2025-2026 B1G Basketball Thread

[bayareabadger]

UW-Iowa was tight most of the way, with Iowa leading most of the first half and into the second, and then the Badgers getting a little lead and having to hold onto it for dear life as the Hawkeyes got it down to 3 a few times. Badgers finally pulled away at around the 6 minute mark of the second half.

Nick Boyd, the aged one, was one rebound from a 27-point triple double. Iowa is now good at defense, so most of the Fran seems to have been washed from the building. 

Tricky pair of road games at Oregon and Washington upcoming for UW. Oregon is bad, but at home. Washington is better than their record, but if the Badgers can take those two and not barf all over themselves vs Maryland, would be looking at a decidedly solid regular season. 

[ELA]

The U8 timeout is apparently Ohio State's kryptonite.

In multiple losses this year that is exactly when things went sideways.

How Thornton still had legs to lead that charge in the last 90 seconds is beyond me.

[medinabuckeye1]

How Thornton still had legs to lead that charge in the last 90 seconds is beyond me.

I think that is exactly why they've had multiple games where they've kinda died right about at the U8.  They have little-to-no bench and when it is "Thornton and the Randos" as @MaximumSam calls it, he just runs out of gas by then.  Mobley being out compounds this problem because he was generally our best scoring option outside of Thornton and without him there isn't much.  

Just looking at ESPN's "Game Flow" thing:

at MSU on 2/22:
The game was either tied or close with Ohio State usually holding a slight lead until a 45-45 tie with just under 10 minutes to play.  Then tOSU more-or-less collapsed in allowing an 18-8 run that give MSU a double-digit lead (their largest of the game) with about 1:30 to go.  

vs UVA on 2/14:
Ohio State got a bucket (Thornton) at about 10:00 to go to take a 59-53 lead then didn't score for five full minutes.  By the time they scored again it was to tie it up at 61 with about 5 minutes to play but tOSU never led again.  

at M on 1/23:
Close game the whole way up through tOSU's last lead at 48-47 with just under 11 to play then tOSU stalled and M took off for a 15 point lead of 71-56 lead with just over 3 minutes to play.  

at UDub on 1/11:
Ohio State was within 1 with just over 7 to play in what had been a close, back-and-forth game to that point but from there the Huskies ran away and assumed their largest lead (8) with 1:50 to go.  

vs Nebraska on 1/5:
Although they trailed for almost the entire game, Ohio State had a three point lead at 53-50 with about 8 and a half minutes to go but only scored 5 points over the next ~6 minutes to fall behind 65-58.  

That is half of Ohio State's losses.