Scoring 55 @ Iowa…not gonna get it done.
Normally Purdue has some insane home away shooting splits but this year they haven’t even shot well at home except for the Oakland game. Their offense is struggling right now.
That was easy money
At some point people are gonna have to admit that Iowa is the Big Ten frontrunner.
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I’d still go with the team that won a share last year, returned every starter and actually plays defense.
But Iowa definitely has a realistic shot IMO. Not a great one, but enough of one where I wouldn’t be shocked if it happened.
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They beat Purdue at home. Did someone expect them not to?
They play Rutgers, MSU and Illinois in January. Let’s see how those go and then we will revisit.
Also, Wisconsin is my front runner and Iowa plays them twice in their final five games. Unfortunately, it may be awhile before we truly get a grasp of who will separate themselves at the top.
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Dylan took Purdue against the spread. He’s a notorious Iowa hater though. Everyone’s trying to dump on Iowa, but the reality is that nobody in the Big Ten is at the level of Gonzaga/Baylor and whatever team wins is going to have a flaw. They’re a top 5 team on Kenpom (same with Wisconsin). The reality is that shooting luck is probably just gonna decide who actually wins the Big Ten of those 2.
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Not Wisconsin?
I’m also a sucker for Purdue. A hard place to be after that performance.
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I forgot about Wisconsin until the replies to that comment started pouring in. Wisconsin and Iowa are even in my book.
This is one of the tough things regarding your latest podcast episode. I don’t disagree with your personal ordering of Rutgers and Iowa based on what I took the rankings to be based on, but I think Iowa will finish higher in the Big Ten than Rutgers in the final Big Ten standings (schedule difficulty differences ignored. Obviously that will play a role too).
Well nobody was going to come out and say Purdue was going to win in Iowa. I think that was more of hoping because there is a clear dislike of Iowa amongst certain fans. It’s funny if Iowa won 95-80 people would say Iowa can’t play D but Iowa wins another way by only giving up 55 it doesn’t really get a mention.
Regardless of Iowa… the thing where Purdue forgets how to make shots in road games appears to transfer to COVID gyms. Brutal offensive games at Miami and Iowa.
Also: good win for Iowa against a team it has struggled against.
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There’s not a good way to quantify it, but the familiarity of the background of a gym can make a legitimate difference. Now I’m guessing there’s way more to it than that (also probably just bad luck in part). But maybe this is the year to actually make an effort to do so given that crowd variables are out of the question for responsible teams.
I didn’t play it but if you made me I would have gotten roasted plus 7 too. You’re not alone.
Maybe Purdue is just a limited team?? I like some of their players Williams/Hunter Jr but it really stops there. Stefanovic terrific outside shooter but you just have to push him off the line. Edey should be very good down the road but teams are starting to figure him out and he’s extremely young in regards to basketball experience. Newman and Gillis will be good but they’re young as well. I am not pounding the drum for guys like Thompson/Wheeler.
Purdue is the most confusing team to me right now in the league. Kenpom and Torvik have them between 30-40, they have looked completely horrible in games (2H against Miami, Clemson, offensively tonight) and looked great in games (Liberty, Notre Dame, Ohio State). A week ago I thought they were a non-tournament team pretty clearly, now I have no idea.
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Having Iowa at the same, or slightly worse tier than Wisconsin (and Illinois, depending on how you feel about them) is a totally fair take, and one in line with both computer models everyone knows and loves. To me it’s personal preference on who’s the “favorite”.
I butt in and get defensive of Iowa when it seems like people put them clearly a tier below Wisconsin/Illinois, which doesn’t make much sense to me. There’s been less of this happening lately though with MSU’s struggles.
This is going to be a very controversial take considering what I know about this forum, but I think some here overrate Matt Painter a tad.
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Just a couple of days/hours ago I was super anti-Iowa and I know we’ve clashed numerous times on the topic. But I realized that there isn’t a Gonzaga or Baylor in this league and they have just as much of a shot as Wiscy, Rutgers, Illinois, whoever at winning.
I also think Iowa’s Garza-ness protects them a bit better against losing to the lower tier Big Ten schools than the other top Big Ten teams. The issue with my take there is that it’s not a good one, as the very similar Iowa team last year last to awful Nebraska and barely top 100 Depaul.
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Totally. I wouldn’t be surprised if they beat up on the bottom end of the conference more than the other good teams just because of Garza, but maybe lose H2H with Wisconsin/Illinois
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I feel like he’s a great coach, but a pretty poor recruiter/roster-builder. Edwards is the only even mildly effective on-ball guard they’ve had in the past 9 years.
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