~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[grillrat]

If they finish out 8-0, that puts them at 23-8, with some "meh" wins.  Nothing spectacular, but not bad.  Even if they dropped their first game in the BTT, as long as it was to a team like Michigan, then yeah, I think that would be good enough to get in.

[MaximumSam]

KBD might be out tonight with illness. Flu going around

[bayareabadger]

I know Turgeon is a coach who can’t beat a good team, coaching in a conference that has a thumb on the scale against his team, but for all that, his team is really good on the fouls front. 

21st nationally in getting to the line, second in not fouling folks (and great on bother sides in conference play). Imagine if the refs weren’t against them. 

[medinabuckeye1]

Lunardi now has Ohio State up to a 2-seed and playing opening round games in Pittsburgh.  

The B1G:

• 1-seed Purdue (Detroit)
• 2-seed Michigan State (Detroit)
• 2-seed Ohio State (Pittsburgh)
• 8-seed Michigan (Charlotte)

Maryland is among the "first four out".  No other B1G teams are mentioned.  

[CWSooner]

Will there be a fifth B1G team in the NCAA this year?  

It looks pretty shaky.  PU, MSU, and tOSU are all in barring epic collapses.  Michigan looks pretty good for a bid.  After that it gets questionable:

The next best teams in the B1G standings are UNL and IU with four losses each but the Hoosiers just gave Illinois their first B1G win of the year and also have a couple of really bad OOC losses so I think they need a miracle.  

Next are the five-loss teams:  Maryland, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Penn State.  Maryland is probably the best of the bunch but their next two games are against MSU and Purdue and if they don't win at least one I think they are in trouble.  

All the rest of the league's teams have at least seven league losses and I'm not sure that 11-7 would be good enough so even if they miraculously won out they would still probably have work to do in the BTT at MSG in NYC.  

That brings me back to Nebraska:
They are currrently 6-4/15-8 with eight league games and the BTT to go.  All four league losses were on the road and three of them are not really damaging (@PU, @MSU, @tOSU).  The only questionable league loss is @PSU but that isn't terrible.  Their OOC losses are also pretty good being @St.John's, @Creighton, a neutral site loss to UCF, and a home loss to Kansas.  

We project them to go 6-2 in their last eight B1G games.  Here are those games roughly organized by what I think they are most likely to win to what I think they are least likely to win:

• vs Rutgers 2/10
• vs Iowa 1/27
• vs Indiana 2/20
• vs Penn State 2/25
• at Illinois 2/18
• vs Maryland 2/13
• at Minnesota 2/6
• at Wisconsin 1/29

There isn't a game left where it looks like the Cornhuskers are hopeless.  I have Wisconsin has tougher than Minnesota because the Minnesota game is on nearly a week's rest while the Wisconsin game is on a short turn-around after the home game with Iowa.  

What do they need, and can they get there?  I'm thinking that 12-6 would get them to the bubble discussion but I'm not sure that it gets them in.  It would probably get them a 4-seed in the BTT and a likely game with Michigan on Friday.  That would probably be a must-win for the Cornhuskers mostly because they have a pretty weak B1G SoS and not a lot of quality wins.

Wow!  12-6 in conference games gets a B1G team to the NCAA bubble?
In Big 12 (-2) country, the pundits are saying that an 8-10 conference record might be enough to get a team in, and they are projecting 6 of our 10 teams to make the tournament.
Can that difference be due solely to OOC play?

[FearlessF]

also due to the Big 12 having many teams ranked 

many in the top 10

[MaximumSam]

Buckeyes go down in a valiant effort and crazy shot by Tony Carr

[ELA]

Well that was about as crazy an ending as you'll see

[Brutus Buckeye]

OSU remains neither undefeated in Big Ten play, nor tied for first place atop the Big Ten standings.

[TyphonInc]

I went to the OSU/PSU game. Carr outclassed OSU all of last night; PSU shot lights out (11-14 BtA) and earned the win. Valiant, flu laced, effort by Bates-Diop to score 9 in the last 2 minutes to make this game look overtime worthy. 

[847badgerfan]

also due to the Big 12 having many teams ranked

many in the top 10

That 1 point loss to Kansas...

[FearlessF]

Huskers gave that game away in the last 30 seconds  

[medinabuckeye1]

Lunardi now has Ohio State up to a 2-seed and playing opening round games in Pittsburgh.  

Nevermind.  

[medinabuckeye1]

Well that was about as crazy an ending as you'll see

And heartbreaking for Ohio State fans.  The Buckeyes fought their way back into a tie game with almost no time left and ballgame.  
Ohio State still projects as the 3-seed in the BTT.  Penn State's upset win moves them into a projected tie with Michigan for 4th/5th and the Nittany Lions would win that tie due to not playing in Ann Arbor this year.  Thus PSU would be the 5-seed and Michigan the 6-seed in the BTT at MSG in NYC.