I’m officially on Archie Island.
I’ll have whatever Teddy Greenstein’s having…Isaiah Livers first team all conference?
I truly cannot believe an MSU team that will likely start Matt McQuaid, Kenny Goins and two enormous defensive liabilities is a consensus top-2 pick in the conference across the board.
I get that the majority have them as the favorite…but I’m shocked not one person thinks a handful of Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana, Purdue will be better
Who would you rather have, Nick Ward or Isaiah Livers? I’d take the latter any day.
Definitely Ward for now…I don’t think Ward is an all-conference first team player either though. I wouldn’t be shocked if Livers crept his way into all-conference teams by his senior year but this year would be quite a pleasant surprise
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I’m surprised Ethan Happ only received 4 votes for POTY. I say that having voted for Carsen Edwards, but expected more of a 50-50 split.
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Do people know something about Nick Ward that I don’t? Is he going to be allowed to play > 20 mpg? Crazy that he received more first team votes than Jordan Murphy, who will certainly play >30 mpg.
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I didn’t think I’d be the only person to pick Indiana to win the league. Welcome to Archie Island. Hoosiers have best freshman, an All-Big Ten senior, length and athleticism with Jerome Hunter and Justin Smith and an underrated defense last season. My chips are down.
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MSU was only picked 1st or 2nd in a year where everyone is going to say the league is wide open. I’m actually high on Matt McQuaid playing more minutes, but replacing Bridges+Jackson with McQuaid and Goins (?) is something that you can’t underrate.
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Michigan is another team where I think the floor is probably overrated. Wolverines replace a ton and I don’t see much separating them from teams like Nebraska, Wisconsin, etc. yet only 2 people picked U-M lower than 3rd.
How about Nebraska at 11?
If Greenstein swaps Northwestern with Nebraska and Wisconsin with Maryland, that is actually the exact standings I have (which puts me on Team Purdue is reloading).
The Livers pick is a head scratcher for sure but I like that you both picked Cowan on the All-B10 team. To me he’s the most overlooked player in the league.
I mean Ward is pretty objectively better than Livers at the moment. For Michigan Livers is probably better cause I don’t know how Ward would fit into our offense, but 13 other Big Ten teams take Ward.
Makes sense to put MSU and UM at the top. The computers like those two the best. Michigan returns 5 of the top 8 players, including the regional MOP and starting PG, from a team that won the BTT after a 13-5 regular season and went to the Final Four.
MSU returns 5 of the top 8 players from a team that won the B10 at 16-2, including the starting backcourt and center. MSU has finished T2 or higher 7 of the past 10 years, and one of those other years went to the F4.
Both those teams have among the best freshman classes in the league coming in.
I get liking IU, but Miller has never finished in the top 50 in Torvik’s efficiency and Devontae Green is still the starting PG. You’re really counting on Romeo Langford to fix that offense. Still not much shooting there.
Think about it this way – if you had $1000 to bet on two teams to finish in the top 4, where would your money go? You can make cases for other teams to be better, but MSU and UM seem like the best sure things to be in the mix at the top.
If you give me odds based on the consensus projections I would probably put 750 on IU, 100 on Wisconsin and 150 on Nebraska.
Maybe this is just me, but I don’t think MSU’s incoming class is close to the best in the conference. Maryland, Indiana and Michigan each have deep classes with ready now type impact guys. I’d put MSU’s 5-man class closer to Ohio State / Northwestern level this year. Middle of the pack, some nice pieces but Loyer and Kithier won’t be ready anytime soon and I’m not as high on their trio of freshman wings as most people are. Honestly this reminds me of the Marvin Clark, Tum Tum, Javon Bess class.
I wish I could get odds on MSU missing the tournament this year. I legitimately think they could be a bubble team. They were almost a bubble team two years ago after they lost Valentine, Costello, Forbes and replaced them with Izzo’s best class ever. I just don’t see them replacing Bridges and Jackson with these incoming freshman. Ward has to stay on the floor and I’m skeptical he can become the 1st or 2nd option this team will need him to be. Opposing point guards that can score are going to eat this team alive. Josh Langford breakout year is the one thing that could immediately prove me wrong about MSU this year, but I’ll believe that when I see it.
If I had $1000, I’d put $500 on Michigan, $150 on Indiana, $150 on Maryland and $200 on whatever odds I can get that MSU misses the tourney lol
If we’re giving odds on those projections, I might split my $ on Iowa and OSU (although I’d want to look at the schedules again). But I meant without odds.
Side note: I’m kind of surprised that Mark Emmert participated.
I think MSU and UM are NCAA teams, but I just don’t think either of them wins the league this year.
Maybe I should’ve said highly ranked classes. Again, I can see arguments against MSU (and UM) or for other teams – although any argument against MSU probably starts with what you think of Winston, Langford, and Ward.
Well, you still ranked them 2 and 3!
I mean, if it’s UM/MSU vs the field, sure, and I get IU, but in a year with a lot of potentially good teams but a lot of question marks, slapping those two at the top with what they bring back is not only easy, it kind of makes sense.
Yeah, my comment was more about the process. It is hard not to pick UM or MSU in the top 3, but it is easy for me to see a situation where they don’t end up there.
Both teams lose so much in terms of important pieces, basically the pieces that made them what they were last year.
Was also funny to see how low OSU was picked last year.
I think Minnesota is the sleeper. Iowa and wiscy should both be Very tough too.