Big Ten Basketball 2020-21 Discussion (Part 1)

Well if he is getting out-coached by Archie…

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Jerome Hunter just commited a dumb foul, got roasted by Bardo, came down on a 3-on-1 with two players wide open, and jacked a three. Karma apparently had turned off this game since it went in.

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Maryland has no business winning this game, but the refs just missed a 5-second call (they never call it) and a blatant over-and-back against IU.

We have a new lowest scoring game of the B1G season: 118

P.S. Thanks for nothing, Maryland.

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KP preseason projections take into account coaching ability as well. So not necessarily!

Haven’t heard much on this topic but the Wisc / PSU game was postponed because of covid. Has anyone heard which school has the covid that caused the postponement?

I see that Nebraska/Purdue is postponed. Is that what you are talking about?

Dylan posted above that it sounds like the cases came from some lesser used PSU players but they should be good to play the rest of this week. Obviously could change if more people test positive.

Yeah I was curious since M has @ PSU this weekend I believe.

This isn’t fully fleshed out, but as I comb through Torvik’s individual metrics I’m starting to think that the best-case scenario for MSU is Rocket Watts simply not playing…ever.

Hoggard is sort of like Tum Tum except there’s no Winston to pass him. Instead the other option is Mike Kebler. It’s not a fun choice but nor is it a hard one.

Obviously Izzo came to the same conclusion :innocent:

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Couple questions re MSU:

  1. How can AP be ranking them 23 when they are ranked 50 on Kenpom and 65 on Torvik?

  2. Why does ESPN show MSU favored by 1 1/2 points over Rutgers for tonight’s game where Kenpom ranks Rutgers 19 vs MSU 50 and Torvik ranks Rutgers 20 vs MSU 65? Does MSU being on home court make that much of a difference?

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John Higgins worked the WVU/OkSt game, and he also did the Michigan/Nebraska game on Christmas Day. I guess the B1G wasn’t able to secure 100% exclusive officials as they’d hoped.

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I don’t think they have been 100% the same refs but there have been a lot of refs who are doing only Big Ten games. The usual suspects like Carstensen, Boroski, Courtney Green, Scirotto.

I don’t think Terry Wymer has done a Big Ten game this year which is odd, he must not have wanted the exclusive deal.

It’s funny because the conclusion everyone has come to is that Watts at PG didn’t work so it’s necessary to move on. And I definitely agree, Watts has been an abject disaster on both ends for the majority of this season. But when you look at his statistical profile, the only thing keeping him close to average is his high AST rate and low TO rate, AKA the most PG-like things to look at. So from a statistical profile standpoint, he’s actually fine as a PG, but terrible at everything else basketball wise.

I think the general sentiment is that trying to be a PG has messed with him mentally which has caused his scoring/defense to suffer, and that a lot of his assists come more from MSU running offense rather than him making plays as a PG. And both of those things are probably true, so I’m not trying to say he should still be the PG. But if the solution to one of your preseason top 3 players struggling at PG is to bench him and move him to SG so he can play only 15 minutes against Nebraska and score 9 points on 8 shots with literally 0 other stats and 25% shooting from 3, well did you really find a solution? And it’s that much worse when you actually play him back at PG in crunch time.

One last thing that amazes me: So far this season Watts has 0 steals and 0 blocks (he’s actually not the only MSU player to do that, Julius Marble is the same). Obviously we know Watts has struggled on defense but he had 3 games last year with 5 steals, another with 4 and a bunch more with 2 or 3. Yet somehow this year he has 0. There is not a single rotation player for Michigan who hits the mark of 0 blocks and 0 steals, yet MSU has 2. Just wild.

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It is a strange situation. In some ways it reminds me of the inexplicable THJ sophomore season where he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. As you said, it must be mental. Last year he guarded the opposing PG much of the time so they could hide Winston elsewhere - so why is he struggling with that part of his game this year? (Unless Tillman just covered for all defensive issues.)

I think they said it right in the pod…since Izzo seems hell bent on playing Langford 30 minutes this feels less like “move to the 2” and more like “move to the bench”.

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I’m sure Izzo wakes up every morning, remembers that he was unable to successfully goad Xavier Tillman into staying four years, and has a good, long cry into his many, many pillows.

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This post is 12 minutes old and only has one like. C’mon, now, forum. Let’s do the right thing.

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I noticed Kelly Pfeiffer and DJ Carstensen reffing at Mohegan Sun early in the season. Whymer out of the B1G is addition by subtraction, for a Michigan fan.

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Yeah, I’d still consider someone a Big Ten exclusive ref if they’ve only done Big Ten games since Mohegan Sun.

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