[medinabuckeye1]

I often do drop in on a session at the B1G tournament, there's no way it will be tomorrow's session.      usually a hooky (matinee) session with day drinking.  weather is so fantastic this week, I may bail on that altogether and play golf/fish instead.

When I went to the BTT in Chicago back in 2015 I had tickets (because I bought the all session pass) and I was literally in town for the BTT and I still skipped the Wednesday night games.  We went out and met nuwildcat (RIP Marcel) instead.  

[ELA]

Not going to do a full bracket, but trying to update seeds on a daily basis.  Green means moved up, red means moved down

NCAA

• 1 - Auburn, Houston, Duke, Florida
• 2 - Alabama, Tennessee, MICHIGAN STATE, Texas Tech
• 3 - St. John's, Iowa State, Texas A&M, Kentucky
• 4 - Clemson, MARYLAND, WISCONSIN, Louisville
• 5 - PURDUE, BYU, Ole Miss, OREGON
• 6 - Marquette, Arizona, Kansas, MICHIGAN
• 7 - Saint Mary's, UCLA, Memphis, ILLINOIS
• 8 - Missouri, Gonzaga, Creighton, Connecticut
• 9 - Mississippi State, New Mexico, Georgia, Baylor
• 10 - Vanderbilt, Xavier, Oklahoma, West Virginia
• 11 - North Carolina, Drake, VCU, Utah State/Arkansas
• 12 - San Diego State/OHIO STATE, UC San Diego, McNeese, Liberty
• 13 - High Point, Yale, Akron, Grand Canyon
• 14 - UNC Wilmington, Troy, Northern Colorado, Lipscomb
• 15 - Robert Morris, Norfolk State, Bryant, Omaha
• 16 - Wofford, Merrimack, Southern/St. Francis, American/SIU Edwardsville

Troy replaced Arkansas State as Sun Belt auto-bid
St. Francis replaced Central Connecticut as NEC auto-bid

NIT

• 1 - INDIANA, SMU, Wake Forest, Texas
• 2 - Colorado State, Boise State, Cincinnati, UC Irvine
• 3 - San Francisco, NEBRASKA, Villanova, Dayton
• 4 - North Texas, George Mason, NORTHWESTERN, Central Florida
• 5 - Kansas State, IOWA, Pittsburgh, PENN STATE
• 6 - TCU, Stanford, RUTGERS, Utah
• 7 - Utah Valley, Chattanooga, South Alabama, Towson
• 8 - Central Connecticut, Quinnipiac, SE Missouri State, Bucknell

Central Connecticut dropped from NCAA to NIT, and created a new auto-bid, which knocked out Arizona State