~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[bayareabadger]

Happ not playing any waiting game, said he's testing the NBA waters but if he doesn't get a 1st round grade, he's coming back.  I can't see him being a first round pick, he's not what NBA GMs are infatuated with.  That said, I could see him having a long career in the right spot.  He could be a good fit in a rotation at the end of the first round on a contender that isn't necessarily looking for the huge upside that he doesn't provide.  I don't know what the draft looks like, but I can't see a rebuilding team taking him really at any point.

He also said there's not a chance he seeks a grad transfer.  I know those rumors had been floated, not sure how reputably.

There was a lot floating around, so I'm guessing he just wanted everything out there. 
I don't really think he'll play in the league. He's a below-the-rim post scorer who can't shoot. As a role player, he doesn't really have those one or two skills to hang his hat on. His passing is plus for the position, but the inability to space or leap as a rim runner is an issue. It's good he goes through it, as he's been in school four years, but I doubt he goes. He'll make good money overseas for a long time if he wants to. 

[ELA]

Radford, wow.  Love this week.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Well, with the experience returning and the way this Purdue team played earlier in the season, they've now disappointed on 2 of 3 season goals. No regular seasons or BTT championship.

Without a final four, this season is a big time failure. 

[MichiFan87]

Hell of a week for Michigan.... I still can't believe they repeated what they did last year, winning 4 games in 4 days, albeit as a 5 seed instead of an 8 this time (and no plane crash, of course). The one upside of the DC and NYC tourneys is that Michigan had a great turnout in both places compared to other fan bases.

This should clinch a 4 seed and a trip to Detroit if the tournament committee doesn't screw them over. Even if the 4/5 seed teams in other power 5 leagues do well in their conference tournaments that should still be the case (eg. Tennessee, Clemson & West Virginia).

Major credit to Teske for playing well today, especially, and also in the Iowa game when Wagner got called for some really dumb fouls. Also, Matthews has finally been playing reasonably well, too. Poole is in a slump, but he's still played good defense. Livers should recover from his ankle injury over the next 10 days presumably. When this team plays well, they're capable of beating anyone, especially this year with the lack of any great teams.....

[TyphonInc]

Ehh, per KenPom, PSU is No. 30, OSU is 16. It's a little weird, but not necessarily a sign of much.

I was looking at the 9-9 record for PSU and calling them average.
Congrats to TTUN on winning the BTT.

[ELA]

This should clinch a 4 seed and a trip to Detroit if the tournament committee doesn't screw them over. Even if the 4/5 seed teams in other power 5 leagues do well in their conference tournaments that should still be the case (eg. Tennessee, Clemson & West Virginia).

4 seed, yes.  Detroit?  They'd have to jump 2 out of 3 of MSU, Purdue and Xavier, or have the committee decide to send Purdue and Xavier to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh as being only marginally farther than Detroit for them

[ELA]

Apparently Mark Smith is transferring from Illinois.  Wonder how much of a difference he would have made if he had stuck with his silent to MSU.  Underwood seems like a good coach, but a big personality.  If that's not your style, I could see it getting old.  Remember he had a very short recruitment.  He was a big time baseball prospect, committed to Missouri, who blew out his arm and had only mid-major basketball offers.  Had a big senior year and got late offers from MSU, Illinois, Louisville and the like.  So between how quick everything happened, and Underwood coming in late, there probably was very little relationship built up there.  He commitment was supposedly 100% about playing close to home.

[ELA]

Palm and Lunardi updated their brackets...

Both have Purdue as a 2 seed; Lunardi has them in Detroit, Palm has them in Nashville

Lunardi has MSU as a 3 seed in Nashville; Palm as a 2 seed in Detroit

Lunardi has UM as a 3 seed in Wichita, Palm has them as a 4 in San Diego

Both have OSU as a 5 seed

Lunardi has PSU as #6 out, Nebraska as #8 out; Palm only does a first 4 out, and has neither

[Entropy]

UNL is not going... they played like they wanted a couple more home games, and that is what they'll get in the NIT.

IMO, Purdue is not a #2 seed.   They're not the same team as a month ago.    Something is slightly off with them.. perhaps some unknown injuries?  Maybe teams figured them out?   I guess I'm still wondering why everyone has them so high when they've seem to have peaked a month ago...

