I’d say Goins starts in November with the hope that Bingham starts in March.
I don’t think playing Tillman and Ward next to each other makes a lot of sense. Seems like you need the two of them to spell each other at the 5.
Hundred percent with you. I think they are being slept on after being hyped last year. I predict they’re going to do this year what most thought last year. I expect them to be a solid seed in the tourney this year. Coffey could be very good if healthy. Add mcbrayer who i personally like a lot, murphy who pretty damn good as well, an improved washington and curry (could be nice, out last year after good frosh year ) and they could have a real solid starting five at the very least.
14. Rutgers 13.Illini 12. NW 11. Minny 10. PSU 9. Iowa 8. OSU 7. Maryland 6. Purdue 5. Nebraska 4. Indiana. 3. Michigan. 2.WISCONSIN. 1. MSU
Even if you want to argue Davidson is a guaranteed stud, there’s no way Trice and King account for that much team improvement.
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I agree, that’s very generous. Putting aside my Gard doubts, their roster feels too imbalanced (guard-heavy) to expect a top-2 finish. My guess for starters:
Davison
Pritzl
Iverson
Ford
Happ
Two guards, two wings, and a Happ, with a bench of Trice, King, Reuvers, and two freshmen, one of whom we dumped. I’d be surprised if Strickland cracks the rotation with their glut of guards and Currie might be even further behind considering he was originally a '19.
Decent depth overall and Happ is obviously elite, but second in the B1G is usually around 13-5 and a protected seed. That would be a monster improvement for this Wisconsin team.
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There’s a lot of middle ground between replicating Ryan’s success and finishing 9th in the conference. I’d put them 4th or 5th. I expect them to be less talented, but better coached than some of the other teams that could finish around there.
They finished 9th last year. I don’t think the eight teams above them got much worse except Penn State and Ohio State. Northwestern, Illinois, and Iowa all finished below them and could be improved this year.
I can see Wisconsin in the top 4-5 if OSU and Purdue take big tumbles.
Wisconsin was hit very hard by injuries last year. That’s the reason they finished so low.
Iowa is a wild card for me, but Illinois and NW would do very well if they approach .500, not something I would predict… How does Purdue not get much worse than last season? The only question is how far they’ll fall. I’d guess middle of the pack.
Purdue could plummet if they don’t find some complementary wing shooters. A lot will depend upon Ryan Cline and Eric Hunter.
We’re talking about a man who played Kenny Goins over both Deyonta Davis and Jaren Jackson in times of desperation. I see no reason to think he won’t continue to be the crunch time power forward once again in March when the season is on the line.
Projecting MSU seems to come down entirely to “how good/ready is their freshman class right away?” In my opinion, Bingham, Brown and Henry seem like guys with lots of potential but I don’t really expect any of them to step in at any point this season and be a big ten level starter. Reminds me a lot of the Bess, Clark, Nairn class except that group could be fringe contributors on a final four ready team of upperclassmen. Then you add the Loyer/Winston defensive black hole at point guard, the Ward/Tillman defensive black hole against perimeter bigs at center, and it’s really hard for me to see how anyone sees this team as a top 15 group in the country
I see Wisconsin as better than Iowa and Purdue - I guess that’s why I see them as a top 6 or so team. I think Carsen Edwards is probably the best player in the conference, but man…there’s nothing else there, and I’m not sure how the #147 recruit in the nation is going to save them.
Iowa and Wisconsin are in similar places. Cook, Bohannon, Moss, and Garza were pretty good offensive players, but ranged from replacement level to awful on defense.
Happ, Davison, and Pritzl were the only truly effective offensive players on the roster, but they have some very effective defenders - Happ and Iverson - and no real weak points there.
@umhoops I always eagerly await the top B1G ‘player’ breakdown, and loving the position breakdowns your’e doing at the Athletic. Wondering if you could do a less in-depth version of the position-group breakdown, but for the whole conference; something like ranking the conference’s ‘guards, wings, bigs, and bench,’ maybe even throw coaching in there. Always appreciate the content that focuses on the conference as a whole.
Regardless, I’d be curious to see the board’s opinion on the top 3-5 pg, sg, sf, pf, and centers in the conference.
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Yeah, probably much better than Iowa, upon reflection.
Oh man I can’t resist.
PG: Carsen Edwards, Cassius Winston, Anthony Cowan, Ayo Dosunmu, Zavier Simpson
SG: Romeo Langford, James Palmer, Jordan Poole, Josh Langford, Brad Davison
SF: Charles Matthews, Amir Coffey, Vic Law, Isaiah Roby, Ignas Brezdeikis
PF: Juwan Morgan, Jalen Smith, Tyler Cook, Lamar Stevens, Isaac Copeland
C: Ethan Haap, Nick Ward, Bruno Fernando, Jordan Murphy, Matt Haarms
I think Josh Reaves probably belongs on the SG list. He was better than all those guys last year.
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No Dererk Pardon?
- Michigan st (if Izzo isn’t a moron)
- Michigan
- Indiana
- Wisconsin
- Iowa
6 Purdue - Minnesota
- Nebraska
- Ohio st
- Maryland
- Penn st.
- Nw
- Illinois
- Rutgers
That’s my regular season standings. What’s weird is it keeps posting two teams at 6 and the whole thing being 13. In my post though it shows it correctly with Purdue 6 and minny 7. No matter how many times I edit it posts it wrong.
I put Haarms over Pardon just because he gets to play next to Carsen Edwards and Pardon loses his backcourt. I think center might be the strongest position in the conference, Pardon, Luka Garza, Mike Watkins all have legit arguments as top 25 guys in the league. Wouldn’t be surprised if Teske works his way up there by season’s end either.
I could see Reaves in there but Palmer and Langford are way better talents and Langford/Poole’s per 40 minute stats match up pretty nicely with Reaves’. I’ll be interested to see how he does now that Carr and Garner are gone, I could see it going either way where he breaks out with higher usage or can’t get it done now that he’s a major focus for opposing defenses
Sf seemed like by far the weakest group.
Reaves is also a terrific defender
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