2025-2026 B1G Basketball Thread

[MaximumSam]

Man it's getting salty up in here.  I had no idea anyone cared enough about basketball to argue this passionately...

Just wait until you see my 9000 word post on how Iowa has disappointed in the tournament.

[medinabuckeye1]

13-16 seeds played teams that legitimately deserved to be in.  Nobody argued otherwise

Yep and Iowa which as a .500 B1G team is literally the epitome of a "mediocre team from a power conference" has not one but two wins over #1-4 seeds.  That is two more than all of the "winners" from crappy leagues combined.  

[847badgerfan]

Iowa has definitely disappointed in this tournament.

They have disappointed Clemson fans, Florida fans and Nebraska fans.

I'm disappointed in Wisconsin, given that they beat all of the B1G teams still standing.

[ELA]

Again, they use resume metrics to pick the field, and predictive to seed.

Miami wasn't even the last team in, they were the third to last in.  Then they moved down when they used the predictive metrics to seed them.

Bringing up KenPom and any of those other predictive metrics is pointless in bringing up the team's merits of getting in.  If Miami not only got in, but was a 10 seed or something, then you would have a point.  As it is, you don't.  Miami was ranked #37 in the committee's resume based ranking.  Every team ranked in the top 46 got in, except for #44 Auburn, who ranked ahead of Texas and SMU.  And the committee said Texas and SMU were the last teams in.

My guess is it was easy for them to ignore one spot of WAB ranking difference to put in a Texas team that finished 2 games above them in the SEC.  The question here is how the hell did SMU get in

[grillrat]

Second, I hate the message that was sent here.  Four of Auburn's losses were to:

• #1 Seed Arizona - in the E8. 
• #1 Seed Michigan - in the S16, favored for the E8 tonight. 
• #2 Seed Purdue - in the E8. 
• #2 Seed Houston - made the S16. 

I am really trying to avoid getting back into this fight...
...but just as a quick reminder three of those losses were not just losses.  They were SLAUGHTERS.  Auburn didn't even belong on the floor with Arizona, Michigan, and Purdue.  I give them full credit for scheduling tough, but the margin of defeat there was pretty much just as bad as what the score would have been if Miami had played in those games instead (sure, that's conjecture, but probably not by much).

[CatsbyAZ]

I'm just glad Purdue got out of it with a win, and without injury.

Guessing you stuck around to see who Saturday's opponent might be?

Arkansas should've been a tougher out for Arizona. The Razorbacks have the nation's leading scorer and three experienced seniors. But despite a tall and physical roster, Arkansas didn't bring any defense last night, giving up over 100 points for a 109-88 loss. This after Arkansas gave up 88 Vs High Point and 78 Vs Hawaii in their previous Tournament games.

It's clear that Arizona's coaching staff studied both games and instructed their players to attack, attack, attack! And the points would get racked up even if other facets of the game weren't going well. But Arizona controlled Arkansas from the tip off, which was helped by stifling Acuff to start the game.

Did not get to see Purdue's win over Texas because I was working late, but I'm nervous as anything for tomorrow's game!

[Wildcat4E]

Guessing you stuck around to see who Saturday's opponent might be?

Arkansas should've been a tougher out for Arizona. The Razorbacks have the nation's leading scorer and three experienced seniors. But despite a tall and physical roster, Arkansas didn't bring any defense last night, giving up over 100 points for a 109-88 loss. This after Arkansas gave up 88 Vs High Point and 78 Vs Hawaii in their previous Tournament games.

It's clear that Arizona's coaching staff studied both games and instructed their players to attack, attack, attack! And the points would get racked up even if other facets of the game weren't going well. But Arizona controlled Arkansas from the tip off, which was helped by stifling Acuff to start the game.

Did not get to see Purdue's win over Texas because I was working late, but I'm nervous as anything for tomorrow's game!

Go Cats!

This conference loyalty thing is weird.  But I'm a good soldier...in what other scenario would a guy be rooting against a fellow native Kansan and K-State grad in Brad Underwood and for Kelvin Sampson & Houston?  

But I sure didn't cry.

I just did (minimal) research on conferences' .500 teams and dance invites.  That's the real reason to be conference-centric in rooting interests, in addition to the seeding for future tournaments.  The XII got 3 of the 4 teams that were supposed to make it to the Sweet 16 there, but Kansas was actually an underdog to St. Johns in that 4/5 match.

