2024-2025 B1G Basketball Thread

[bayareabadger]

I also noticed that our league got the most benefit from upsets as our two #4 seeds are both playing #12 seeds this weekend.

Also, did all of our teams advance? B1G! B1G! B1G!

It’s the first time a league has ever gone 8-0 or better.

[bayareabadger]

Real worried about BYU. Offense can go, and UW is going to need one of those big shooting games. 

[MrNubbz]

Let's Go Spartans

[Brutus Buckeye]

It’s the first time a league has ever gone 8-0 or better.

At the beginning of the tourney I somehow looked at the scores wrong, and thought that McNeese had upset Purdue. I thought, "Oh man, Bwarbs is gonna be like...


"

[betarhoalphadelta]

At the beginning of the tourney I somehow looked at the scores wrong, and thought that McNeese had upset Purdue. I thought, "Oh man, Bwarbs is gonna be like...


"

I have lost the capacity for surprise, my friend. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Unfortunately I'm going to miss the Purdue - McNeese game. My BIL and his family are moving here from Texas, as he got a job with a local fire department. And they picked THIS morning for his graduation ceremony from the fire academy. How inconsiderate. 

[CatsbyAZ]

I think everyone except Kansas has figured out the portal

Glad someone brought up Kansas, b/c I want to make a comparison to Alabama football. Like Alabama football, it was heavily alleged for years that Kansas had found unofficial ways to pay their roster.

Then comes the NIL and the playing field - or the “paying field” - is leveled. Suddenly Saban retires, even admitting his disappointment with his roster so openly shopping themselves in the offseason to other programs who before the NIL had minimal systems of paying what it was assumed Alabama was paying.

Headlining Kansas’ three year decline are mistakes made in the transfer portal. Hunter Dickinson might be the most disappointing portal addition ever. However, their abrupt decline also coincides with the opening of the NIL. Where Kansas’ long-alleged payment scheme is no longer a competitive program building advantage now other schools can openly pay their rosters?

[847badgerfan]

Glad someone brought up Kansas, b/c I want to make a comparison to Alabama football. Like Alabama football, it was heavily alleged for years that Kansas had found unofficial ways to pay their roster.

Then comes the NIL and the playing field - or the “paying field” - is leveled. Suddenly Saban retires, even admitting his disappointment with his roster so openly shopping themselves in the offseason to other programs who before the NIL had minimal systems of paying what it was assumed Alabama was paying.

Headlining Kansas’ three year decline are mistakes made in the transfer portal. Hunter Dickinson might be the most disappointing portal addition ever. However, their abrupt decline also coincides with the opening of the NIL. Where Kansas’ long-alleged payment scheme is no longer a competitive program building advantage now other schools can openly pay their rosters?

AJ Storr would like a word.

[bayareabadger]

AJ Storr would like a word.

Yeah. Even if I think Dickinson is kind of a shithead and didn’t deliver glory to Kansas, he still at least produced at a high level. Lotta transfer guys can’t say that.

[847badgerfan]

Had Storr stayed in Madison, he might have had a small shot at the NBA.

Now he has zero chance.

Hope he invested his NIL wisely...

[bayareabadger]

Had Storr stayed in Madison, he might have had a small shot at the NBA.

Now he has zero chance.

Hope he invested his NIL wisely...

OTOH, thank god he left. Big upgrade there.

[847badgerfan]

I'm certainly not complaining.

[OrangeAfroMan]

Glad someone brought up Kansas, b/c I want to make a comparison to Alabama football. Like Alabama football, it was heavily alleged for years that Kansas had found unofficial ways to pay their roster.

Then comes the NIL and the playing field - or the “paying field” - is leveled. Suddenly Saban retires, even admitting his disappointment with his roster so openly shopping themselves in the offseason to other programs who before the NIL had minimal systems of paying what it was assumed Alabama was paying.

Headlining Kansas’ three year decline are mistakes made in the transfer portal. Hunter Dickinson might be the most disappointing portal addition ever. However, their abrupt decline also coincides with the opening of the NIL. Where Kansas’ long-alleged payment scheme is no longer a competitive program building advantage now other schools can openly pay their rosters?

But also, programs can't stay on top forever.  This is all 100% circumstantial.

[medinabuckeye1]

I think everyone except Kansas has figured out the portal

The above quote from @ELA was in response to my pointing out that the 13+ seeds went 0-16 in the Tournament this year.  

It will be interesting to see going forward if ELA's theory holds up.  If his inference here that it is because of the Transfer Portal then this (not necessarily 0 upsets but close to it and less than before) should be the new normal.  If not, this will just prove to be an outlier year.  

I frankly think that he is right.  The portal but helps the really good teams (1-4 seeds) AND hurts the tall midgets so it works on both sides of the ledger simultaneously.  

For reference 2025 was the first year that no 13+ seeds won a game since 2017.  In between (2018-2023 no 2020) there were 14 teams that won a first round game as a 13+, that averages 2.3 per year.  

The difficulty, I think, in analyzing this is that this is not a lot of data points.  In theory it is 16 games per year as the 16 13+ seeds each play but in practice the average number of wins by 13+ seeds per year has never been much over 2 so really you are only looking at the few close games that realistically could have gone either way.