Has any BT team ever sent 71%+ of its non-freshmen, scholarship players (all but Sissoko and Brooks) to media day? For that matter, has any BT team ever sent 5 players to media day? I agree that Michigan fans can sometimes create over-the-top narratives with Izzo and MSU, but this doesn’t seem like that to me—it seems like the oddity lies with what MSU is doing, not how others are interpreting it. There is not, to me, any real comparison between sending Jace, a captain, as 1 of 3, and sending Akins, a non-captain who is very unlikely to start, as 1 of 5.
I mean, it is clearly an “I like all my guys” type of thing. That’s fine. I don’t think it is “Wow, Jaden Akins is unhappy, we must send him to keep him happy.”
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What’s the higher number, Jaden Akins starts this season or Jaden Akins Big Ten Media Day appearances this season?
Bringing Akins isn’t the funny part to me, bringing 5 guys is objectively hilarious though 
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What’s funnier, 5? Or Minnesota’s 1?
It’s the main problem with MSU. If you picked any of the returners you have no idea if they are one of the 2-3 best returners.
I respect teams that bring one because that guy is the main guy (Edey, Battle, etc.).
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Sending any 2-3 of Hoggard/Hall/Akins seemed pretty straightforward for this group but hey Tyson Walker and Joey Hauser also play on the team and despite playing large roles on a bad team last season are primed for breakout years!
Purdue sending just Edey is my second favorite group from an entertainment perspective. Last year I believe they sent 3 guys and Jaden Ivey wasn’t one of them. I love the READ BETWEEN THE LINES game of media day decisions.
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Maryland brought Mark Turgeon! And Illinois brought Andre Curbelo. What could have been.
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I remember Juwan saying Gard was one of the coaches he’d actually befriended. Pre slap of course. So makes sense they’ve gotten past it
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Doesn’t mean Joel Krabbenhoft and Juwan have squashed the beef though. That game is still circled on the calendar.
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While I like Akins and think his upside is high, these sort of events usually aren’t for potential breakout candidates that didn’t show a lot the prior season. It’s usually for established vets and/or stars. Akins and Hepburn are the only two players there that aren’t upper-classmen and Hepburn was a starter that played major minutes. Akins feels more out of place even though he may have a higher ceiling than Walker and Hauser.
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I mean, Curbelo went and Ivey didn’t and everyone made jokes. I just don’t think the whole thing is really that big of a deal or means something big picture.
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Good point. But being cynical, I wonder how “staged” that picture was.
“Look all friendly so we can tweet this picture out and put this all behind us.”
Minnesota sending 1 guy for what’s only a 10 minute car ride is weird.
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There’s a lot to unpack with that Hoggard quote:
- Lol at someone tooting their own horn…but whatever…just don’t look at his shooting %
- Saying you have the best backcourt in this version of the B10 isn’t something to be proud of really
- What if he’s right? Yikes…
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Dylan, respectfully, I think you’re trying too hard. Curbelo was expected to be a starter and a star. IIRC, Painter didn’t bring Ivey because he bought upperclassmen. In all the time you’ve been observing BT Media Day, how many guys who did not fell into one or more of the following categories–expected starter, upperclassmen, and/or captain–have appeared other than Akins? And if you can think of any (I can’t), how many of those were add-ons to a group which was already bigger even without Akins than the contingent brought by any other BT tam except Iowa? It may be nothing more than something we can laugh at, but it’s definitely weird.
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Yeah, the fact that he can make the statement with a straight face and you can’t immediately think of other teams with clearly better backcourts to say he’s wrong really goes to show the lack of quality guards that will be in the league this year
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