2025-2026 B1G Basketball Thread

[medinabuckeye1]

More on Ohio State's unusual lack of variability:
Per the NCAA, Ohio State is:

• 1-7 in Quad 1
• 4-1 in Quad 2
• 5-0 in Quad 3
• 6-0 in Quad 4

They are THISCLOSE to being 0-8 in Quad 1 and 5-0 in Quad 2, allow me to explain:

Ohio State's lonely Quad 1 win is their 86-82 win in Evanston back on December 6.  That is BARELY a Quad 1 win in two ways:

• It was a close game so Ohio State could easily have lost and
• Northwestern is currently #73 and road games against the top-75 are Quad 1 so if NU drops more than a couple spots that ceases to be a Quad 1 win it has been in-and-out of Quad 1 status.  

Ohio State's Quad 2 loss is the game that I'm sure Diebler would most like to have back.  Ohio State led Pitt for most of the second half and after Pitt tied it up the Buckeyes took a 66-64 lead on a putback of a missed shot with just 00:03 on the clock.  Pittsburgh made a 'hail mary' half-court shot at the buzzer to win 67-66.  Pittsburgh is #125 and road games against 76-135 are Quad 2.  

Ohio State's remaining games are almost all Quad 1 and it feels like they are going to need to win at least one of those Quad 1 games but maybe not, remaining games:

• 2/14 vs Virginia (Neutral in Nashville) - UVA is #18 and 1-50 neutral site are Quad 1
• 2/17 vs Wisconsin - UW is #37 and 31-75 at home are Quad 2
• 2/22 at Michigan State - MSU is #11 and 1-75 on the road are Quad 1
• 2/25 at Iowa - Iowa is #26 and 1-75 on the road are Quad 1
• 3/1 vs Purdue - PU is #10 and 1-30 at home are Quad 1
• 3/4 at Penn State - PSU is #117 and 76-135 on the road are Quad 2
• 3/7 vs Indiana - IU is #30 and 1-30 at home are Quad 1

So Ohio State has five Quad 1 and two Quad 2 games remaining.  The Wisconsin game could move up to Quad 1 if UW moves up a few spots and the Indiana game could move down to Quad 2 if IU drops a spot.  

They are going to end up being compared to teams that have more good wins but also more bad losses.  I'm not sure how that shakes out.  

[CatsbyAZ]

Ohio State has a good chance to get a quality win tomorrow Vs #15 Virginia. With a record of 21-3 and winners of 5 straight and 10 of their last 11, Virginia looks at risk for an upset. Why? Their 10-2 conference record is built off of the ACC's middle and lower thirds. The Cavaliers have yet to play Duke, Clemson, and already lost at home to North Carolina.

BTW, any reason why Ohio State playing an ACC team in the middle of their conference schedule?

[MaximumSam]

Ohio State has a good chance to get a quality win tomorrow Vs #15 Virginia. With a record of 21-3 and winners of 5 straight and 10 of their last 11, Virginia looks at risk for an upset. Why? Their 10-2 conference record is built off of the ACC's middle and lower thirds. The Cavaliers have yet to play Duke, Clemson, and already lost at home to North Carolina.

BTW, any reason why Ohio State playing an ACC team in the middle of their conference schedule?

Not sure there is any main reason. Michigan plays Duke next Saturday. I guess if you have an open date and people will pay you to play, you make it happen.

[medinabuckeye1]

BTW, any reason why Ohio State playing an ACC team in the middle of their conference schedule?

I guess if you have an open date and people will pay you to play, you make it happen.

Short answer:  $

[bayareabadger]

Not sure there is any main reason. Michigan plays Duke next Saturday. I guess if you have an open date and people will pay you to play, you make it happen.

There’s a company that organizes and manages setting up some of the big nonconference one-off, and I guess they convinced Duke and Illinois, plus some other teams to do it last year. It was successful, so they’ll do it again.

Honestly, I’m here for it.

[847badgerfan]

Fears is such a PoS. I can't believe Izzo has a guy like that.

[bayareabadger]

Badgers go up big early and hold the big lead throughout. 

MSU is so strange to watch on offense. They don't shoot 3s, love long 2s and don't really have a pure post guy. Per usual, they're good at hammering it at the rim, but they ran into some issues there and it was a long evening. 

Reffing was odd in a way I think no one would've been happy with if it was closer. A lot of plays where one side or the other was throwing up their hands. 

At OSU comes up next, and that's the hardest game until the finale. Lot of opportunity in the next five.

[medinabuckeye1]

At OSU comes up next, and that's the hardest game until the finale. Lot of opportunity in the next five.

Unless Ohio State manages to upset Virginia in Nashville tomorrow as @CatsbyAZ thinks is possible, that game is humongous for Ohio State.  The Buckeyes are about to embark on a brutal five-game stretch and, IMHO, they simply have to win at least one of them.  If they lose to UVA tomorrow (5 point dogs) and Wisconsin on Tuesday then they'll have to steal a win in the Breslin Center, steal a win in Carver-Hawkeye, or knock off Purdue.  

The Buckeyes are currently Lunardi's 3rd team out and if they go 0-fer in these five they'll be 18-13/8-10.  At that point even winning the last two (@PSU, vsIU) would only put them at the outskirts of the bubble and they'd likely still need two or three wins in Chicago.