The Big Ten as a conference
- Thread starter Fitz51
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Minnesota is still really good, even though they lost to Nebraska. It's tough to win on the road almost anywhere in the conference, and the supposed "bottom feeders" all have good coaches. The only team that was significantly overrated, based on performance so far, is us.
I thought that a month ago. Oh, for the days of high hopes.
Yeah, I'm with you on this. Based on the performance at Purdue, I have some more optimism moving forward. MSU is head and shoulders above the rest, and for my money, Purdue and Minnesota are a clear #2 and #3 (even though Minnesota lost to Nebraska). After that though, it's wide open. There are going to be a lot of really close games in the conference this year. The teams that can win those close games, and pull off some nice road wins, will be the teams that get 4th and 5th place in the conference. It honestly could be just about anyone in that 4th or 5th spot outside of one or two of the bottom feeders.
Yep, only three losses to this point (Gonzaga and Butler on a neutral floor and Clemson at home). They got blown out by Gonzaga, but the other two games they had in their grasp before falling apart late. Against Butler they had an epic collapse, blowing a 15 point lead with under five minutes to play before losing in OT. And with Clemson, they were up double digits mid-second half before another total collapse and losing by 14.
From the little bit I have seen of them, they have had some issues dealing with aggressive defenses that extend pressure beyond the half court. Besides that though, they have really played pretty good basketball. Definitely a surprise as most people thought they would need a year to adjust under Holtmann and that their roster wasn't deep enough. But from what I've seen, they are right in that large mix after MSU/Purdue/Minnesota and they are already 2-0 in conference with a very impressive road blowout at Wisconsin and nice win at home against Michigan.
Biggest issue for the conference this year is new coaches and relatively bare rosters at three of the B1G's usual first-division programs — Indiana, Illinois and Ohio State. Ohio State is actually showing signs of coming around with its two conference wins. Couple that with a big slip at Wisconsin so far (the jury is out on whether Gard can get along without Bo's recruits), an OK team at Michigan that isn't one of Beilein's best, add in Iowa and Northwestern programs that haven't performed as well as most people expected, and you have a mediocre conference to this point. Programs such as Penn State and Rutgers have improved, but they were so far down in the pecking order that they still have a way to go.
Among the non-freshman on the roster they have two 5* and two 4*. Among the freshman they have three 4*. So, more than half the roster is 4*. That's a hand most coaches would be excited to inherit.
Not a surprise that they can beat teams. They'll get better as the year goes on.
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