Two fascinating Big Ten games today: Nebraska vs. Texas Tech (9:30 pm) and Illinois vs. Iowa State (5:00 pm).
What are some good sites (team specific or otherwise) to read more info on Nebraska/Illinois and other B1G teams?
Good Q. Iām going to get back started with Big Ten Power Rankings coming up where Iāll hit on the league each week. Still playing catch up from the tourney over the weekend though and it can be tough during Feast Week because so much is going on. Hopefully have the first edition on Monday before the challenge.
Both Illinois and Nebraska have pretty active twitter presences, Iāll try to post some articles in here if I come across them.
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Awesome, thanks! Looking forward to the power rankings.
Big Ten also up to No. 2 rank on KenPom, just passed the ACC.
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Going to be a competitive league. I pity the bottom 4 Big Ten teams this year. They are going to get pounded twice weekly.
The bottom four on KenPom right now are Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois and Rutgers. Rutgers is the only team outside of the top-100 so there isnāt even much of a true ābottomā IMO.
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Interesting that the ACC is down to 3rd now. Werenāt they something like 30-0 as a conference at one point?
I donāt think itās super weird. In recent history, the Big 12 and ACC have been neck and neck.
SI just released a Mock Draft. Duke players go 1, 2 and 3. Romeo Langford at 7 and last but not least we have Iggy in at #30.
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Just another shoutout for you guys who follow Michigan recruits and also just hoops in general. Ericgetsbuckets has a great Twitter, Instagram and YouTube page for hoops. These are some great early season highlights on Carsen Edwards. He will post a lot of Michigan hoops this year too. Heās a big Michigan fan. So following him and Victors Valiant should provide plenty of quality film on Michigan and their players, recruits, and fellow Big Ten and national players.
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Minnesota has a nucleus of McBrayer, Murphy and Coffee and some young talent, but they are coached by Ricky Pitino.
I think I just read on The Athletic that Coffey has been running the point for them. Havent watched any of their games to see how thatās been working out, but if it goes okay, thatād be huge for his draft stock. It also seems like the fewer possessions for Washington/Jelly Fam, the better
Yeah Iām never real high on Minnesota due to coaching, but if they are going to be one of the worst teams in the league then I think the league is pretty good.
If Big Ten does well this week and next it will be really interesting to see how the 20 game schedule & NET ranking system play out.
What some of these 5 stars think about Izzo, never ceases to amaze me.
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Michigan State: āTom Izzo is a great coach. Some people I know have went there and a Hall of Famer that I know has gone there and he tells me about Tom Izzo all the time and says heās a great person and that itās a good school.ā
Soā¦ he knows Magic Johnson somehow? Canāt think of who else this āHall of Famerā would be.
Illinois is a messā¦
To be fair, theyāre actually up one spot on kenpom from where they started the season and played Gonzaga close yesterday. I just have no clue who at Illinois thought it would be a good idea to have a team thatās 307th in experience play such a difficult non-conference schedule. If Iām a team like that Iām trying to build chemistry and get some confidence with wins over mediocre teams. Georgetown, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Xavier, Notre Dame, and Missouri is a tough as hell slateā¦ Not to mention Nebraska and Ohio State as the filling of the sandwich. 8 top 100 teams and 4 top 30 is quite the baptism by fire for that group.
From my perspective, you should basically always schedule tough. Youāre consistently rewarded by the committee for it even if you lose a bunch of those games. Wins versus good teams are more important than losses from the committee perspective so Iād take all my chances to rack them up.
Illinois doesnāt have a good enough team to be worrying about that. Thatās my point, if you arenāt going to be fighting for the tourney then get the wins and build some confidence and chemistry. Yeah, itās good to have good wins. You also have to be good to get those good wins. Illinois is headings towards 6-7 in November and December.