Condensed schedules etc leading to many more injuries as well as other problems for the student athletes in dealing with the schedule including having as many as 5 games in 12 days (more like an NBA schedule) . They do not intend to do it again.
BIG finally admits the foolishness of giving up our soul to play in MSG
- Thread starter hdhntr1
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Agree but please stop with the student athlete lie. Especially with the stuff that is now being exposed by Yahoo and the FBI.
Well, in the case of Northwestern at least, they are student athletes and they deserved better. This compacted schedule was ridiculous!
It quite possibly cost us the postseason. I don't know why anybody else thought playing in MSG a week early was a good idea. All the elite conferences play their tourneys the following week; why did the Big Ten want to demote themselves to non-elite status so they could play in a city that is not at all representative of any Big Ten schools? (Does NYC even represent Rutgers?)
Wtf?
We would have won 7 more games if our schedule had been more spread out.... against opponents whose schedule was equally more spread out?
Yes, because we were plagued by injures to our star point guard for all of Big Ten play, and he never got a chance to properly recover with the compressed schedule and he kept reinjuring himself. Not to mention all the other injuries we suffered. It's really obvious during this stretch at the end of the season; even you can see it if you're honest.
I'm glad to hear it as this is something I've ranted about a couple times this season, but just curious where did you see this and from who? I hope it was from the top.
This cou
This could truly be one of the dumbest posts of all time.
If the Big Ten season had been spread out by 3 more days we would have more than doubled our win total and would be going to the postseason?
(If I’m missing the sarcasm, my bad).
This could truly be one of the dumbest posts of all time.
If the Big Ten season had been spread out by 3 more days we would have more than doubled our win total and would be going to the postseason?
(If I’m missing the sarcasm, my bad).
3 days? The Big East Tourney (in MSG) starts on March 7. That's when the Big Ten Tourney would normally start. That's more than 3 days. Your post is automatically dumber because you don't know how to count.
As for 7 games, that's a number you came up with. I don't know how many more we would have won, but we would have won some of them. I've contended that we needed to finish .500 in conference and win at least a game in the BTT to make the NIT. That's 3 more regular-season wins. I think 4 more wins would have clinched it, and beating Rutgers, Wisconsin, Iowa, and (at home) Maryland were all achievable with a healthy Northwestern team.
Now go back under your rock.
Would we have had injuries to MBmac, Law and Ash? Do you recognize that the last several games we only dressed 8. Would Falzone have been able to better recover? Might not have made a 7 game difference but 4-5 would have been pretty big. And 4 would have us at the same conference record as last year.
I heard it a couple times on radio on pre game and I think maybe on BTN as well
Where do you get 3 more days? And we only needed 4 to get to 10-8 same as last year. Teams had to play 2 weekday games several times, sometimes both away which screws with their studying. 3 games in 6-7 days was not unusual. Some times teams had to play 5 games in 12 days on occasion. Sometimes only one day between games. Allstate arena was bad enough but when you add the compressed schedule...
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Tribune article
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...g-ten-basketball-schedule-20180223-story.html
“I appreciate the sacrifices the teams made, the impact it had on our students,” Delany said. “Wasn’t good. Wasn’t healthy. I thought starting (the conference schedule) early was OK, but if you look at our schedules (through the years), we’ve been able to give everybody two-day prep (before games) in 99 percent of the cases.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...g-ten-basketball-schedule-20180223-story.html
“I appreciate the sacrifices the teams made, the impact it had on our students,” Delany said. “Wasn’t good. Wasn’t healthy. I thought starting (the conference schedule) early was OK, but if you look at our schedules (through the years), we’ve been able to give everybody two-day prep (before games) in 99 percent of the cases.
I agree that it was an incredibly dumb scheduling move by the B1G, but it seems like a really huge stretch to say that it is the reason we are where we are in the conference. We just flat out haven't played well and that started before we struggled with injuries. The rest of the league had to deal with the same scheduling issues and were just as likely to have injuries that impacted their season as we were. Everybody played a similar hand and this is our result. Mystic's obsession is grating I know, but suggesting that the compacted schedule impacted us unfairly vs. the rest of the league strikes me as silly homerism with a side of sour grapes.
Blame the coaches. Too many injuries running after loose balls. Now,we got nothing.
Myself also. It was bad enough to try to go to MSG when there is one school that is even close. But when you add in having to play second fiddle and have to change our schedule to accommodate anther conference like some second rate conference? What are we, the Big Sky? And the week layoff may negatively affect the conference's performance in NCAA as well. Throw in injuries screwing wit schedules etc and bad deal all around.
