MSU 67 @ Wisconsin 59

[johnny2x2x]

That was a tough tough grind it out win. Defense was great and we worked the glass. Goins and Winston hit some big 3s and we got a big road win.

Team is starting to play better again. Purdue lost, if Penn State can pull off an upset we could be tied for first in the conference again.

 

[MSUMatt28]

Huge win. Save for the 2 meetings with UM, the rest of the schedule is pretty manageable. This keeps them within striking distance.

 

[SpartyNash]

Really pleased with wards defense for a bulk of that game. Tillman held his own as well against Happ. Henry was very underrated and came up big for us tonight I thought. Michigan down 13 at half and 4 FTs coming up after Beilein got tossed, who knows if they can hold but still something to keep an eye on.

 

[johnny2x2x]

Really pleased with wards defense for a bulk of that game. Tillman held his own as well against Happ. Henry was very underrated and came up big for us tonight I thought. Michigan down 13 at half and 4 FTs coming up after Beilein got tossed, who knows if they can hold but still something to keep an eye on.

Henry had a great game, especially defensively He's a little bit like Branden Dawson. Better handles and shot, but an athletic defender. Not as good of a rebounder or athlete as Dawson, but he's got a chance to be really good here.

 

[johnny2x2x]

Tied for first in the Big Ten. Really have to hope Purdue drops another 1 because I don't think we win out. UM will probably lose a couple more with their schedule.

 

[Spartanmack]

Huge win. Save for the 2 meetings with UM, the rest of the schedule is pretty manageable. This keeps them within striking distance.

Purdue and uofm losing were huge. We almost control our own destiny now - win out and we're guaranteed a split with Purdue at a minimum. Unfortunately the balance of our schedule is considerably tougher than theirs w/ uofm 2x (we both play IU on the road) while everyone Purdue faces is sub .500 in B1G play except osu who is right at .500.

 

[johnny2x2x]

Purdue and uofm losing were huge. We almost control our own destiny now - win out and we're guaranteed a split with Purdue at a minimum. Unfortunately the balance of our schedule is considerably tougher than theirs w/ uofm 2x (we both play IU on the road) while everyone Purdue faces is sub .500 in B1G play except osu who is right at .500.

Purdue has a way of Purdon'ting on the road, 4 of 6 away, I think they drop 1.

We play 4 of 6 at home. @ IU will be a revenge game. I'd say a loss at UM is more likely than not, but the rest of our games are winnable.

UM's schedule gets really tough @ Minny @ Maryland @MSU vs Maryland vs MSU and vs Nebraska. UM's only playing 6 players right now and they look like they have some players hitting the wall. That's a gauntlet to run to close the season. And the way they are scheduled is tough too. vs Maryland Saturday, @Minny Thursday night, vs MSU on Sunday. So you're basically traveling late Thursday night and get back Friday and have 1 down day Saturday before playing a more rested MSU Sunday afternoon. Fatigue might be an issue.

 

[Sbee]

Purdue has a way of Purdon'ting on the road, 4 of 6 away, I think they drop 1.

We play 4 of 6 at home. @ IU will be a revenge game. I'd say a loss at UM is more likely than not, but the rest of our games are winnable.

UM's schedule gets really tough @ Minny @ Maryland @MSU vs Maryland vs MSU and vs Nebraska. UM's only playing 6 players right now and they look like they have some players hitting the wall. That's a gauntlet to run to close the season. And the way they are scheduled is tough too. vs Maryland Saturday, @Minny Thursday night, vs MSU on Sunday. So you're basically traveling late Thursday night and get back Friday and have 1 down day Saturday before playing a more rested MSU Sunday afternoon. Fatigue might be an issue.

I think Purdue has 2 more losses in them, we likely lose at UM and win the rest.

Still can't believe we lost to such a shitty IU team in EL

 

[Spartanmack]

I guess Purdue is due for a let down loss - so far they've only lost to uofm, md and MSU, all on the road but I think you're dreaming if you think they drop 2 with their remaining schedule which arguably gives them the best shot at the B1G outright title.

 

[gotime909]

I guess Purdue is due for a let down loss - so far they've only lost to uofm, md and MSU, all on the road but I think you're dreaming if you think they drop 2 with their remaining schedule which arguably gives them the best shot at the B1G outright title.

4 of the 7 remaining games are on the road. All of those teams are good enough to beat them. Plus they have OSU at home who also is good enough to beat them. It?s not crazy to think they lose 2 or even 3 of those 7 games.

It?s also not unlikely that MSU loses 2-3 games.

 

[Spartanmack]

4 of the 7 remaining games are on the road. All of those teams are good enough to beat them. Plus they have OSU at home who also is good enough to beat them. It?s not crazy to think they lose 2 or even 3 of those 7 games.

It?s also not unlikely that MSU loses 2-3 games.

