2025-2026 B1G Basketball Thread

[betarhoalphadelta]

UW beat Purdue in the 2000 Elite 8 to get to MSU.

Ahh, yes... My first and only [and hopefully forever "only"] experience with tear gas. 

[medinabuckeye1]

Ahh, yes... My first and only [and hopefully forever "only"] experience with tear gas.

I want to hear this story.  

FWIW:  Mine was October 30, 1993.  I was a freshman sitting in the student section at Ohio Stadium and Ohio State beat Penn State in the first league match between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions.  This was MUCH more surprising at the time than it is in retrospect.  At the time tOSU was coming off of about 15 years of being down (relatively, by Ohio State standards) and PSU had won a couple fairly recent NCs.  We students thought we should tear down goal posts or somesuch to celebrate and the dumb ones (freshman) were at the front of the pack when the Columbus Police Department deployed their ginormous industrial tear gas sprayers at the crowd.  

[FearlessF]

geez, I don't think they've ever used tear gas in Lincoln for tearing down goal posts or court storming

[bayareabadger]

Ahh, yes... My first and only [and hopefully forever "only"] experience with tear gas.

The good stuff.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I want to hear this story. 

FWIW:  Mine was October 30, 1993.  I was a freshman sitting in the student section at Ohio Stadium and Ohio State beat Penn State in the first league match between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions.  This was MUCH more surprising at the time than it is in retrospect.  At the time tOSU was coming off of about 15 years of being down (relatively, by Ohio State standards) and PSU had won a couple fairly recent NCs.  We students thought we should tear down goal posts or somesuch to celebrate and the dumb ones (freshman) were at the front of the pack when the Columbus Police Department deployed their ginormous industrial tear gas sprayers at the crowd. 

Yeah, after that game there were a bunch of students amassing on the road in front of Cary Quad (one of the dorms) at Purdue... The usual stuff... Couch(es) lit on fire, people milling around. Not actually anything crazy. Myself and two others had walked down there from the fraternity to check it out.

There had been a similar gathering two days before in celebration after the Sweet 16 win. It seems West Lafayette PD had had enough of that.

So we see the riot police lining up down the street at a stop light. I remarked to my friends "well, I think we should head to the periphery of this" and we did. We see them start marching towards the crowd and then hear a couple repeated "thump" sounds of launching a big heavy projectile and see the canisters rolling into the crowd spewing gas. Then... "Uhh, I think it's time to leave" and we did.

So we weren't in the middle of it, and we weren't hit with it MUCH being on the periphery and leaving immediately. But we all got a little whiff here and there as we left, and it was... Unpleasant.

[SFBadger96]

Near annual “confidence” training: see, that gas mask really works. The chem guys loved to fill that little shed up so you *know* the mask and gear were doing there job, until they weren’t.

[ELA]

The artist formerly known as IUPUI taking on Cleveland State in the first conference tourney game of the year. 

[ELA]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/48077130/usc-leading-scorer-chad-baker-mazara-no-longer-program

WTF?

Father Time is undefeated.  Probably wanted to spend time with his kids before they went off to college

[medinabuckeye1]

B1G Bracketology:

Lunardi updated this morning and here is where he projects the B1G teams:

• #1 Michigan
• #2 Michigan State, Illinois
• #3 Nebraska, Purdue
• #7 Wisconsin
• #9 Iowa 
• #10 UCLA
• #11(play-ins) Indiana, Ohio State 

Based on the performance of each seed in the 40 tournaments since expansion to 64 (1885-2025 no 2020) those seeds should accomplish:

• 6.47 first round wins
• 3.73 S16 berths
• 2.29 E8 berths
• 1.09 F4 berths
• 0.56 NCG berths
• 0.28 NCs

As for the bubble watch:

• UCLA has the second-to-last bye
• Ohio State has the third-to-last spot
• Indiana is the last team in
• USC is the fifth team out

Here is where the bubble teams stand and what they have left:

