Mid-January thoughts on the Big Ten

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The efficiency margins are not adjusted for opponent right? Feels like OSU’s might be a little bloated by their blowout of Nebraska.

Don’t get me wrong, as a Butler grad and fan, I know Holtmann’s greatest skill is getting his teams super competent, but that can sometimes be a mirage. His Big Ten script is pretty similar to what happened in the Big East. It goes something like this:

  1. Run through the non-con with only a loss or two because you play more like a seasoned team than most foes can match early in the season.

  2. Blowout teams who play sloppy, and win close against sloppy/talented teams.

  3. Hit skid when other teams can match your level of organization and have skill to attack your deficiencies.

  4. Settle into upper middle of conference that is competitive with top teams but can’t hang on the road,

  5. Lose first round of conference tournament

  6. Go exactly as far as your seed says you should in the tournament.

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That’s correct. A lot of teams have blown out Nebraska, though. Two blowouts against Rutgers is what’s setting OSU apart. But they also have only beaten Rutgers and Nebraska.

I think they are closer to “the rest” than the contenders for sure.

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I think OSU is going to have a bit of a dilemma long term with Holtmann. He will always have their team above average in the conference but I’m not sure he has enough juice to ascend to conference champ level or protected seed in the tournament level.

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Our schedule is pretty amazing. We ramped up nicely in the NC portion and in conf play, Only one road game against the top teams and all come after we found our fifth gear this last week.

He was on pace for a 5 seed again last year… If you can get a 4-7 seed every year, your program will be in fine shape.

Don’t think anyone at Ohio State will worry too much about that honestly.

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You don’t think they’ll lose patience at some point if he doesn’t get them back close to the highest heights under Matta?

Thanks for these comments about holtman. I haven’t watched this closely as you, but I have noticed enough to think that he’s not quite an elite coach as he’s often made out to be.

No not really, sometimes I feel like no one even remembers Thad Matta. I think they are fine with being decent in basketball and contending occasionally. Just don’t think its that high on their priorities.

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Unlike us, tOSU is not a basketball school.

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Good graph that builds off my point on UM’s offense.

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Considering OSUs current success in the lesser sport I imagine their fans are content as long as they are consistently making the tournament

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Glad you are on board here. How did you become Michigan fan?

I think this is only exacerbated by the level of coaching in this conference. We have only 2-3 guys I would consider “weak” coaches in the B1G. Just a few years ago, we went 13-5 in the B1G. That would be good for 2nd in most years (in Beilein’s previous 10 years as a coach it was good for at least a share of 2nd 5x, 3rd 2x, 4th 2x and 1st 1x). We finished tied for 4th. Holtmann could go the next five years finishing outside the top 3 of the conference and still get 4 seeds in the NCAA tourney and have the occasional deep run.

Overall, I think he’s a very good coach. But there’s alot of very good coaches in this conference.

LSU should run more post stuff!

Are we getting to a point where the level of coaching in the conference is a bit overrated?

Izzo is the only Big Ten coach who has been to a Final Four, right?

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My first thought is that the relative coaching ability mirrors the conferences in general. Izzo is elite, and the rest of the coaches are anywhere from great to good (with a few cough Richy cough) exceptions. But Izzo isnt as good as K, Calipari, Wright, Self (Bennett?). And then the ACC and SEC (and Big 12?) have been out-recruiting the B1G for a while now – granted, recruiting is a huge component of coaching

Juwan Howard, Fran McCaffery, Greg Gard, Brad Underwood, Chris Holtmann, Archie Miller, Matt Painter, Chris Collins, Richard Pitino, Tom Izzo, Mark Turgeon, [____], Fred Hoiberg

That’s the Big Ten coaching roster by current position in the standings. It’s a good coaching roster but I’m not sure it is so ridiculous that Holtmann is getting drowned out.

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Yeah the B1G coaches are much like the B1G as a whole for the last 3 or so year: deep, solid, not many you see winning a title. Juwans probably the one you look at as someone that has that level of upside (besides Izzo who’s already there) but it’s still very early in his career

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IDK, that athletic department is crazy aggressive. The way they fired matta was something and i dont think that would have happened at any other b1g school. They also love comparing themselves to um(even though myself and most um fans dont really consider them a hoops rival ) and if um continues on this recruiting and on court success trajectory they wont be content playing second fiddle.

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