How disappointing was the Big Ten this year?

College Basketball
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<blockquote I really enjoyed the Mid Major conference tournament games over the weekend. Thought that was some quality basketball. I also thought those games were ref'd better than anything I saw in the Big Ten this year.

As far as the Big Ten, it was way down this year which makes this season even harder to swallow.

I didn’t get a chance to watch any of the smaller conference tournaments and I regret that. I saw there was a lot close games that went down to wire, good stuff. And many of the scores were in the 70’s or more. Hard to find a B1G game in which both teams scored 70 or more.

The best basketball I saw this year came from our local colleges (Grand Rapids, Mi).
Cornerstone University and Davenport, both NAIA II schools are heading to Nationals.
Both draw top talent that could have (or have) played higher up and chose to go small.

22

If Ferrell and Blackmon return I could see Indiana being pretty good with the core they have and the possibility of adding Thomas Bryant or Thon Maker. Appears as though Ferrell is leaning toward coming back to IU from this interview.

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2015/03/07/doyel-missed-free-throw-yogis-last-hoosier-home-hurrah/24570293/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

23

If Ferrell and Blackmon return I could see Indiana being pretty good with the core they have and the possibility of adding Thomas Bryant or Thon Maker. Appears as though Ferrell is leaning toward coming back to IU from this interview.

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2015/03/07/doyel-missed-free-throw-yogis-last-hoosier-home-hurrah/24570293/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

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It will be interesting to see if Crean is the head coach there next season.

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It will be interesting to see if Crean is the head coach there next season.

I hope so. Crean probably isn’t as bad of a coach as a lot of people make him out to be, but I don’t think he is a good coach by any means. He’s a pretty good recruiter, but a below-average in-game coach, and an all-around weird dude.

You have to think IU is a pretty attractive job for a coach. They have tradition, a dedicated fan base, and fertile recruiting ground. I think they could do a lot better than Crean.

26

Outside of Wisconsin the conference was very bad.

The rest of the conference is mediocre and it will show in the tournament.

27
Outside of Wisconsin the conference was very bad.

The rest of the conference is mediocre and it will show in the tournament.

You don’t think much of Top 10 Maryland?

Their 4 losses in the Big 10 were on the road and their 1 non-conf loss was to Virginia.
Beat Wisconsin and Iowa State this year.

I think they’re a solid team and are balanced with Wells, Trimble, and Layman being tough to defend.

28

Maryland is one of the luckiest teams in the country. Now that is great because it means they won a lot of close games (I believe that’s a positive, not so much ‘luck’), but it is also a red flag.

You don’t want to play close games in March because it could cost you. MSU, Iowa, OSU, Purdue all outscored Big Ten comp by more than the Terps this year.

Wrote this in my Power Rankings that I’m about to publish, but they remind me a bit of Michigan 2012 in the sense that they really battled through the Big Ten with some big wins, but are a huge upset candidate in the tourney.

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Outside of Wisconsin the conference was very bad.

The rest of the conference is mediocre and it will show in the tournament.

You don’t think much of Top 10 Maryland?

Their 4 losses in the Big 10 were on the road and their 1 non-conf loss was to Virginia.
Beat Wisconsin and Iowa State this year.

I think they’re a solid team and are balanced with Wells, Trimble, and Layman being tough to defend.

They have always been a bit of fools gold to me. Its just my personal take on it and as Dylan points out the numbers kinda reflect that.

I am not sold on anyone besides Wisconsin. I think if Maryland had to play at Wisconsin, it would have been a blowout win for Wisconsin.

But I do give them credit for winning a lot of these close games. However, I think it will eventually catch up to them.

Maryland being the next best team in the Big Ten to me is indicative of how poor the rest of the conference really is.

30

Nebraska loses to Penn St. They might have been the most disappointing team in the entire NCAA this year.

31

Lost 11 of final 12 games. Really ugly.

This kind of says it all
Petteway: “I think we started feeling bad about ourselves when we lost to Incarnate Word. That’s when we got down.” #Nebrasketball

Glad that DJ Newbill gets to play another Big Ten game though.

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Lost 11 of final 12 games. Really ugly.

This kind of says it all
Petteway: “I think we started feeling bad about ourselves when we lost to Incarnate Word. That’s when we got down.” #Nebrasketball

Seeing that you really gotta give our guys and JB a ton of credit. After the losses to NJIT/EMU and losing LeVert and Walton, they didn’t just roll over and die like Nebraska did . They played hard the rest of the season and may have lost a lot more games than we would have liked but were at least competitive in most.