• 20-9/10-8 Iowa hosts Michigan this week and visits Nebraska this weekend.  They aren't listed as a bubble team but their SoS is bad, they've lost four of their last six, and they'll be underdogs in both of their remaining regular season games.  They have 20 wins already and they are #28 in the NET so they *SHOULD* be ok but if they lose out (including losing their BTT opener) they could be in trouble.  That would put them at 20-12/10-10 and add another bad loss (the BTT opener would be against one of the league's bottom-feeders.  That still probably gets them in and obviously any additional win (regular season or BTT) seals the deal but 20-12/10-10 with a weak (by B1G standards) SoS and a disastrous finish (2-7) would be close enough to be interesting.  
• 19-10/11-7 UCLA hosts UNL this week and visits USC this weekend.  IMHO, UCLA needs one more win to get to the tournament.  If they lose these two then also lose their BTT opener they'd finish 11-9/19-13 and that still might be enough but it would be really close.  
• 18-11/10-8 Ohio State visits Penn State this week and hosts Indiana this weekend.  IMHO, tOSU needs two wins or three if they lose both remaining regular season games.  That would get them to either 20-12/12-8, 21-12/11-9, or 21-13/10-10.  I think any of those would get them in.  
• 17-12/8-10 Indiana hosts Minnesota this week and visits Ohio State this weekend.  IMHO, IU needs either two regular season wins, one regular season win and three BTT wins, or to at least make it to the B1GCG.  That would get them to either 19-13/10-10 or 21-14/9-11 or 22-15/8-12.  That last one would be close but probably in with that strong of a finish.  
• 18-11/7-11 USC visits UDub this week and hosts UCLA this weekend.  I think you can just about stick a fork in them.  Their NET ranking is all the way down to #64, they've lost five straight, and their leading scorer suddenly and mysteriously left the program.  They went undefeated OOC which is nice but their OOC schedule was atrocious so it doesn't say much.  IMHO, they need three straight wins to have a good chance.  That (and nothing else) would get them to 21-12/9-11.  

IMHO, the top-6 in the league are locks even by @ELA 's and my literal interpretation of the term "lock".  Ie, they would get in even if they lost this week, lost again this weekend, got the worst possible BTT opponent, and lost their BTT opener.  

Similarly, the bottom-7 (MN, UDub, RU, NU, OR, UMD, PSU) would need to win the BTT.  
SoS rankings per KenPom:

• 5 Michigan
• 9 Purdue
• 10 Illinois
• 16 Maryland
• 18 Michigan State
• 20 Ohio State
• 24 Northwestern
• 25 Oregon
• 28 Wisconsin
• 33 Washington
• 35 USC
• 38 Indiana
• 42 UCLA
• 47 Rutgers
• 48 Penn State
• 57 Minnesota
• 65 Nebraska
• 68 Iowa

I completely understand the weak OOCs played by RU, PSU, MN, and UNL.  Those programs typically don't have good teams so they scheduled easy wins, fine.  Iowa should schedule better.  UCLA and Indiana are inexcusable.  They consider themselves to be blue bloods, ok schedule like it then.  

[ELA]

https://twitter.com/i/status/2028897813912846351

[grillrat]

https://twitter.com/i/status/2028897813912846351

14% of all senior high major scholarship players this season (that played for the same school the entire time) are going to graduate from Purdue.  That's insane

[ELA]

Purdue has 3; MSU has 2; OSU, UM, NW, Nebraska, and Oregon all have 1

[847badgerfan]

UW has one.

Isaac Gard | Men's Basketball | Wisconsin Badgers
Isaac Gard | Men's Basketball | Wisconsin Badgers

[medinabuckeye1]

Some interesting games tonight particularly for teams on the bubble:

Minnesota +6.5 at Indiana 630 BTN:
IMHO, this is a must-win for the Hoosiers.  They are already in a tenuous position and can't afford a bad loss.  Losing at home to Minnesota would definitely be a bad loss.  

Ohio State -7.5 at Penn State 730 Peacock:
Ohio State has a bit more breathing room than Indiana but losing at PSU would still be problematic.  It would be a bad loss that would effectively negate the good win over Purdue.  The Buckeyes could still make the tournament even with a loss here but the path is pretty narrow.  

USC +6.5 at Washington 1030 BTN:
IMHO, USC needs this (and their regular season finale vs UCLA) to have any chance at an at-large bid.  

Maryland +14.5 at Wisconsin 8 FS1:
Wisconsin is safely in and Maryland is hopeless so this is just about seeding for the Badgers.  A strong finish would be nice for the Badgers because they currently project as a #7 seed and the S16 is a lot more attainable if they can get up to a #6 where they aren't playing one of the best teams in the nation in their second game.  

Purdue -11.5 at Northwestern 830 BTN:
Purdue is safely in and Northwestern is hopeless so this is just about seeding for the Boilermakers.  Two weeks ago the Boilermakers were 21-4/11-3 and seriously in the running for a #1 seed.  They've now lost three of four so any talk of a #1 seed is done.  None of the losses were individually all that bad but two (M/MSU) were at home and the third was to a bubble team (tOSU).  Right now they project as a #3 seed.  If their current slump continues they could slide to a #4 but if they finish strong they could get to a #2.  That doesn't make much difference the first weekend but it makes a humongous difference in the S16 and beyond.