tOfficial B1G basketball thread.

[ericd7633]

All session tickets are they way to go unless you only care about 1 team. I've gone 4 times and always get all session because I love college basketball ( even if Iowa loses early ). Luckily I saw their run to the title in 2001 and to the finals in 02. Lost 1st game the other 2 times but I still saw great games. 350-400 for 13 games is cheap

I love college basketball which is why I only would want to go Thursday & Friday. I would want to watch all the other conferences. lol.

 

[rmilia1]

I love college basketball which is why I only would want to go Thursday & Friday. I would want to watch all the other conferences. lol.

Yeah that was the bad part. Missing all the other title games BUT we had a blast going out all weekend and watching the other games at sports bars with fans of the other teams. Yeah you miss some but the ones you do get to see are better because you're surrounded by avid basketball fans

 

[ericd7633]

The prospects for next year arent very good, no matter who returns. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit and I wouldn't expect guys who have been mediocre to be any less mediocre. It's not like we are adding any instant impact guys either.

Yeah, looks like it may be a year similar to this season, unfortunately. Getting Bates-Diop healthy should be big though. I thought he was the player with the most potential on last years team and this years team, but he simply hasn't shown it, maybe he will next year.

 

[osubuckeye89]

Yeah, looks like it may be a year similar to this season, unfortunately. Getting Bates-Diop healthy should be big though. I thought he was the player with the most potential on last years team and this years team, but he simply hasn't shown it, maybe he will next year.

Not counting on it.

I should mention that our strength and conditioning in the basketball program appears to be awful as well, most of these guys do not look like they've been in a major college program for 2 or 3 years. Where they should be being put through some sort of qualified strength and conditioning.

 

[ericd7633]

Yeah that was the bad part. Missing all the other title games BUT we had a blast going out all weekend and watching the other games at sports bars with fans of the other teams. Yeah you miss some but the ones you do get to see are better because you're surrounded by avid basketball fans

Unless the Gophers were playing on the weekend, it would be really tough for me to miss out on all the Saturday games before selection sunday. but if there ever were a year to take a chance it would be this year, with the way the Gophers are playing and the tournament being in DC.

 

[rmilia1]

Unless the Gophers were playing on the weekend, it would be really tough for me to miss out on all the Saturday games before selection sunday. but if there ever were a year to take a chance it would be this year, with the way the Gophers are playing and the tournament being in DC.

I don't recall being so excited about a Big 10bseason. I just have no clue what's going to happen game to game so that makes every single game important to a different level than usial. Like this week Iowa gets Purdue at home and at NW. I'd think we are going to lose both but I wouldn't be shocked if they won 1 or even both. That's unusual

 

[ericd7633]

Not counting on it.

I should mention that our strength and conditioning in the basketball program appears to be awful as well, most of these guys do not look like they've been in a major college program for 2 or 3 years. Where they should be being put through some sort of qualified strength and conditioning.

Yeah Thompson looked like the only one with any kind of strength. Lynch is a big reason why the Gophers have been as good as we have because he gives us a physical inside presence.

 

[ericd7633]

I don't recall being so excited about a Big 10bseason. I just have no clue what's going to happen game to game so that makes every single game important to a different level than usial. Like this week Iowa gets Purdue at home and at NW. I'd think we are going to lose both but I wouldn't be shocked if they won 1 or even both. That's unusual

I agree the gap between 2 and 12, hell maybe even 13 isn't that big. Like I think Purdue is probably the 2nd best team once it's said and done, but if you put them on the road against a team like PSU, I think they'll struggle to win that game. If the 2nd best team in a league is going to struggle against the 13th team, every other team in between is going to as well. It's really an awesome season. The conference is a little weaker at the top, but much stronger at the bottom than last year especially. I don't think we'll get to selection sunday with 5 ranked teams like we did last year, but as a conference probably put more teams in the NCAAT.

 

[PnkPanther]

What a nice wire to wire win over tOSU. That was much needed with another two game road trip coming up. Need to manage to go 1-1 to stay in the B1G race. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence, but with the way the league has played out so far they stand a chance to win it IMO. I do honestly think the Gophers have performed the best out of any B1G team so far this year. We'll see what happens down the stretch. I predicted 14 wins prior to the season, to be sitting at 15 with 14 regular season games to go and the B1GT is pretty remarkable. Should be ranked for the first time in 4 years tomorrow.

Sheesh. I had us at 16 minimum, but was expecting 18-20

Now, 20-24

 

[rmilia1]

I agree the gap between 2 and 12, hell maybe even 13 isn't that big. Like I think Purdue is probably the 2nd best team once it's said and done, but if you put them on the road against a team like PSU, I think they'll struggle to win that game. If the 2nd best team in a league is going to struggle against the 13th team, every other team in between is going to as well. It's really an awesome season. The conference is a little weaker at the top, but much stronger at the bottom than last year especially. I don't think we'll get to selection sunday with 5 ranked teams like we did last year, but as a conference probably put more teams in the NCAAT.