Everyone had to play with the same hand, I agree. But we just don't have the depth to withstand injuries/fatigue. Although every team was affected by the compressed schedule, the schedule likely had a greater impact on teams with a short bench like Northwestern.
While it is true we didn't play as well as we could have, it is also true that we have a much thinner roster than most other teams in the BIG so it affected us disproportionately. Our starting PG, who we all realized we were toast without, was hurt from the Brown game on. Even so, we got to 6-6 with the weaker part of our schedule remaining when BMac went down and his backup was already out. Throw in the loss of Law. Really think we would have gone 0-6 (0-5 after BMac injury) down the stretch? And if you take the 8 BIG games after the two Bmac injuries we were 0-8. (BMac played in two of the games but hard to say that the team was not still affected and one of those games we were missing Law) We only needed to win three to get to 0.500 in conference.
I never said it wasn't fair, that the other schools didn't face the same odds. The fact is, though, that the odds increased, and NU drew the short straw, and the compressed schedule didn't allow us to recover from it. The Big Ten should never compress the schedule ever again.
THe bench was made shorter from the beginning by one open scholly, Turner needing to sit this year, RAP being out and Falzon being about half speed after his injury. That has us down effectively to 9.5 before the season even started. Throw in whatever was happening with Brown and then the key injuries and we were running on fumes.
But when you add in having to play second fiddle and have to change our schedule to accommodate anther conference like some second rate conference?
big East is much, much better, so maybe we should be playing second fiddle?
Totally...but all of those are "us" problems not B1G problems. We chose to have one open scholly. We chose to bring in Turner instead of a guy who could play right away. We gave scholarships to RAP and Falzon. And we chose to handle the Brown situation the way we did. Those are our choices and I'm not saying I would handle any of them differently. But, they are our choices and we own what we built. I get that we had injuries and that the compressed schedule was made tougher by them (and vice versa), but it's a loser mentality to put the results on the schedule instead of on us (not calling you a loser or anything.) And we can't know whether injuries wouldn't have happened or that recoveries would have been smoothly insured let alone that wins would have come our way.
You play the hand you are dealt. You deal with the choices you made. And you try to get better. Program is getting better, but this year isn't on the schedule makers.
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I agree that the B1G shouldn't compress the schedule again, but I'm confused by the rest? Did everyone face the same odds after the odds increased? If so, why does it matter? What does it mean that NU drew the short straw?
Injuries are unfortunate, but they happen. Schedules sometimes are tough. But you go out and compete and try to get better. Other teams faced the same circumstances. Our depth was supposed to be one of our strengths going into the season, so in theory the compacted schedule should have been an advantage for us. It just didn't work out that way. It's a bummer, but I don't think the guys on the team are blaming the league office for the struggle. They are working their asses off to figure out a way to beat Penn State.
Yes, the odds of injuries increased for everyone because of the compressed schedule, less time for rest between games during the conference season. That doesn't mean that every team will get bitten, but NU did.
I hear you, but going into the season one of our strengths was supposed to be how deep we were. People were raving about how we finally could go 10+ deep. Compressed schedules help teams like that, but it didn't work out that way. Lots of things didn't go the way we planned or hoped, but hopefully the challenges of this year will make us better next year.
I was never saying that. I was excited about our returning veterans like Mac and Law leading the team.
Yes we made certain decisions. But when was the BIG decision made? Likely after NU decisions. And who would have guessed that RAP would suffer a second shoulder tear? That Falzon would have as much trouble getting back up to speed? Turner would not have been needed had those not occurred. All I said was that NU was effected disproportionately by the condensed schedule. Was it intended that way by the BIG? No but that was the effect.
And guess what. Take the 4 year starting PG (plus his backup) off most teams and you would likely see similar results
We had plenty of places we could have gone and not had to play second fiddle. I don't have a problem with MSG honoring a long standing relationship with the Big East. What I have a problem with is the push by the BIG to go to MSG and accept those terms rather than go somewhere else (Chicago, Indy, Detroit, etc) where we would not have to change our schedule.
Agree that losing BMac was a killer and losing a player like that on most teams has a big impact. My only point is that you play the hand that you are dealt. No one was thinking we wouldn't have RAP. Folks thought that we were in great shape there with him and Falzon. But, stuff happens and teams either transcend that stuff or they don't. We didn't. Lessons learned.
I just feel bad for the seniors who had to endure both Allstate Arena and the effects of the MSG-induced schedule compression.
Neither of these should ever be an issue again.
Neither of these should ever be an issue again.
