Big Ten Basketball 2020-21 Discussion (Part 1)

Is tonight’s Indiana at Rutgers basketball game on TV tonight? ESPN doesn’t show any network showing the game.

My CBS sports app says it’s on BTN

MSU at UM set for 7pm on Thursday/ESPN.

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Whatever happens, my job is to fret about a potential failure to sweep MSU. Anyone that wants to help is welcome to join me.

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I’ll always join in during respekt week

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My fear was that Izzo, given time, would find a way to make the team competitive and win. I don’t think we can say they’ve definitively arrived yet but I’m not liking we now play them twice after they’ve had all this time to figure it out.

With that said, we’re still a better team than anything MSU can come up with this year. It’s just with MSU closing the gap, it gives us less room for error. As we saw with Illinois not being on their game last night.

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It is legitimately infuriating. “McCaffrey” might have something to do with it

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Derpotism. I guess ‘nepotism’ comes from the same root as nephew. Some pope kept hiring his:

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Heck, Hack, I got so many things eating at me. . . might as well throw another one on the pile!

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Their center position is still a mess, which was evident last night. Kofi had a brutal game with so many missed dunks, layups, and free throws. Hacking Dickinson is not the same as hacking Kofi. Nor is doubling him since Kofi makes Austin Davis look like John Stockton.

That being said, eliminating Loyer from the rotation, giving Gabe Brown minutes, limiting Hauser/Hall to only certain matchups, and getting something reasonably productive out of Watts/Langford looks like the makings of a competent (not good) team.

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I think MSU is better and improving. I don’t, however, think it’s a team that had a Derrick Walton revelation moment. Interested to see how they do against OSU.
My bigger takeaway from last night is Illinois has matchup problems defensively with players like Liddell, Henry… bigger, talented wings. Me thinks M is a bad matchup for Illinois.

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Illinois absolutely has those problems and has had them all year. Look at the teams they’ve lost to—Baylor, Missouri, Rutgers, Maryland, Ohio State, and Michigan State—all fall into that category.

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We’ll see if Loyer is eliminated from the rotation when he’s healthy.

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I never understood the illinois is the most talented team and has the most upside int he b1g takes. Ayo and Kofi are awesome but it somewhat distorts how talented that roster actually is IMO.

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Outside of the C position, the rotation Izzo had last night was actually not insane. Henry played 39 minutes, Langford had 36, Gabe Brown had a season high 32. Having those 3 on the court that much makes them better than they had been (and matches up with Michigan pretty well). Then Watts had 31 which is necessary if they are going to reach their ceiling. Loyer will get Hoggard’s 9 minutes and maybe a couple of Watts. This rotation is good defensively.

Having said that, there are some issues. MSU took 8(!) 3s. They live and die by midrange jumpers and happened to have a hot shooting night. That’s not scary to me at all. Also they still can’t guard big men and got pretty lucky from Illinois missing tons of FTs and several layups. If Kofi and Ayo hit their average from FT that game is completely different.

But the fact MSU was even in the position it was speaks to some improvement.

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Did anyone see the video of cofi punching maddy as they jogged back down the floor? They got under Illi skin and just wore them down. Not sure 3 people fouling out and one ejection is a way to keep winning games tho

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Definitely not concerned about Aaron Henry trying to hit mid range pull ups against Wagner’s length.

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I missed the game but have seen a lot of chatter about the blows by both Kofi and Mady - anyone have any links/videos?

Rumors on IU message boards/Twitter going around that Race Thompson broke his nose in practice and had to get surgery for it. At this point the injury seems confirmed by IU insiders, although nothing from the school officially, but conflicting reports on how long he’ll be out (some say season, some say no missed time).

IU plays RU tonight before our game this weekend so hopefully we get some idea tonight. Thompson has the highest ORTG on IU and has settled into a mix of 4 or so guys behind TJD and Franklin in the third banana USG type role.

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I could see missing one game but out for the season vs. not out at all is a weird game of telephone. Not much room for middle ground