Yep. For as down as the league is perceived to be we still have 8 teams in the RPI top 50 and 11 in the top 100 ( with 1 of the 3 not being ranked in the Top 100 being Indiana ). That means there will be a bountiful amount of quality wins available with not many bad losses. And because the bottom 3 RPI teams are all in the top 125-130, those teams are really just a win or 2 away from being top 100 themselves. You could legitimately end the year with 13 of the 14 teams being in the top 100

 

[ericd7633]

Sheesh. I had us at 16 minimum, but was expecting 18-20

Now, 20-24

I tend to lean absolute worst case scenario with any Gophers prediction. I was thinking something like 9-4 OOC with losses to FSU, Arkansas and Vandy, and then drop a game to some crap school like we did last year. And then was thinking 5 or 6 wins in B1G play, which would have tripled what we won last year, if we got to 6.

I will say Coffey, Springs and Lynch have been much better/contributed much more than I thought they would. The depth really is great. Even Hurt has contributed some this year, with his timely 3 pointer against NW the other night. It's nice to have options if Mason has on off game, or Murphy does him dumb shit he does occasionally.

Everybody has a pretty clear role this year. We're not asking Konate to play 22 minutes a game(thank god), we replaced King with Coffey, just a huge upgrade, I feel like Springs is much more reliable than Morris was, Ahmad Gilbert's minutes have been cut in half which I think is a good thing and Dupree and Mason have obviously gotten better this off season. Role allocation on this team is so much better, along with a upgrade in talent.

 

[ericd7633]

Yep. For as down as the league is perceived to be we still have 8 teams in the RPI top 50 and 11 in the top 100 ( with 1 of the 3 not being ranked in the Top 100 being Indiana ). That means there will be a bountiful amount of quality wins available with not many bad losses. And because the bottom 3 RPI teams are all in the top 125-130, those teams are really just a win or 2 away from being top 100 themselves. You could legitimately end the year with 13 of the 14 teams being in the top 100

Yeah down at the top, much better at the bottom. Last year SIX teams finished with an RPI above 100 and Minnesota and Rutgers had an RPI above 250. If Rutgers only manages two conference wins their RPI still won't be above 200, and even if they lose out it won't come close to approaching what it was last year. As of now there are only two teams projected to finish with an RPI above 100; Iowa and Rutgers with Iowa barely being over 100 at 125. Which is essentially where PSU finished last year and they finished 10th in the league.

Also, in regards to RPI, the perceived bottom teams played much harder schedules:

Penn State's OOC SoS in 2015/16: 273
2016/17: 42

Nebraska:
2015/16: 287
2016/17: 5

Minnesota(obviously wouldn't be considered a bottom team at the moment, but was prior to the season)
2015/16: 216
2016/17: 12

Northwestern's OOC SoS is significantly better this year as well.

Last year 7 teams finished with an OOC SoS above 200. This year only 2 schools have played an OOC SoS above 200. That's a big reason why the RPI numbers are what they are, the B1G scheduled much more tougher this season.

 

[ericd7633]

Indiana is now 4-6 against top 250 of the RPI. Just let that sink in for a bit. 250. They are in some serious trouble of now even making the NCAAT.

Projected record is now 20-11 with an RPI of 43. That would probably get them in depending on what happened in the B1GT, but they'll be one of the last teams in with that type of record.

 

[rmilia1]

Indiana is now 4-6 against top 250 of the RPI. Just let that sink in for a bit. 250. They are in some serious trouble of now even making the NCAAT.

Projected record is now 20-11 with an RPI of 43. That would probably get them in depending on what happened in the B1GT, but they'll be one of the last teams in with that type of record.

Indiana cannot get stops when they need them. Unless something changes I can't even see them getting to 20 wins

 

[Lions=TeHsUcKs]

Crean's time is done. He is gone.

 

[Great Dayne]

Badgers heads weren't in the game @ Purdue. They were PO'd the game was on the same time as the Packer playoff game.

 

[ericd7633]

Well that was a pretty piss poor half. Onto the PSU game. Gotta win that one

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Well that was a pretty piss poor half. Onto the PSU game. Gotta win that one

Top 25 was fun while it lasted

 

[SDPaddlefish]

Well that was a pretty fucking piss poor half. Onto the PSU game. Gotta win that one

FIFY. Sorry, had to be said after that half.

 

[ericd7633]

Top 25 was fun while it lasted

Honestly was hoping to split the 2 game road trip. PSU is must win now. A 4-2 B1G start would be good considering 4 of the 6 have been on the road.