Love Those Objective Big 10 Network Announcers
College Basketball, Video January 26th. 2009, 4:00pm“Big 10 basketball is right up there … arguably, could be the best conference in basketball right now.” Ha!
Buoyed by some impressive out-of-conference preseason wins (Michigan over Duke and UCLA; Michigan State over Texas; Ohio State over Notre Dame and Miami; Wisconsin over Virginia Teach; Minnesota over Louisville), the Big 10 is the top conference based on strength of schedule, and 2nd in RPI. If you’re sold, we’ll try to un-sell you:
* Mediocrity (hopefully) will not be rewarded in March: No team that finishes under .500 in league play will be dancing. Can’t find the stat that shows how many teams have made the tourney after finishing under .500 in league play (18 games in the Big 10). Exception: Win the league tournament.
* Michigan State and Illinois seem to be the only teams guaranteed of finishing over .500 in the conference. There are six teams hovering in that dangerous middle zone (4-2, 5-3, 5-5, 3-4). Purdue should be good enough to be the third team that makes it.
* Minnesota is 5-3 and in good shape … but let’s see what happens in the next three: vs. Illinois, at Michigan State, at Ohio State.
* Forget Penn State (5-3). Still has to go on the road to the Michigans, Illinois, Purdue, and Ohio State.
* Wisconsin (3-4) has lost four in a row (three of them coming on the road), and can’t score. They’re going to try the 3-guard offense to revive one of the weakest shooting offenses in the league.
* Ohio State (3-4) and has lost three of four on the road. The Buckeyes are probably in good shape though, because they get to host Purdue, Minnesota and Illinois.
* Had liked what we’d seen from Michigan (4-4), but it hasn’t even been competitive in its last two road games, and the Wolverines still have Purdue and Minnesota twice, plus Michigan State and a trip to Ohio State.
38 Responses to “Love Those Objective Big 10 Network Announcers”
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January 26th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
the left sleeve of my sweater smells like weed.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Big Ten Basketball is horrible if aint Michigan State it aint nobody.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Discussion Point: Big 10 is the best conference.
Points For: 1st in SOS, 2nd in RPI
Points Against: They play each other?
I don’t give a shit one way or the other, but to take the stand of ‘Not The Best Conference,’ saying it’s #1 in SOS and #2 in RPI, and then saying they all have to play each other (which isn’t a pro or a con) isn’t helping your case any. I’m confused.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
So the B10 sucks and is massively overrated…is this a football post?
January 26th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Don’t sleep on Illinois, they’re going to be a handful come March. Not sure they’ll be able to make a deep run this year, but in the next couple they’re going to own the Big Ten again with the classes Weber’s finally been able to snag.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
there will be a rebuttal…stay tuned.
/teaser in the biz.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
This is the most mediocre college basketball season I can remember for some time.
There’s a chance that the top-3 teams in the ACC could all get #1 seeds in March, yet all 3 have proven they can lose to teams that will all probably find themselves on the bubble come selection time. But the rest of the ACC is blech.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
sparty…yall got lucky this weekend.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
got lucky by kicking the shit out of you in the 2nd half? Summers tore you guys up.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
lucky as in izzo didn’t drink his patented choke flavored gatorade at halftime.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
i don’t even know what that means.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
You are really good at arguing against yourself.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
At least it never slept with Lumbergh
/uber Office Space pwn’d
Also, Michican sucks.
/for Maggs’d
January 26th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
sparty…just say, “wow, you must really not watch college basketball,” to which i’ll respond, “you’re right.” then we can agree that michigan sucks and go on our merry way.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
It’s not that the top teams are that great. It’s just there’s not a whole bunch of pushovers at the bottom (excluding my Hoosiers).
January 26th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Be honest, spence. You watched less than 3 minutes of this game.
/At least I know I did.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
spencer- michigan does suck.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
@bsanders37
Right about Illinois. In my opinion, Weber’s coaching job has been just as good (if not better) than the year they almost won the NC. To be where they are with the three guards they are starting is incredible, and once he gets some serious talent in over the next couple of years, they will be tough to stop.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
The Big 10 gets a huge bump in RPI due to that Big 10/ACC challenge that enables Big 10 teams to go play true road games. Same for the ACC. I don’t even think conference RPI is a fair indicator because the ACC and Big 10 get 4 or 5 true road games to weight the RPI. That all being said, I think the Big 10 is pretty good in the middle as Michigan, Ohio state, and Minnesota have proven out of conference.
the Big 10 is getting 6 in the tournament at least. And if you don’t think so, tell me who’s getting in, if 6 aren’t getting in from this league. The Mid majors are weak as hell this year.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
The SEC is bad, but I don’t see how you can get off calling them a Mid Major.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
i listened to like 5 minutes on the radio while i was picking up food. but my point remains…michigan sucks.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
SEC = Ukraine
January 26th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
College football needs a playoff, the regular season wouldn’t be hurt.
