Was the toughest KENPROM schedule, not just this year. But in HISTORY. (That history goes back to something like 2001/2. Again, not just a tough schedule but the hardest schedule in the history of KENPROM
Anyone see the stat that Northwestern's schedule this year
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I had to rewind my DVR and listen again. Yup, single hardest schedule in NCAA in the last 20 years. The BIG needs to break through and finally win a championship and then we will be in ACC territory in terms of respect.
And the stretch of 13 losses had something like 11 games against ranked opponents. This is likely the toughest stretch of games any team has ever faced. It was not just a tough schedule but the worst schedule ever. We don't play NEB for the one time we play them till the very last game of regular season
Doesn’t excuse all The blowouts. And college bball level of play has dropped dramatically in the past 20 years.
I watched a good chunk of the game part night and that game was horrid. The fact that minny is a bubble team says all need to know about the level of play in college.
Yes but we won and came back from a large deficit. That says a lot about the heart of the team
It’s from the new Barbie high school collection
I guess you like shitty basketball. Minny shot 37% including 4/27 from three. Yikes.
NU shot a blistering 42% with 19 TOs. Must have been the great defense.
I think the patently false remark is about your patently false statement that the college basketball level of play has dropped dramatically in the past 20 years. Sounds like a boomer saying "back in my day." Hard for me to believe that the level is lower when the population base/talent pool has increased and so have investments in training facilities, nutrition, etc. over that same time.
I would suggest that a good portion of Minny's struggles had to do with our D. The BIG is rugged top to bottom Again, the NU schedule is the single hardest schedule in at least the last 20 years. That has a ton to do with our struggles. And don't forget the cumulative effect. I am not saying we have a great team but it would be hard for any team with the schedule we have had to face.
Minny managed to lose to Nebraska yesterday. They are not very good without 2 starters.
Fitz, you raise an interesting point. Minnesota beat 3 of the top teams in the Big Ten, Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa, when they were at full strength.
With 2 of their starters out, albeit not their best player, Carr, they lose to Nebraska.
Does that imply that we are one or two players away from being really competitive in the Big Ten?
Yes, one or two good players away might as well be a million miles at times, but I like all 3 guys coming in next year. Could make for an interesting year next year.
Glad that this year was played without fans. Easier to forget
Not quite a boomer but getting close. And the options of playing professional ball instead of college has absolutely watered down the product (see lamelo ball).
Do you watch the games? If yes, do you watch them on mute? The SOS has been mentioned in every single broadcast since December.
I would suggest that the low point was about 20- years ago. Originally guys all stayed in school and then in mid seventies guys were able to go pro earlier. Then guys out of HS and the one and done. But more recently guys don't go directly out of HS and tend to stay longer. Plus the game has changed a lot as more emphasis on 3 pt shot.
As far as pro game it has become unwatchable
I guess like most things we disagree. The skill level (shooting, dribbling, defending) has never been higher. Someone like durant, with his length and shooting ability, was unimaginable 20 years ago. Same with a talent like lebron.
NBA playoffs are my second favorite parts viewing behind CFB.
You’re going to extrapolate the level of play of college basketball from watching *one* game?
If the level of play has dropped so much, why has the NCAA moved the three point line back not, once, but twice in that time-yet seen virtually no impact on shooting percentage?
Why has there been no impact on shooting percentage despite more difficult shots and teams shooting 16% more threes than they did 20 years ago?
Are teams just playing worse defenses? If so, why are coaches making defenses more sophisticated-20 years ago there were 2 or 3 ways to guard ball screens, now there’s nearly a dozen. Typically teams will now employ multiple ball screen strategies at once depending on who they are set for, and where they are set. The sophistication of the game on both sides is light years ahead of where it was 20 years ago.
Why introduce more complexities if the basics are still effective if you’re good at them?
Finally, 20 years ago many of the really good players skipped college altogether. Are you claiming that college basketball is better because Lebron James played for zero years than it would have been if he played for one? Did Zion Williamson going to Duke for a year make their product worse? Also, how do you use Lamelo Ball as an example when he a) did not ever play in college b) did the exact same thing many of the great talents did 20 years ago?
I haven’t even addressed the changes due to athleticism, skill development, analytics etc.
The physical nature of today's game is off the charts. What would have been fouls 20 or 30 years ago are no calls (even in the women's game). Means you need to have a deeper roster and players at ALL POSITIONS, not just center, have to have the ability to play through contact.
Only the truly elite (or deemed to be elite) went right from HS to NBA before the rule disallowing that was put in place. So almost everyone went to college. One and done was relatively rare (meaning more good players stayed for at least 2 years). As players saw more options to skip college (D league, overseas) they skipped college (like Ball). Some, like Zion went to college.
I’ll admit, I watch less and less college bball but when I do it’s usually not pretty.
Game is more interesting to watch if you’re not caught up in the “back in the day”.
Major reason, for me, being the 30 second shot clock.
Major reason, for me, being the 30 second shot clock.
I’m really not caught up with back in the day and maybe my sample size is too small, but what I’ve seen is not great. And the contrast with the level of play in NBA is just huge. This article is a couple of years old but has some of what I’m getting at.
What’s the Matter With College Basketball? (Published 2016)
It isn’t the low scoring or the quality of play.
Before the 3pt shot went in, the college game really got boring with the bigger teams just feeding the post all day long. Much more wide open and exciting game now. That's why Collins wants to play the way he does. Good players don't want to play the slow down game, but you need really good players, and plenty of them, to play up tempo.
Ya individual players are more skilled and athletic but man does watching iso ball suck! Very few nba teams don’t have an offense built around iso ball because of the talent the top scorers have.I’m really not caught up with back in the day and maybe my sample size is too small, but what I’ve seen is not great. And the contrast with the level of play in NBA is just huge. This article is a couple of years old but has some of what I’m getting at.
What’s the Matter With College Basketball? (Published 2016)
It isn’t the low scoring or the quality of play.www.google.com
This hasn't been true for years. P&R and spot-ups constitute a significant majority of NBA possessions. Half the teams in the league run iso less than 6% of the time, and only one runs iso even 10% of the time. Teams still have a tendency to default to iso in crunch time but that's true in both college and the NBA.
Let's assume that you're correct that the quality of CBB dropped in the last 20 years, why does that even matter? The best players forgoing college affects all teams.
I don't know the methodology, but I'm guessing Ken Pom saying NU this year has the hardest schedule ever is just buoyed by the fact that we played very little non-con games. I think all Big Ten teams will have played their hardest schedule ever, it's just that NU's is the hardest out of them all because we don't get to play us.
In fact, 14 out of the top 16 highest SOS, per KenPom, are B1G teams. Kentucky (#5) and Iowa State (#12) are the exceptions.
During today's broadcast, they said that or D rating was number 32 IN THE COUNTRY out of all D 1 programs (350). They said in the last two games (Minn and MD) we were even better than that with our D efficiency rating as 0.86 ppp. And if over a year that would have us at #1. We were a little down today but long and short, we definitely can hold our own defensively(sp) in the BIG. Where we have had issues was in fouling and on O
The option of playing Pro ball was available 20 years ago. Actually 20 years ago was probably around the low point as I believe that was a period where kids could still go straight out of HS to pros or one and done. Over the last 20 years, we have gotten where top players stay in college longer than they did then. Game is very different now so hard to compare level of play now vs then. Different does not in itself make it better or worse. More athleticism and sometimes less fundabmentals
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