~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[ELA]

Shut The Door. NCAA is paying college athletes? I just saw pig flying, and Hitler just texted me saying it's getting chilly in the after life.

That's why it's only open to seniors whose playing career is done.

[medinabuckeye1]

Michigan State continued the trend of the top B1G teams barely beating lesser opponents.

The wise guys who set lines predicted the Michigan would win at Northwestern and that Minnesota would beat Nebraska at home. Our tier system got it right, predicting the Wildcats and Cornhuskers to win! Go us!

[ELA]

Apparently the committee is changing how they are treating RPI now.

Instead of record vs. Top 50, records vs. Top 100, etc.., they are breaking into quadrants and looking at your record in each quadrant...

Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Road 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Road 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Road 136-240
Quadrant 4: Home 160+, Neutral 201+, Road 241+

[betarhoalphadelta]

Apparently the committee is changing how they are treating RPI now.

Instead of record vs. Top 50, records vs. Top 100, etc.., they are breaking into quadrants and looking at your record in each quadrant...

Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Road 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Road 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Road 136-240
Quadrant 4: Home 160+, Neutral 201+, Road 241+

I think that's smart. HFA [as we've discussed here] is huge in NCAABB, so it makes perfect sense to treat it as such.

[medinabuckeye1]

I think that's smart. HFA [as we've discussed here] is huge in NCAABB, so it makes perfect sense to treat it as such.

I like it too.  It is a little complicated to follow because the standings sites do not seem to have caught up to it yet so they aren't showing records this way but if you spend a little time at it, you can figure it out.  

[medinabuckeye1]

Gameday for the B1G game of the year is here!  

As a Buckeye fan I'm obviously hoping for the upset and I'm pretty sure I'm joined by all the Spartan fans.  If Purdue wins tonight they are almost assured of at least a share of the B1G title.  Even dropping to "only" a share would take a very unlikely series of events.  If the Buckeyes win the B1G title race suddenly becomes very interesting with the Spartans, Buckeyes, and Boilermakers all very much alive.  

Go Bucks!

[medinabuckeye1]

The B1G's "other" game today is pretty big as well.  Maryland is 5-7/16-9 and on the bubble (next four out according to Lunardi).  Unfortunately for the Terps, Bucknell lost at Lehigh the other day which snapped Bucknell's 10 game winning streak and dropped them out of the top 100 in the RPI.  That further diminished Maryland's already critical shortage of quality wins.  They have a home win over #35 Butler back on November 15 and not much else.  

Right now Maryland has two wins over RPI top-100 teams but if they beat Penn State tonight that will probably drop to only one because the Terps' second RPI-100 win was over #97 Penn State at home on January 2.  I'm assuming that a home loss to the Terps would drop the Nittany Lions out of the top-100.  That sucks for Maryland but it is obviously better than the alternative.  

Maryland's season is the epitome of the "what could have been" season.  Only two of their nine losses were by double digits.  The other seven were:

• By 2 points to #48 St. Bonaventure on a neutral court.  
• By 2 points to #39 Cuse on the road.  
• By 5 points to #9 Purdue at home.  
• By 1 point to #38 Michigan on the road.  
• By 6 points to #20 Michigan State at home.  
• By 8 points to #9 Purdue on the road.  
• By 3 points to #106 Indiana on the road.  

If they had won the four single-possession games they would be a near lock right now.  If they had won half of them they would be in decent shape.  Instead they are facing near elimination every night.  

Penn State is a little stronger in quality wins with a road win over #21 Ohio State and home wins over #53 Nebraska and #83 Northwestern but they also have two dreadful home losses (to #124 Minnesota and #157 Wisconsin).  With an RPI of 97 the Nittany Lions are, at best, a fringe bubble team, but they will have chances to improve their RPI.  A win over Maryland would obviously help.  On Sunday the Nittany Lions travel to Illinois and a win there would set up a huge week of vstOSU and @Purdue.  I do not think that the Nittany Lions can pull it off, but finishing 12-6 and on a seven game winning streak would put them firmly on the bubble.  They could probably even make the tournament with a loss at Purdue, an 11-7 final record, and a couple of quality wins in the BTT at MSG in NYC.  

Both teams are rapidly running out of time.  The loser tonight will be awfully close to the "need to win BTT" category if they aren't in it.  

[medinabuckeye1]

If you want to know what is going on with B1G bubble teams, watch Maryland.  They have six games left.  One is against 2-11 Rutgers, the other five are against:

• 9-4 Nebraska
• 8-5 Michigan
• 6-6 Penn State
• 6-6 Northwestern (2x)

[mcwterps1]

A big write up about Maryland that is meaningless. 

They aren't making the tournament. 

No matter how you slice it.

Any team missing the front court as much as Maryland is, isn't winning many games  

[TyphonInc]

Really entertaining 1st half.
I'd say Haas is playing better than Bates-Diop. Buckeyes fortunate to only be down 2.

[TyphonInc]

Haas just literally took Tate out of the game. Slammed into him from behind at the foul line, hit him so hard he flew, and slide all the way into camera men. With Tate "knocked out" Purdue executed the 5 on 4 perfectly for an uncontested 3. 

And the ref watched the hole thing, whistle swallowed.

[MaximumSam]

BUCKEYES

[TyphonInc]

O M Goodness!

[betarhoalphadelta]

Grr. Now Purdue needs a win on the road against MSU