/sarcasm
January 26th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Fuck Bruce Webber. That bitch cant recruit in the state thats some Gary Williams type shit.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Gottfried is out at Alabama…
January 26th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
This argument maks no sense. You could replace the big ten teams with the eleven NBA teams and your “un-selling” arguments would still hold. There would seem to be a logic flaw with that.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
How is rewarding teams that play true road non-conference games unfair? Because it’s mandated? If you’d said something like “The conference RPI rankings are misleading because of the Big East getting dragged down by its basement dwellers” maybe that might fly, but saying the ACC/Big 10 slaughter skews things, when in reality it actually makes the rpi a stronger tool due to adding better data points to the formula, is just plain wrong.
Also, the big 10 is a pretty decent conference, just doesn’t have the top end strength to really pop out at people. It’s definitely the third best conference by a wide margin, and its overall depth is pretty impressive.
The Big Ten is actually a pretty good conference this year, they’re just hurt by the lack of national title contenders.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
You get a bigger bump from losing a true road game than winning a home game in the RPI formula. I think the RPI is immensely skewed and to use it as a tool proving which conference is better is inherintly flawed. Why should the Big Ten get a better RPI rating if they lose 5 road games in that challenge? But thats what happens. The RPI is a tool that can easily be manipulated. Look at Villanova. Their best win is Rhode island yet they are in the top 40 of the RPI. Any sane person knows that the ACC and Big East are the best conferences in the country. To think that the RPI is a strong tool for proving team strength is flat wrong when you get more points for a loss than a win.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Using the RPI to determine the best conference is as useful as having a 2nd asshole.
The Big East has some real RPI dogs at the bottom… DePaul, South Florida, Seton Hall… There is no one…sans Indiana… in the Big 10 that is that bad. That explains their lesser RPI ranking…
January 26th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Nothing to be confused about, Ben. I’m just looking a few weeks down the road when the committee convenes. Get excited if you’d like now, but I feel you’ll just be crestfallen in March when a lot of them are NIT-bound.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
to this, RS, i say, ‘you’re drunk.’ if you’d like to make this interesting, do email me.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
6 is a lock.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
My predictions, and why it is best to understand that the teams have to come from somewhere. Basically, TBL, you have low-balled every conference when you are talking about bids. Essentially, you seem to be projecting for a 55 team tourney, instead of 65
Big East — 9
ACC — 7
Big 12 — 6
Big 10 — 6
SEC — 5
Pac 10 — 5
A-10 — 2
WCC — 2
CUSA — 2
That’s 44 bids from the multi-bids conference
1 each from AEast, ASun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Ivy, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, MVC, MW, NE, OVC, Patriot, Southern, Southland, SWAC, Summit, WAC
That’s 21 from the one-bidders. IF Davidson or Butler lose in the con. tourney, then the big conferences get a bid swiped, but I don’t see any other at-large teams from the other 19 conferences. It;s a weak year for mid-majors.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Do it, RS. TBL likes to give away stuff. But ask for an Amazon card instead of iTunes. Better value.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
How about a post about how bad SEC basketball is. I get really tired of you railing on the Big Ten. It is #2 in conference RPI. Only Indiana and Iowa aren’t in the mix for dance bids.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
not a bad idea, purdue matt. you should post from your phone during the day, man.
i can’t BELIEVE it was a pick, KC. damn. these rivalry games always are a mess. i was on a hot streak but then lost my last two, so confidence is low, and i want to save upf or the dance.
i actually might be on Arizona Sunday.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Now, now, now, let’s leave the SEC out of this. This arguement is about the big 10 being overrated, not about the slight slip in play of the SEC teams. Talk about the Big 12 and leave us alone until football season.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:56 am
The Big 10s RPI is only so high because they have all those wins over ranked teams. Their SOS is inflated due to them playing very good teams.
Not sure I buy that argument.
You forgot to mention Purdues destruction of Davidson, Ohio St handing Butler its only loss, Mich St beating Kansas and OK St, Illinois beating Missouri, NW beating Florida St, etc.