[grillrat]

Saw that one of the Arkansas players got ejected for this:

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/48318532

Meanwhile in the Purdue game, this was just a flagrant one:

https://twitter.com/i/status/2037317544567095609

(edit) There was also a point late in the game where Smith was driving for a lay-up and the Texas player slams his arm across Smith's head making him clutch his head as he stumbles out of bounds into a cameraman.....common foul.

Just a little salty because I've been seeing a lot of "the refs were clearly one sided against Texas" articles and they are blatantly ignoring the calls they benefitted from.

[utee94]

Saw that one of the Arkansas players got ejected for this:

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/48318532

Meanwhile in the Purdue game, this was just a flagrant one:

https://twitter.com/i/status/2037317544567095609

Can't find a video of it, but there was also a point late in the game where Smith was driving for a lay-up and the Texas player slams his arm across Smith's head making him clutch his head as he stumbles out of bounds into a cameraman.....no call.

Just a little salty because I've been seeing a lot of "the refs were clearly one sided against Texas" articles and they are blatantly ignoring the calls they benefitted from.

Gimme a break.  Nobody HERE is making such comments so why would you bring that to this forum?

I haven't seen any such commentary because I haven't read anything about the game, but I watched it live and your guys were hooking, chopping and hacking all night long with no calls.  The refs swallowed their whistles for the most part and let both teams play.  So take your weak-ass biased bullshit somewhere else.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[utee94]

Here's one example if you need to see it again.  Seems like a pretty important play with no call...


https://twitter.com/iam_johnw/status/2037342412398272967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2037342412398272967%7Ctwgr%5E89c4d7667c22fad495fb05a248a18a652b80400e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthespun.com%2Fcollege-basketball%2Fncaa-tournament-refs-accused-of-rigging-purdue-vs-texas

[grillrat]

Oh, I will absolutely concede that there were a ton of missed calls against Purdue.  And I am not including you (Utee) in my gripe.  But I have seen three articles today from the Texas sites that talk about how they were robbed in that game due to "one sided reffing".  And I really regret reading the Reddit game thread.

My post was honestly more to point out that the Razorback player got a raw deal for getting ejected for something that would have been considered a common foul or no-call in that Purdue / Texas game.

[utee94]

Oh, I will absolutely concede that there were a ton of missed calls against Purdue.  And I am not including you (Utee) in my gripe.  But I have seen three articles today from the Texas sites that talk about how they were robbed in that game due to "one sided reffing".  And I really regret reading the Reddit game thread.

My post was honestly more to point out that the Razorback player got a raw deal for getting ejected for something that would have been considered a common foul or no-call in that Purdue / Texas game.

That's cool.  I didn't watch the Arkansas game, or any other games, so can't really comment.  The refs in our game definitely let both teams play very physical.

I guess my advice to you would be-- don't read Longhorn sites' commentary about the game.   Y'all won, there's really nothing else that matters.

[betarhoalphadelta]

With those four losses Auburn was 17-16 on Selection Sunday.  Anyone looking at this honestly will admit that if they had replaced the four great opponents listed above with four of the baby seals that Miami clubbed they'd have been 21-12 on Selection Sunday and they'd have gotten a bid.  That sends a message loud and clear to avoid tough games OOC because you will not be forgiven for losing even if the losses are to extremely good teams. 

Eh. I think if you're just barely good enough to SQUEAK into the tournament, you've got bigger problems with your team that year than who you scheduled OOC. If you base your OOC scheduling on the difference between being last four in and first four out... Well... Maybe you've got your priorities messed up. 

On the other hand, I think that Purdue quite possibly moved up a seed line based on their OOC. While they finished strong in the BTT, by various metrics they should have been a 3. They were on the 2 line ahead of MSU and Illinois, who had similar resumes, but had H2H wins over Purdue, including MSU winning in Mackey. 

In general, I'm with you. I would have left Miami out, and I believe including them is just a feel good story / charity bid. But I don't consider this a hill to die on, because I don't care who gets the last 11 seed. I don't think it's going to be as impactful to OOC scheduling as you do. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Guessing you stuck around to see who Saturday's opponent might be?

I was already time-shifted on the Purdue game because my boss scheduled a fairly important meeting for 4:30-5 PM yesterday and I absolutely had to attend. And then after the Purdue game was over, my wife and I made dinner. 

I caught bits and pieces of the AZ/AR game but it was more like occasionally looking at the score whenever I was near the door of the kitchen. And then when we finished dinner AZ was up big so we decided to watch something else. 

So I've done no advance scouting of the Cats. Hopefully Coach Painter isn't counting on me to send him my notes