Savage… Tssssss.
I faded Iowa hard. I put up a hundred on DePaul plus ten. DePaul returns a lot of pieces from a team that was better than its record indicated. They matched up well with Iowa as they can really score as well. Also adding weems was huge. Gives them a tough athletic wing who can defend.
I’m down on Iowa. Losing moss and cook was big. They should still be ok if bohannon can play to hIs potential but they have absolutely no defenders now and they can’t move their feet on the perimeter or guard the rim.
I think so. Give me
Michigan st
Michigan
Ohio st
Purdue
Maryland
Indiana ( yes I said it. They are being overlooked and I think they will be a very tough team by years end).
I’m not as high as everyone else is on Illinois. I think they are a nice nit team though, Wisconsin will be a bubble team and even though Iowa got worked tonight if bohannon can play at a reasonably high level they will be in the mix but miss as well.
I’m surprised nw is so bad. I wasn’t expecting a lot but between nance, Kopp, turner, and Gaines I expected then to be a decent bottom feeder. I really liked kopp, nance, and Gaines coming out of high school. I actually really wanted kopp in our 2018 class.
Nebraska will be a bad mid major team this year. Rutgers was scrappy last year so I expected them to be a decent cellar dweller too,
Overall I think the conference will rebound. The next few weeks. I have to check the acc/ big ten matchups but I’m expecting the big ten to win. This is a very down year for the acc imo. The weakest I can remember. After ville, unc, and duke ( which is a hell of a trio, all three are in my top 7 or 8 squads) it falls off drastically.
Amazing what a total one-hit wonder Chris Collins turned out to be. He took NW to the tournament and got brand-new facilities - couldn’t ask for more institutional support - but this is outweighed by the fact that he just sucks.
Is it really that amazing? It is Northwestern basketball. The Wildcats weren’t as good as their record that year and regression was always inevitable.
As someone who doesn’t/didn’t follow Northwestern that closely it’s surprising to me. I remember hearing a lot about how Collins was recruiting at a level higher than ever achieved at Northwestern. I kind of expected them to remain steady with that increase in talent after he took them to the tournament.
Yeah, he has landed some talent and that’s a fair point. The media narrative around that team was just way over the top and it set them up in a situation where they could only disappoint in the following season, in my opinion.
Still getting guys who should be pretty good in there, but the product on the floor is lacking. Collins has never really done anything that made me think he’s a great coach. And you aren’t going to get good enough guys to win on just talent at Northwestern.
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Amaker-like, except TA never squeezed into the dance in 7 years.
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I didn’t even realize this when posting but Spencer is their starting point guard. And if it’s not him it’s freshman Boo Buie. It’s bizarre and holds them back.
Does the program struggle to get players school-eligible? I don’t really get why NW shouldn’t do better, especially if a coach became comfortable in Chicago. Or is there just too much money floating through AAU ball there, keeping him away?
Minnesota loses to Butler and the B1G takes another non-conference L.
Chicago recruiting is dirty, Northwestern has no chance of getting the necessary talent from there.
Minnesota has a brutal non-conference schedule this season. Already lost to Oklahoma (KP #24) in South Dakota, lost at Butler (#27) last night, with games against Utah (#99), DePaul (#65), Clemson (#77), and OK State (#44). No world beaters but also only three “gimmes” (Cleveland St, North Dakota, FIU). Even CMU is #161 to KenPom.
I wish we played a schedule like that as opposed to 4 good games and the rests god awful ones.
Michigan will play:
Creighton (39)
Iowa State (48)
UNC (6) or Alabama (71)
Oregon (18)/Seton Hall(21)/Gonzaga(7) or Southern Miss(224)
at Louisville (2)
Oregon (18)
Should be a much more difficult schedule than Minnesota’s. Teams that don’t play exempt tourneys will never get scheduling kudos from me.
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Question:
You get to play extra non-con games for being a part of an exempt tournament, right? Wasn’t it 4 games? Looks like we play 5 games for Atlantis (two “mainland” games and then the Thanksgiving tournament). How do those rules works again? Looks like Minnesota plays 10 non-con games and we play 11
You get an extra game
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Never one to give credit to Pitino, but I will give him credit here. Remember a couple years ago when they basically gamed the RPI and ended a good 2 seed lines higher than they should have been? At least this is an attempt to build a solid schedule
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Yikes. I knew Michigan’s schedule was tough but damn, I guess I didn’t look closely enough. That is brutal with a capital B!
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That’s why this one (and to a lesser extent Iowa State and Oregon) are so important. Get those attainable wins and you don’t have to try to make up ground on the road at Louisville.
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