2020-2021 B1G Basketball Thread

[bayareabadger]

That is the point. Yes it was an exaggeration but not by much more than ESPN treating it as a serious challenge for Gonzaga.

Yes, it is a massive exaggeration. 

Granted, it is silly to treat it as a serious challenge to Gonzaga. It's got to be a weird beast calling those games. But you can't spend the whole game talking about the possible NBA futures of various Zags and then the bubble picture at large. 

[ELA]

Honestly, treating any of this as meaningful is comical.  It's a random assortment of basketballish activity, to salvage what was lost by not playing a tournament last year.

Throw Pepperdine in the Big Ten, hell, they might win it

[ELA]

My favorite part of all of this was running the PS3 sims, and my wife asking why I cared about fake football, and realizing I had more control over that "fake" football than I did over real football, that has made me realize how dumb this all is.  Nobody cares about regular season basketball, bit could you imagine how quickly the plug would have been pulled on football if Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame had sucked?  Basketball is built on Cinderella beating the establishment powers.  Football is built on the establishment.  When we have a tourney, and there is no Duke, no UNC, no Kentucky, no MSU, no Indiana, the narrative will turn very quickly to how illegitimate this season was

[medinabuckeye1]

If the B1G Tournament started tomorrow:

Wednesday:

• #11 Maryland vs #14 Nebraska 
• #12 Northwestern vs #13 Michigan State 

Thursday:

• #5 Purdue (wins tie with UW based on record vs tOSU) vs NU/MSU
• #6 Wisconsin vs UMD/UNL
• #7 Rutgers vs #10 Penn State
• #8 Indiana vs #9 Minnesota 

Friday:

• #1 Michigan vs IU/MN
• #2 Illinois vs RU/PSU
• #3 Ohio State vs UW/UMD/UNL
• #4 Iowa vs PU/NU/MSU

Saturday:

• M/IU/MN vs IA/PU/NU/MSU
• IL/RU/PSU vs tOSU/UW/UMD/UNL

[bayareabadger]

My favorite part of all of this was running the PS3 sims, and my wife asking why I cared about fake football, and realizing I had more control over that "fake" football than I did over real football, that has made me realize how dumb this all is.  Nobody cares about regular season basketball, bit could you imagine how quickly the plug would have been pulled on football if Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame had sucked?  Basketball is built on Cinderella beating the establishment powers.  Football is built on the establishment.  When we have a tourney, and there is no Duke, no UNC, no Kentucky, no MSU, no Indiana, the narrative will turn very quickly to how illegitimate this season was

Things mean what one wants them to mean. I'll tell you, I genuinely care about it. Perhaps not who finishes where in the Top-25, but who wins conferences, who has a nice story, how a litany of teams do. 

Plus its nice wallpaper while reading nonsense on twitter in the evening. 

[ELA]

Yeah, it can be as important or as unimportant as each wants.  I don't want to diminish anyone's enjoyment.

[betarhoalphadelta]

When we have a tourney, and there is no Duke, no UNC, no Kentucky, no MSU, no Indiana, the narrative will turn very quickly to how illegitimate this season was

Sounds like sour grapes from the blue bloods.

”Illegitimate?"

With 68 teams you can't get in, so the entire season is illegitimate?!?!

[MaximumSam]

An illegitimate tourney is a heck of a lot better than no tourney at all

[ELA]

Sounds like sour grapes from the blue bloods.

”Illegitimate?"

With 68 teams you can't get in, so the entire season is illegitimate?!?!

I just said what I think the narrative will be.

Like how people were calling the Lakers the "Mickey Mouse champs", and that was just the postseason in a bubble.  Last year when I thought the tournament was still going to happen, but with no fans, I was worried that if MSU made a run, it would always be "oh yeah, but that was the weird no fans year"

[Brutus Buckeye]

If we cancelled the tourney everytime that Indiana didn't make it, then there would be a lot of cancelled tourneys. 

They are the Tennessee/Nebraska of College Basketball. 

[Kris60]

  When we have a tourney, and there is no Duke, no UNC, no Kentucky, no MSU, no Indiana, the narrative will turn very quickly to how illegitimate this season was

I really don’t think so.  It will be a story, sure, but I don’t think it will turn into “we shouldn’t have even played this season.”  Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t see it playing out that way.

[ELA]

I don't want to cancel it.  I think it would be a fun year to try and tinker with it as a one off.  Like do 8 double elimination tournaments of 8, hosted by the top 8 seeds.

[FearlessF]

If we cancelled the tourney everytime that Indiana didn't make it, then there would be a lot of cancelled tourneys.

