what about hardest in the Large Ten Conference of Champions
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Arizona has Duke/MSU/Wisconsin/Purdue/Alabama
Wisconsin has Tennesse/Providence/Virginia/Marquette/Arizona and either SMU/WVA
Purdue has Gonzaga/ either Tenn/Syr and one more in Maui/Alabama/Arizona
Alabama has Ohio St/Purdue/Creighton/Arizona/Clemson/Oregon or Santa Clara
Seems odd that we have a bye in the final week of the season after @OSU and before Nebraska at home. At least we only have one away senior night this year (@OSU), but that is a pretty rough one.
Doesnât seem like we have any impossible stretches or easy stretches in conference play this year, which is probably good for rhythm purposes.
As far as the league schedule, probably depends how you see teams. Should be one of the more difficult ones though with one game against Minnesota and two each against Purdue and MSU.
super duper. cool
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I really do think thatâs a good thing though. Last yearâs league schedule was very weak, the year before was much more difficult. Generally it is easier to make the NCAA Tournament with a more difficult league schedule.
Two wins against Minnesota doesnât help your resume.
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Schedule takeaways:
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hard but eh, not a horrible year to have a hard schedule. Team will need quality win opportunities and itâs not like weâre playing for a banner where we need to limit losses
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if this goes south, it could go really south. Thereâs like 22 lose-able games on that schedule
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https://www.barttorvik.com/conf.php?conf=B10
A preliminary look at B10 schedule difficulty
Most Difficult
PSU
Wisco
UM
Rutgers
Illini
Minnesota
Terps
Purdue
Neb
NW
IU
Iowa
OSU
MSU
Least Difficult
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Really depends on whether you are an old school âWIN LOSS RECORD IS ALL THE MATTERSâ or you are someone who looks at resume/KP/etc.
The U-M team two years ago was significantly better than the team this year and was able to make the NCAA Tournament because of the hard schedule.
The most obvious reason to not have a hard schedule in modern college basketball is because a coach has some sort of archaic view of job security that âwinning 20 gamesâ is enough to keep them employed. You donât want to be that coach.
I will definitely say that it feels like U-M has embraced optimizing SOS as far as adding pretty solid buy games. Looking at potentially only 3 Q4 games on the schedule and I wouldnât be shocked if YSU or McNeese is better than that.
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Feel like right now this is âhow many times do you play Purdue and how many times do you play Minnesota?â.
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Iâd say so. Purdueâs still clearly the best team for me and Minnesota is a pretty clear #14.
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And the spread between almost every other team in the league is very narrow.
Five and zero
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What happens to the sixth game?
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Covid cancel
Specifically out of that stretch, the Indiana/at Iowa to start B1G play is much, much harder than we have seen recently. Really have to find a way to get at least one of those.
I thought the same. Wasnât hard to find some stretches where it could get ugly and then just spiral from there. The at Purdue, Iowa, at MSU stretch is bad and then follow up with 2 grinders at home with Rutgers and Wisconsin isnât a picnic. That could be a stretch in February where you are playing yourself off the bubble. 
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Very similar to Howardâs first year, as I mentioned in the story today. Absolutely gotta win that home game against IU.
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we do, but at the same timeâŚdo we?
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WellâŚwe know that weâre going to feel similar to last year and bemoan the two narrow losses to Oregon and Indiana when it gets late in the year and we are hoping for a rally to get a bid. It hurts to think about making clutch free throws at the end and flipping either of those games to a win. Doesnât matter if neither were pretty, all that counts is the W.
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