[NickSmith4Three]

Apparently Mark Smith is transferring from Illinois.  Wonder how much of a difference he would have made if he had stuck with his silent to MSU.  Underwood seems like a good coach, but a big personality.  If that's not your style, I could see it getting old.  Remember he had a very short recruitment.  He was a big time baseball prospect, committed to Missouri, who blew out his arm and had only mid-major basketball offers.  Had a big senior year and got late offers from MSU, Illinois, Louisville and the like.  So between how quick everything happened, and Underwood coming in late, there probably was very little relationship built up there.  He commitment was supposedly 100% about playing close to home.

I think Illinois will be seeing a handful of transfers today or this week.  If Mark Smith wants to be a PG, it is probably not going to happen at Illinois.  John Groce and Underwood are clearly different types of guys with different coaching styles.  If Mark Smith isn't a fit with that style, best of luck to him somewhere else.  He was a liability on defense and lacked confidence in his offense.

[grillrat]

UNL is not going... they played like they wanted a couple more home games, and that is what they'll get in the NIT.

IMO, Purdue is not a #2 seed.   They're not the same team as a month ago.    Something is slightly off with them.. perhaps some unknown injuries?  Maybe teams figured them out?   I guess I'm still wondering why everyone has them so high when they've seem to have peaked a month ago...

A)  They've had 4 losses, but three of those were to top 15 teams, so I'm not too worried.  The fourth was to a decent Wisconsin team that gave MSU everything they could handle.

B)  People have figured out that the way to beat Purdue is to let Issac Haas have all the points he wants, and basically defend the three point line again Vince Edwards, Carsen Edwards, and Dakota Mathias.  PJ Thompson is not a scoring threat right now.

C)  Vince Edwards admitted after the Rutgers win that he is still not 100%.  His ankle is still a little stiff and he does not have the same explosion right now that he had mid-season.  It's supposedly affected his rebounding in particular.  Hopefully the 10 days off will help get him back to 100%.

Strangely enough, losing to Michigan kinda improved their profile.  Michigan is now a top 10 team, and even with the loss, that still added two top 10 regular season wins to Purdue's profile.  They still have 10 Kenpom top 50 wins and no bad losses.  Not a lot of teams can claim that.

[medinabuckeye1]

PSU showing they are a very average team. How did they beat OSU all three times???

Maybe OSU is also very average and played lights against the top 2 teams in the conference?

The conference being weak makes it really tough to tell.  Ohio State finished 15-3 but did so with only three high quality wins:

• @ #10 Purdue by one point
• vs #13 M by nine (albeit after a massive comeback)
• vs #15 MSU by 16

The Buckeye's four B1G losses were:

• @ #13 M by 12
• @ #80 PSU by 23
• vs #80 PSU by one point (neutral)
• vs #80 PSU by three points

How good were the Buckeyes?  Who knows.  Two reasonable arguments:

• Ohio State is a really good team.  Two of the three losses to PSU were truly toss-up games and they just fell on the wrong side but easily could have won.  
• Ohio State is not very good.  The Purdue and Michigan wins both could easily have gone the other way.  If you take those away and maybe the MSU win was just a case of "upsets happen".  

Between unbalanced schedules and a weak B1G the Buckeyes have only played four games against top-62 RPI teams since conference play resumed.  The sample size really isn't big enough to feel very confident.  

[MaximumSam]

I am completely nonplussed about this tourney thing.  A whole week?  Man...My calendar is turned upside down.  I used to be able to watch the B1G title game, then the selection, then go to work on my bracket.  Now I don't know what to do.

[medinabuckeye1]

4 seed, yes.  Detroit?  They'd have to jump 2 out of 3 of MSU, Purdue and Xavier, or have the committee decide to send Purdue and Xavier to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh as being only marginally farther than Detroit for them

I was going to point out the same thing.  As I see it, Michigan has almost no chance at playing their first weekend NCAA games in Detroit.  The simple fact is that there are going to be way too many Eastern teams relative to Eastern first weekend sites.  
Lunardi right now has:
Charlotte:

• #1 UVA
• #2 Dook

Pittsburgh:

• #1 Nova
• #2 Cincinnati

Detroit:

• #1 Xavier
• #2 Purdue

Nashville:

• #2 UNC
• #3 MSU

Lunardi has Michigan as a #3 seed which is fairly likely but it really doesn't matter for location.  Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Detroit are booked by #1 and #2 seeds that Michigan has little or no chance of passing.  IMHO, the best-case-scenario for Michigan is to get sent to Nashville.  Otherwise they will be way out west in Wichita (where Lunardi has them), Dallas, San Diego, or Boise.