They are the Tennessee/Nebraska of College Basketball.

ya couldn't just leave it at Tennessee, ya just had to throw down that forward slash

[medinabuckeye1]

Yes, it is a massive exaggeration.

Granted, it is silly to treat it as a serious challenge to Gonzaga. It's got to be a weird beast calling those games. But you can't spend the whole game talking about the possible NBA futures of various Zags and then the bubble picture at large.

I was making a comparison.  Pepperdine is #122 in BPI and that is good for sixth in Gonzaga's conference, the WCC teams are:

• #2 Gonzaga
• #40 BYU
• #87 San Francisco
• #93 St. Mary's
• #106 Loyola Marymount
• #122 Pepperdine
• #144 Santa Clara
• #189 Pacific
• #215 San Diego
• #335 Portland

By comparison with the big boy leagues:
B1G:

• #124 Nebraska is the worst team, they are approximately even with Pepperdine and are ahead of four WCC teams.  
• #79 Northwestern is second worst and they would be third best in the WCC.  Same goes for third worst #65 MSU, fourth worst #61 UMD, fifth worst #56 MN, sixth worst #44 PSU, and seventh worst #42 Rutgers.  
• #33 Purdue is seventh in the B1G.  They would be second to Gonzaga in the WCC as would #3 IA, #7 M, #9 IL, #12 tOSU, #15 UW, or #29 IU.  

B12:

• #232 KSU is the worst team, they aren't much worse than San Diego and would be 9th in the WCC.  
• #136 ISU is second worst and they are better than four WCC teams.  
• #106 TCU is third worst, tied with Loyola Marymount and would be tied for fifth in the WCC.  
• #58 OkSU is the fourth worst team in the B12 and would be third best in the WCC.  
• #27 Kansas is #6 in the B12, they would be #2 in the WCC behind only Gonzaga as would #8 TxTech, #16 Texas, #18 OU, or #21 WVU.  

ACC:

• #131 Miami is the worst team, they are ahead of four WCC teams.  
• #110 BC is second worst, they would be sixth in the WCC.  
• #103 Wake is third worst, they would be #5 in the WCC.  
• #85 Pitt is fourth worst, they would be third in the WCC as would #68 ND, #62 Clemson, #57 GaTech, #49 Louisville, and #47 NCST.  
• #34 DOOK is the sixth best team.  They would be second in the WCC behind only Gonzaga as would #6 UVA, #23 FSU, #25 Cuse, #26 UNC, or #31 VaTech.  

BigEast:

• #125 G'Town is the worst team, they are ahead of four WCC teams.  
• #115 DePaul is second worst, they are ahead of five WCC teams as is #114 Butler.  
• #78 Marquette is the third worst, they would be third best in the WCC as would #74 St. Johns, #55 Providence, and #45 Seton Hall.    
• #35 Xavier is fourth in the BigEast, they would be #2 in the WCC behind only Gonzaga as would #5 Nova, #11 Creighton, and #28 UCONN.  

SEC:

• #134 aTm is the worst team, they are ahead of four WCC teams as is #132 Vandy.  
• #111 UGA is third worst, they are ahead of five WCC teams.  
• #88 USCe is fourth worst in the SEC.  They would be fourth best in the WCC and almost tied for third best with #87 San Francisco.  
• #70 Auburn is fifth worst in the SEC.  They would be third best in the WCC as would #66 UK, #54 MissSt, and #53 Ole Miss.  
• #39 Mizzou is sixth in the SEC, they would be second only to Gonzaga in the WCC as would #10 TN, #14 Bama, #20 UF, #22 Ark, and #24 LSU.  

P12:

• #165 Washington is the worst team.  They are ahead of three WCC teams as is #151 Cal and #145 WSU.  
• #126 OrSU is the fourth worst team in the P12, they are ahead of four WCC teams.  
• #86 ASU is the fifth worst team in the P12, they would be third best in the WCC as would #76 Utah, and #59 Stanford.  
• #37 UCLA is fifth in the P12, they would be #2 in the WCC behind only Gonzaga as would #13 Colorado, #30 USC, #32 Oregon, and #36 Zona.  

My point is simply that teams like Baylor, Iowa, Villanova, Virginia, Tennessee, and Colorado are well tested in conference.  They play quality opponents all year long not just in a few early OOC games and then in the tournament.  Gonzaga doesn't.  

With the exception of BYU all of Gonzaga's conference opponents are against teams that would be among the worst in any of the power leagues.  Hyping a game between Gonzaga and Pepperdine would be the equivalent of hyping a game between Iowa and Nebraska or Baylor and ISU or Virginia and Miami or Nova and G'Town or Tennessee and aTm or Colorado and OrSU.  None of those games are serious challenges for the favorites and neither is Pepperdine for Gonzaga.