It isn’t even worth arguing about Wisconsin. They play ugly basketball with a motley collection of mediocre players and are not on the same level as the better teams in the league…but will annoy us all by probably finishing with a better conference record than some of the more talented teams, getting a decent seed, and getting upset in the tourney. All of those things can be true…and frustrating.
I think the question is absolutely who you think will win Big Ten games.
The reality is that if we did tiers at the end of the last Big Ten season then Wisconsin wouldn’t have been in the first tier. They had the results but wouldn’t be considered the best team going into the Big Ten Tourney by anyone’s imagination.
This really isn’t complicated. Wisconsin last year is a really good example, as is the Michigan 2012 example. Neither of those teams were anything close to the best team in the league.
I don’t think there’s any need to use KenPom to have the discussion. KenPom is just one measure of how good teams are. There are plenty of different ways to frame it.
when you win more games than everybody else YOU’RE THE REGULAR SEASON CHAMPION.
That’s the accomplishment. When you beat a team, you win the game. It doesn’t mean you are a better team.
When you win four games in four days, you are the Big Ten Tourney champs. It doesn’t mean you are the best team in the league.
I’d say ranking the best teams is about who you think would win if they played the other team on a neutral floor tomorrow.
If you like Wisconsin through that lens more than teams like Rutgers, OSU, Illinois and Indiana… That’s fair, but I don’t think looking back at last year as an example is particularly useful given what we know about Wisconsin last year.
My main thing on Wisconsin is that they are shooting the lights out from 3 and still not great on offense. They shoot a lot of them… what happens if they go cold? Always skeptical of teams that can’t make twos efficiently.
Like Illinois a lot for the opposite reason. They shoot a ton of threes but can’t make them, but still are efficient on twos.
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I feel like it’s a really boomer way to evaluate things. The people who say the best team always wins the conference are the same people who put too much weight to not head to head. We have so many available tools to compare teams now, there’s no need to simplify it.
I’ll put Rutgers in tier 1 with Purdue if they win
Rutgers mucking up a low scoring game and Edey with two fouls…that’s the first half you want.
If Purdue loses we are automatically better than them because we will be higher in the standings. Nothing else matters in the comparison
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Purdue is nowhere near as good as anybody thinks they are. Edey is individually for sure but this team will not run away with this league
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Especially if they drop one on their home court to Rutgers. Though Rutgers is DEFINETLY playing into the conversation of winning the league. Especially keeping in mind they basically won @ OSU.
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Rutgers just got one of the absolute luckiest bounces on a 3 pointer I’ve ever seen. Game currently tied at 52. Mackey is rocking
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Fletcher Loyer had two of the nerviest FTs you’ll ever see earlier and now drains a 3 with 30 seconds to take the lead
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wish we had Loyer and Mulcahy on our team
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While this has been a good game, it was pretty ugly until the last few minutes. Very entertaining and some high level stuff here.
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The early posts on the Fletcher Loyer thread are pretty funny to re-visit. Hard to blame people, but he would definitely be useful. And Michigan was on him early.
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Some tremendous ball movement by Purdue on that last possession.
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Rutgers survives despite a couple of total brain farts by Caleb McConnell. Cam Spencer with a dagger three after a Loyer dagger three the previous possession.
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Wow…what an ending. Two insane bone headed plays by McConnell weren’t enough to lose the game.
Off topic, but in case you were watching basketball there was a frightening incident in MNF. After a tackle one of the Bills safeties collapsed and had to be given emergency CPR for several minutes on the field before being taken away in an ambulance. Terrifying.
Great game. Rutgers is legit I think. Probably one of the best defenses in the country and the offense will improve just enough with the full group more healthy.
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