Makes me lose all respect for them. So lame
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I hope thereâs a picture, and I hope said picture finds its way to our locker room.
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Well, weâve got to win tomorrow. 15-2 vs. 16-4 would be no contest.
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Congratulations to the Big Ten Champions, the Minnesota Gophers
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They should at least get on the same page. Either B1G titles matter so much that you claim one against all logic, or they donât matter at all.
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Itâs really just sad.
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Please let them hang a banner. It would be Big Ten internet gold forever.
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and Minnesota finishes second
Right. And if weâd played IL immediately after the pause, there would have been an asterisk on that win, anyway. Weâd have won the other three cancelled games and their claim would be even more dubious.
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They are best ignored IMO. We have real, actual rivals to worry about. Sure do hope we beat them for the playoff banner tho.
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I have no problem with them thinking that they are better than Michigan. Kicking our asses on our homecourt without Ayo gives them that right. And itâs not like theyâre that far behind in any rankings.
However, if we win tomorrow, itâs a joke to even consider Illinois as B1G Champs. If wins are more important than anything like Underwoods says, doesnât that mean losses should hurt the most? Well, Illinois has double the amount of losses that Michigan has. Itâs the same logic that determined OSU as the B1G Football champs.
If Michigan loses tomorrow, I can see the argument since Illinois would actually be a half-game ahead. But claiming that not playing three cupcake opponents and sitting out 20+ days actually benefits Michigan is crazy talk.
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Illini being so obtuse as to suggest Warde had control over the particulars of a global pandemic is both selfish and naive. The entire NCAA D1 hoops started this season thrilled with an opportunity to have any semblance of a season with expectations of disruption. Uncertainty hung over each club from game 1. Accept the consequences and be proud of your season. By the rule of the league Michigan won the conference. Move on.
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Well said.
The part I find so sad is that Illinois had a golden opportunity to change how they are perceived in this moment and they chose to dig a deeper hole for themselves. I have actually been rooting for Ayo and Underwood for the last few years because I believed they were really becoming a dangerous team. In doing so I wrote off some of their behavior as the result of them being âscrappy underdogs trying to claw their way to success and respectâ. From his freshman year Ayo struck me as very talented but also a bit psycho. I wondered if his behavior would hurt him professionallyâŚHe seemed to be maturing and blossoming and I was happy for him. For Ayo to join in on the Co champion claim, in my mind, just wipes away any strides he seemed to be making in that category.
I wish Ayo would have used the position he is in to present himself as a maturing adult and good sportsmen. He is about to transition into his professional career for godâs sake. Does he not realize that how he presents himself matters?
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I donât think Ayo said anything unprofessional. NBA players will call out things they think are unfair in interviews too. (I havenât heard the interview but it could have been a leading question too.) just file this under being competitive.
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Tough situation here but I put the blame with the Big Ten conference and am much angrier at them than I am at Illinois. I mentioned this earlier but the bottom line is that if Michigan loses today, Illinois has a legitimate beef. I havenât run it through any of the sites but Iâm guessing the odds to Kenpom and Torvik and the like that M would sweep those three games is somewhere in the 50% range. Its not fair to assume M would go 3-0 nor is it fair to assume theyâd lose a game. Both are possible.
The logical solution in that scenario would have been co-champs. We obviously have co-champs all the time in Big Ten hoops and it would be reflective of the achievement for the season. Iâm not sure why the conference didnât come to this conclusion but I have a hard time being mad at the Illinois players for feeling ripped off. It felt like this was not thought through, it would have been very easy to include a provision that if the top two teams played unequal number of games and winning percentages were within a certain threshold, co champs. 
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Right, if they want to claim they are the best in the B1G go for it. Kinda dumb to claim that only the game against Michigan matters in that regard, but at least it makes a little sense.
They obviously entered the season with the goal of winning the B1G, but they clearly fell short. Accept that and move on to winning the B1G tourney and the national championship.
I feel sad (not mad) that Ayo did not use the opportunity to distance himself from his coaches crazy claims to be co-champions prior to us finishing out our season. If we lose today I think Juwan should make a gesture that Illinois has a valid gripe.
Heâs 21 years old and you want him to publically say something along the lines of âmy coach is wrong, Michigan deserves it, we didnât win itâ? That seems completely unreasonable to me. I donât think youâre disagreeing with my point that if M loses today they should be co-champs, right? I wouldnât expect Ayo to have the take that oh weâll sit and wait to see if M wins tomorrow and if they lose weâll complain. Theyâre mad because it seems like that scenario was never even considered.
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Looks like Purdue is our 4 seed if Iowa wins today. Otherwise Iowa is our 4 seed.
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I donât think 21 is too young to choose to refrain from jjoining- in on something that does not make sense. 21 is old enough to understand that there is not a perfect built in fairness in all league play-especially a league where teams play different in-league strength of schedules. Unfairness is built-in obviously.
I do think there is merit to your idea that the big ten could have/should have made a provision about declaring co-champions between two teams, who played a different amount of games, if their relative win percentages are within a certain range. The next thing to ask yourself is would 16-4 versus 15-2 fall into that PRE-decided range? No way. No way. No way.
16-4 versus 14-3? Yes probably.
A big part of what is mind boggling is that they are making claims prior to us finishing our season. After today we might have 7.5 wins for every loss which is significantly better than 4 wins for ever loss which is where Illinois has finished.
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