It was for mens hoops last season. IU has played one less game than us. If we both win out, we will be 14-3, they will be 13-3. We win. Plus we beat them head to head. And, IIRC, we have the better overall record. Iowa and Maryland have 4 losses and play each other this week, so one of them will be eliminated. IU plays @Iowa and @ Maryland to close out the season. Sets up pretty well for us.
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Beat State!
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So rooting guide for this week:
Monday - Iowa to beat Indiana
Thursday - Michigan to beat MSU, Iowa and OSU to lose to Rutgers & PSU (neither likely)
Friday - Maryland to beat Indiana (if IU beats Iowa. If Iowa won, doesn’t really matter)
Sunday - Michigan to beat Iowa, MSU to beat OSU
Michigan controls their own destiny. Go 2-0 and we win the title. Split the games and it could get messy and we’ll depend on results from other games.
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Iowa knocked off IU tonight. All of the contenders now have 4 losses, and IU still has a game at Maryland. Michigan is the only team with 3 losses. MSU in town Thursday night. Cannot let them ruin our season. They lost tonight to bottom dweller PSU.
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Sparty gals thought they already ruined the season in E Lansing. Maddy Nolan looking at you for 6 3s on Thurs. GO BLUE! 
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2-0 and the title is ours alone.
1-1 and it’ll go down to winning %. Who wins the conference or if there’s a tie depends on other results.
If the one loss is to Iowa, we’ll be tied with Iowa and likely OSU, and the winner of the IU-Maryland game. We have the head to head advantage over, IU, Maryland and OSU, the overall winning percentage over Iowa. Also, I believe that IU will have played one game less than us, so we would finish ahead of a 4 loss IU team.
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Was just looking through the schedules and here is everyone’s record against other contenders:
Michigan - 6-0 (OSU x2, Maryland x2, Iowa, Indiana)
OSU - 2-4 (wins vs Iowa, Maryland; losses to Michigan x2, IU, Maryland)
Maryland - 2-4 (wins vs OSU, Iowa; losses to Michigan x2, OSU, IU)
Iowa - 2-3 (wins vs IU x2, losses to Michigan, OSU, Maryland)
Indiana - 2-3 (wins vs Maryland, OSU; losses to Iowa x2, Michigan)
What’s unfortunate is that Michigan has clearly been the better team for the conference slate. Two of our losses are against inferior teams, but without our second best player. I know IU, OSU and Maryland have had injury issues as well. But we’ve beaten the other contenders and at worst, we will be 6-1 against them. If we beat Iowa, we will have almost as many wins against the other contenders than the rest combined. Would be a shame not to win the conference after this season.
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Is Leigha Brown ever coming back? The team’s ceiling is completely different with her in the lineup.
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She was a guest on Inside Michigan Basketball podcast. Sounds like she’s eager to go. Best guess - reading the tea leaves- she’s back for BTT but I have no real insight.
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Senior night tipping off on BTN against MSU. Win tonight can potentially clinch the B1G title (depending on other results tonight), realistically gonna have to win tonight and @ Iowa to end the season
Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. So. Many. Turnovers.
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Just painful stupid turnovers. If you don’t have the post entry, don’t throw the freaking post entry! How is this complicated? You have it or you don’t. It’s not the kind of thing where you throw the pass and hope for the best.
I also just cannot conceive why this team struggles with the concept of holding for the last shot. Just how?
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Naz is single-handedly keeping them in this game right now.
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I don’t understand the concept of throwing a pass you’re not 99% confident is going to be completed.
Steals happen from the defense doing something you didn’t expect, someone making an outstanding play/having an unexpectedly long reach and flicking the ball away, or a physical failure to execute the pass. But it should never be because you threw a pass up for grabs. I just don’t get it.
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Unfortunately, that is a very common theme with this team and could very well be their undoing in one of the postseason tournaments. You can’t force the ball where there isn’t a place for it to go. I am amazed by the number of unlikely over-the-top passes they manage to complete down to the block, but they clearly have practiced it enough to make it worthwhile most of the time. The forced entry passes, however, are so unnecessary and everyone can see the steal coming before the pass is out of the ball handler’s hands.
They are so fortunate to be tied at the half. It should only take a normal, clean, solid effort to win against this MSU team in the second half. Clean up the turnovers and stay out of foul trouble and this shouldn’t be a difficult finish, but I guess we’ll see.
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Also, Leigha Brown can not get back soon enough. I don’t know how this team hangs with Iowa again without her.
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Phelia with some solid possessions guarding Clowden to end the third quarter.
Up four heading into the fourth. Finish!
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Defense stepping up bigly! A couple shot clock violations or forcing bad shots late in the clock. We have a 10 point lead and some breathing room but can’t let up
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Not to get too far ahead of things here, but I hate that Michigan will likely end up not winning the conference (not that they can’t beat Iowa on the road but I wouldn’t predict it) simply because they didn’t get a gimme against Illinois rescheduled. And it’s not like the Illinois AD is looking to do any favors for a Michigan basketball program.
Edited to add: especially since they will have taken the season series and therefore tiebreakers against Maryland, Ohio State, and Indiana – all of them handily, no less. And if not for Caitlin Clark going absolutely bonkers in the 4th quarter of the Iowa game they’d have blown out Iowa as well in their only matchup so far.
If they do manage to beat Iowa, I can’t think of a much more dominant way for Michigan to have won their first conference title.