~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[ELA]

Challenge starts tonight, now spread over 4 days, with the bulk still Tuesday/Wednesday

Full schedule, with my picks

MONDAY
Maryland at Syracuse
Wisconsin at Virginia

TUESDAY
Florida State at Rutgers
Northwestern at Georgia Tech
Louisville at Purdue
Illinois at Wake Forest
Iowa at Virginia Tech

WEDNESDAY
Penn State at NC State
Clemson at Ohio State
Michigan at North Carolina
Miami at Minnesota
Boston College at Nebraska
Duke at Indiana

THURSDAY
Notre Dame at Michigan State

ACC 8-6

In a shocking twist, the ACC's worst team, Pitt, didn't make the cut this year, they seem to be pretty good at that.

[mcwterps1]

Maryland can't beat a zone defense. 

[rolltidefan]

Somehow Minnesota win over Alabama might be the new Big Ten low point

the sporting world was robbed of one of the most interesting game in recent memory due to that tournaments tv scheduling. just awful.

good win, minn.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Purdue drops out of the top 25. Beating Arizona--who was #2 before the week but took two losses to face Purdue in the 7th/8th place game in the Bahamas, losing badly--wasn't enough to keep them in the poll after losing to Tennessee and WKU. 

Based on vote totals, Purdue is sitting at 29 (AP) and 26 (Coaches) after the week. 

With Louisville, Maryland, and Northwestern up this week, it's likely a 3-0 week might put them back into the polls, but I'm sure nothing less will get them there.

[PortlandSpartan]

Was in the house for the MSU win over UNC.  Feels good man.

[mcwterps1]

Oh yeah, great win by Michigan State. Dominant. 

What's with all these late games? 

[NickSmith4Three]

Wake Forest has some pretty bad losses so far this year.  I'm taking the Illini tomorrow.

[ELA]

Oh yeah, great win by Michigan State. Dominant.

What's with all these late games?

The stupidty of staging a one time, premier tournament on the west coast.  You get what you hoped for, MSU-UNC and Duke-Florida championships...and have them play at 8:30 and 10:30 on the east coast on Sunday at the end of a long weekend.

IMO, Maui does it right.  Kick off Feast Week, and wrap it up before football takes over.  Not a fan of these Thursday-Friday-Sunday tournaments.  I think I'd go Tuesday-Wednesday-Friday.

[ELA]

Maryland can't beat a zone defense.

Syracuse, so far, isn't defending up to their normal standards, and people are sleeping on the Terps.  I'd slot them as the 4th best team in the conference behind MSU, Purdue and maybe Minnesota.  Hell, after that Alabama fiasco I'd buy an argument for Maryland in 3rd.

[mcwterps1]

Only if Mr. NBA gets his ass in gear.

Jackson has been very unimpressive, and is pushing/forcing things way too much.

Losing to St. Bonaventure is pretty low, but they run multiple zone looks, and Maryland looked like deers in headlights.

The offense is designed for the players to find match-ups and exploit them in man to man situations.

Drop into a zone, and you throw off the entire offense, and we've shot terribly, and turned the ball over, probably more than any team in the B1G right now.

Fuuuuudge..... Jaime Lucky.  FFS

[mcwterps1]

1 half down, and that's about all you're going to get from Maryland. 

Played Friday and Saturday in Florida, and now in New York. 

I expect a complete meltdown in the second. 

[MichiFan87]

Michigan might have a chance against North Carolina, since they finally thoroughly dominated an inferior team in UC Riverside, while North Carolina played badly against Sparty. We'll see.

I think the Big Ten goes 6-8 overall with tonight's games going as predicted (though I thought Wisconsin - Virginia might be slightly higher-scoring)..... The only road wins I see are Illinois over Wake Forest, Duke over Indiana, and Florida State over Rutgers.

[DevilFroggy]

ASU basketball ranked for the first time since 2009 while uofa is unranked. I don't know what alternate reality I found myself in but I love it.

[ELA]

Michigan might have a chance against North Carolina, since they finally thoroughly dominated an inferior team in UC Riverside, while North Carolina played badly against Sparty. We'll see.

I think the Big Ten goes 6-8 overall with tonight's games going as predicted (though I thought Wisconsin - Virginia might be slightly higher-scoring)..... The only road wins I see are Illinois over Wake Forest, Duke over Indiana, and Florida State over Rutgers.

MSU overwhelmed them inside with depth (which they can do to pretty much anyone this year), and forced UNC to be a 3 point shooting team, and the Heels wound up shooting 1-18 from the perimeter.  If you aren't going to make threes against MSU, you are toast this year, too much inside, but they don't have the shooters I trust to get into that kind of game with any regularity.  Duke shot 40% from 3, and made 9 more FTs.

I'm not sure UM can force UNC outside like that.  Or if they do if UNC will shoot even close to that poorly again.

I think Belein has found something though in taking the ball out of the hands of his struggling point guard duo, and letting Matthews play with the ball in his hands more.  He seems like a natural in that role, making some really good decisions, without sacrificing too much of his own scoring.