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Big10 0-1 in NCAA

LUC seems like they’re going to hold serve.

Hinkle Fieldhouse looks cool, even on TV

I was 12 years old the first time I walked into Hinkle Fieldhouse in March of 1983 and witnessed New Castle’s Steve Alford score 57 points against Broad Ripple. It’s an amazing place to watch a game.
 
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still hurts.

northwestern-gonzaga-goaltending-play.gif

Will never understand how all three referees missed this.
 
That’s weird. I recall this board being ecstatic when Fitz won his first bowl game. Why would we be so happy if bowl games are meaningless?

Didn't say they were necessarily meaningless, although probably nobody remembers who wins the Podunk Toilet Bowl except the fans of the participating teams. But the best team certainly does not always win in a one-and-done scenario. Was Michigan State a better team than NU this season? Didn't look like it to me, but they won their game with the Cats.

If conferences want to hold tournaments as a qualifier for the NCAA tourney, it's up to them. But it's a terrible way to select a conference champion.
 
If conferences want to hold tournaments as a qualifier for the NCAA tourney, it's up to them. But it's a terrible way to select a conference champion.
The conference tournament champion is not the same as the conference champion. Teams do hang banners for being conference champions even if they don't win the conference tourney.

The conference champion gets an auto-bid to the NIT. (In older days, pre-2005 or so, the NCAA was more likely to extend an at-large bid to the conference champions, at least for the mid-majors. But since then, those invitations have not been forthcoming; they have to make room for the Michigan States instead.)
 
Didn't say they were necessarily meaningless, although probably nobody remembers who wins the Podunk Toilet Bowl except the fans of the participating teams. But the best team certainly does not always win in a one-and-done scenario. Was Michigan State a better team than NU this season? Didn't look like it to me, but they won their game with the Cats.

If conferences want to hold tournaments as a qualifier for the NCAA tourney, it's up to them. But it's a terrible way to select a conference champion.
Collins apologist logic: The Tournament is stupid and we didn’t want to play in it anyway
 
Collins apologist logic: The Tournament is stupid and we didn’t want to play in it anyway

I didn't say the NCAA tourney is stupid. I said conference tournaments are not a great way to select a conference champion, especially if you're in a one-bid league. Obviously you can't use a round-robin schedule to determine a national champion, but the best teams don't always win tournament games. I just saw Abilene Christian take down Texas a couple of minutes ago. I doubt ACU would finish in the first division in the Big 12, but they played a helluva game tonight.

By the way I'm not an apologist for Collins. A 6-13 league record doesn't cut it for me.
 
It’s a damn shame the committee does not want to see beyond the net/rpi/sos/blah blah blah. Because there are always several conference champions that are left out and would be very hard to contend with.

This year I can think of Western KY and Wright State. Not risking other names as I did not see any games though I suspect Belmont, Toledo or SD State could belong on that list
 
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What do you say about what Loyola just did to Illinois?
Good lord.... I think it’s safe to say the BIG is waaay overrated and we are even worse than we thought. Watching even the mid major teams in this tournament is so much better basketball than the crap we played this year.
 
Good lord.... I think it’s safe to say the BIG is waaay overrated and we are even worse than we thought. Watching even the mid major teams in this tournament is so much better basketball than the crap we played this year.
Does that mean, one of those mid major coaches might actually improve us?
 
Rutgers did that in the Clemson game and almost blew that one. Why do so many coaches stop running their offense late in games, especially with a small lead?
 
It appears that Michigan, Iowa, and Maryland are the only B1G clubs left. Wowee.

The right half of the bracket has eight teams represented by eight different conferences...
 
We could be shut out of sweet 16 but probably have 2. Either way very disappointing
 
Oregon must be shooting 80% from 3-point and 65% overall against Iowa first half have almost 60 points
 
A few games might not be a trend, but this is looking like a lot of games where the Big Ten teams are just not as good as advertised.

Iowa had one of the most efficient defenses in the league yet gave up 56 in the first half... that's like 80-90% of a full Big Ten matchup.

Just can't dictate pace.
 
Iowa had one of the most efficient defenses in the league yet gave up 56 in the first half... that's like 80-90% of a full Big Ten matchup.
Iowa absolutely did not have one of the most efficient defenses in the league. They were very clearly bottom of the half even with the improvement they showed in February.
 
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I think some of the B1G coaches clearly need to examine the way they're recruiting and the style they're coaching at the moment. More and more schools are playing uptempo, let if fly ball with the three-point shots while many of the B1G schools continue to grind it out with half-court styles. It's all right when you're playing familiar opponents that you're scouting to death, but not so good when you face the unfamiliar. And if you're going to play half-court you need some sort of offensive system besides give it to your best athlete and let him drive. That's OK when you have superior athletes, not OK when you don't.
 
Oh dear god... the net result of this is going to be reduced bids for the Big Ten next NCAA Tournament with a bubble-sitting NU being left out, isn’t it?
 
Oh dear god... the net result of this is going to be reduced bids for the Big Ten next NCAA Tournament with a bubble-sitting NU being left out, isn’t it?

Next year there should be more nonconference games to give a better idea of where the league actually stands. The rep this year was inflated by the ACC challenge, but it has become apparent the ACC was really weak this season.
 
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Oh dear god... the net result of this is going to be reduced bids for the Big Ten next NCAA Tournament with a bubble-sitting NU being left out, isn’t it?
The committee never looks at conference strength when deciding bids, the problem this year was that the teams in conference played a total of 29 games against the top 7 conferences, with 16 of those games coming against the weak ACC. Last year, for comparison, teams played 60 games against those conferences with 20 coming against the ACC. There just wasn't enough connectedness between the conferences to properly assess strength. The Big Ten has dropped considerably in Kenpom's conference strength just from the past 4 days. After today, there will have been 9 games between B1G teams and top-7 conference teams from the NCAA tourney, so that's already 1/3 of the entire season previously.
 
So the B1G is now left with an M&M? (Michigan and Maryland)

Expect number one seeded Michigan to beat 8 seeded LSU later today. Not betting the farm on Maryland as a number 10 seed pulling it off against No. 2 seed Alabama an hour later.
 
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So the B1G is now left with an M&M? (Michigan and Maryland)

Expect number one seeded Michigan to beat 8 seeded LSU later today. Not betting the farm on Maryland as a number 10 seed pulling it off against No. 2 seed Alabama an hour later.

Don't think I'm betting on the B1G to beat anyone at this point. Michigan without Livers is not the same team. I thought Illinois and Iowa had a legitimate shot for the Elite Eight and Final Four, and they both got handled.
 
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