~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[847badgerfan]

UW is the best of that group.


On the other thing... B1G Jim needs to go away. I mean, it's great that all of those 673 Rutgers fans showed up tonight.

Really.

Great.

[Brutus Buckeye]

[PSUinNC]

LoL, that is sad but to be fair I don't think attendance for the 12/13 and 11/14 games has ever been very good.  I'll report back Friday evening what the crowd looks like for the tOSU vs NU/PSU and PU vs IU/RU/MN games.  

So, what was the attendance for the RU game?  If any 11/14 had a chance to get butts in the seats, you'd think it was the local squad right?
What an abject failure this entire experiment is going to be.  

[medinabuckeye1]

UW is the best of that group.

It would be seriously epic if Wisconsin somehow won the BTT and managed to extend their NCAA Tournament streak to 20 appearances.  
FWIW, the longest steaks are:

• 28 Kansas 1990-present (will go to 29 this year).  
• 27 North Carolina 1975-2001
• 25 Arizona 1985-2009
• 22 Dook 1996-present (will go to 23 this year).  
• 20 Michigan State 1998-present (will go to 21 this year).  
• 19 Gonzaga 1999-present (will go to 20 this year).  
• (tie) 19 Wisconsin 1999-present (will not go to 20 this year unless Wisconsin goes 4-0 in the BTT with wins over UMD, MSU, UNL/M/IA, and tOSU/PU/IU/PSU/NU/RU.  
• 18 Indiana 1986-2003
• 17 Kentucky 1992-2008
• 15 UCLA 1967-1981

The longest current streaks are:

• 28 Kansas
• 22 Dook
• 20 MSU
• 19 Gonzaga
• (tie) 19 Wisconsin
• 7 VCU
• (tie) 7 Cincinnati
• (tie) 7 UNC
• 6 Iowa State
• 6 (tie) Wichita State

The dropoff in current streaks from 19 for Gonzaga/Wisconsin to just seven for the next best is pretty amazing.  

[Brutus Buckeye]

What are Iowa's chances of pulling off the upset this afternoon, relative to Northwestern's? 

[medinabuckeye1]

What are Iowa's chances of pulling off the upset this afternoon, relative to Northwestern's?

According to the guys in Vegas:

• Iowa is a 10 point dog.  
• Northwestern is a 5.5 point dog. 

That suggests that Northwestern's chances are substantially better.  In the other two games Rutgers and Wisconsin are 8 and 2.5 point dogs respectively.  

[Brutus Buckeye]

[ELA]

The problem is multi-level.

Yes, NYC is a problem for a number of reasons.  You have to fly, hotels are expensive.  At least Chicago only has the 2nd part of that problem, Indy has neither.

But adding the 5th day is going to be a problem no matter what.  Nobody is taking an extra day off to go to those, and no matter where you put it, those fan bases aren't going to worry about it, their teams had terrible years.  They are probably just rooting for the season to be over.  I think they could have played those games on campus last night, and you'd have had problems.

Speaking of that, what about it?  End the conference on Saturday (no Sunday games the final weekend) and play those play in games Monday or Tuesday on campus of the #11 and #12 seeds?  The start the tourney in earnest on Thursday as a 12 team tourney?

[ELA]

Updated composite computer poll as of the end of conference play. 64 rankings (last week in parenthesis)

1.		Virginia (1)
2.		Villanova (2)
3.		Duke (4)
4.		MICHIGAN STATE (3)
5.		PURDUE (5)
6.		Kansas (9)
7.		North Carolina (8)
8.		Cincinnati (6)
9.		Xavier (7)
10.		Auburn (11)
11.		Gonzaga (13)
12.		Texas Tech (10)
13.		Wichita State (12)
14.		West Virginia (14)
15.		Tennessee (15)
16.		OHIO STATE (17)
17.		MICHIGAN (21)
18.		Clemson (16)
19.		Kentucky (25)
20.		TCU (23)
21.		Arizona (18)
22.		Rhode Island (22)
23.		Houston (19)
24.		Butler (-)
25.		Nevada (20)
	-
46.		Penn State (42)
52.		Maryland (50)
53.		Nebraska (59)
76.		Indiana (71)
86.		Wisconsin (93)
97.		Northwestern (86)
107.		Minnesota (103)
108.		Illinois (113)
111.		Iowa (112)
156.		Rutgers (145)

[Entropy]

[mcwterps1]

That's the season in nut shell.

Opponent in the bonus halfway through the second half, turnovers, can't rebound, no depth, just an all-around terrible team.

Amazing how at New York we're supposed to have an advantage yet we can't even get into the bonus in the second half.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

[bayareabadger]

The problem is multi-level.

Yes, NYC is a problem for a number of reasons.  You have to fly, hotels are expensive.  At least Chicago only has the 2nd part of that problem, Indy has neither.

But adding the 5th day is going to be a problem no matter what.  Nobody is taking an extra day off to go to those, and no matter where you put it, those fan bases aren't going to worry about it, their teams had terrible years.  They are probably just rooting for the season to be over.  I think they could have played those games on campus last night, and you'd have had problems.

Speaking of that, what about it?  End the conference on Saturday (no Sunday games the final weekend) and play those play in games Monday or Tuesday on campus of the #11 and #12 seeds?  The start the tourney in earnest on Thursday as a 12 team tourney?

That sounds fine. Some smaller conferences do it, and I don't mind. 

[medinabuckeye1]

Speaking of that, what about it?  End the conference on Saturday (no Sunday games the final weekend) and play those play in games Monday or Tuesday on campus of the #11 and #12 seeds?  The start the tourney in earnest on Thursday as a 12 team tourney?

I am not in favor for three reasons:

• As you mentioned in your post, I'm not sure that attendance for those games would be very good even if the games were on campus.  Would the Minnesota and Iowa fanbases really have been excited enough to even come close to filling up their arenas for games against Rutgers and Illinois?  I doubt it.  
• For the few people who do decide well in advance to go to the tournament and make a vacation out of it, it is nice to be able to see all of the teams and all of the games.  Ie, you can plan the trip well in advance and absolutely know that you will be able to see your team play at least one game.  
• It just feels bush-league.  

[Brutus Buckeye]

Hawkeyes are lookin' alive.