Maybe I should have said you're dreaming if you think they're more likely to drop 2 games than either MSU of uofm. Purdue is 3-3 on the road in conference play, not because they're not a good road team but because those three losses were to uofm, md and MSU - 3 of the best teams in the conference. I guess if you mean the remaining road teams are good enough to beat them given psu was good enough to beat uofm, then sure they could lose a couple of them.

Purdue is the only team in the conference without a bad loss and the rest of their games are against the dregs of the B1G and they've already won a couple tough road games - @ Wisco and OSU. Four of uofm's 6 remaining games are WAY tougher than anyone Purdue has and the other two are against common opponents. Our remaining schedule is a lot tougher too.

 

[gotime909]

Maybe I should have said you're dreaming if you think they're more likely to drop 2 games than either MSU of uofm. Purdue is 3-3 on the road in conference play, not because they're not a good road team but because those three losses were to uofm, md and MSU - 3 of the best teams in the conference. I guess if you mean the remaining road teams are good enough to beat them given psu was good enough to beat uofm, then sure they could lose a couple of them.

Purdue is the only team in the conference without a bad loss and the rest of their games are against the dregs of the B1G and they've already won a couple tough road games - @ Wisco and OSU. Four of uofm's 6 remaining games are WAY tougher than anyone Purdue has and the other two are against common opponents. Our remaining schedule is a lot tougher too.

Looking back at their full road schedule this year they are 3-5. 2 of those 3 wins were in overtime(last one to Penn St). Those 3 road losses in conference they had weren?t just losses, they got blown the hell out. I?m thinking now that?s it more likely that they lose at least 2 of those 4 games now.

 

[Spartanmack]

Looking back at their full road schedule this year they are 3-5. 2 of those 3 wins were in overtime(last one to Penn St). Those 3 road losses in conference they had weren’t just losses, they got blown the hell out. I’m thinking now that’s it more likely that they lose at least 2 of those 4 games now.

we'll see - there's no shame in an OT win at Wisco. As for the blowouts, we didn't really pull away from them until about 5 minutes to go where we held them to 2 pts the rest of the game. Then they led at MD for a lot of the game and were still in it at the 3 minute mark despite only scoring 4 points in the last 8 minutes. Only uofm controlled them for the whole game. I don't see too many of their future opponents being the kind of teams that will wear them down. They do have 3 games about every 7 days from here so that could play into it, particularly late in the season - to me, that's the bigger risk than who they're playing on the road.

I'll definitely take the under on 2.5 road losses from hear.

 

[johnny2x2x]

Illinois just beat Ohio State in Columbus 63-56. They’ve won 5 of 6 and frankly look good.

 

[SpartyNash]

Illinois just beat Ohio State in Columbus 63-56. They?ve won 5 of 6 and frankly look good.

I?d like to see Illinois become good again, I miss battling with them atop the conference. It?s inexcusable how bad they?ve been the past decade.

 

[johnny2x2x]

I?d like to see Illinois become good again, I miss battling with them atop the conference. It?s inexcusable how bad they?ve been the past decade.

The committee is using the NET rankings for Quad wins. Illinois winning bumped them up to a Quad 2 loss for us rather than a bad loss (Quad 3 would be a bad loss). We were 8th in the NET rankings going into last night, 7th after Illinois's win.

We lead the nation with 10 Quad 1 wins right now. It's the total opposite of how the committee was seeing us last season where we had only a few quad 1 wins. And we will have a shot at a few more Quad 1 wins in the regular season and a couple more in the BTT. If we go 28-6 with 14 Quad 1 wins, I think the committee would bump us over a 30-3 team that has only 3 Quad 1 wins, maybe even a 31-2 team. Just avoid Duke's region and we're in a good spot.

MSU is not an elite team without Langford, you can see it on film. Virginia, Tennessee, and Duke are clearly on a different level than us. But with the right draw who knows what can happen.

 

[Spartanmack]

I?d like to see Illinois become good again, I miss battling with them atop the conference. It?s inexcusable how bad they?ve been the past decade.

weirdest team in the B1G - Illinois produces gobs of basketball talent yet UofI has never been consistently competitive. Dook and KU have always had a lot of success pulling elite talent from Chicago. The Flying Illini who were probably the best team in the country in '88/'89 were the last great team until Bill Self showed up - they didn't even have many good teams. Since he left, and took his cheating ways to KU, about the best thing you can say about them has been that they make MSU play their worst basketball of just about every season when they play at Assembly Hall (now the State Farm Center). that's probably an exaggeration, but when it comes to basketball recruiting, they're like Rutgers is in football - tons of in-state talent that they can't keep in-state.

 

[Spartanmack]

does anyone still think purdue probably loses 2 road games? if this mcquaid injury is serious I'd say they have at least as good a chance of winning rhe B1G championship as we do.

i wonder what this does to the odds sbee posted the other day? the odds for a 3 way split have to be better of w/o Ward and McQuaid in the lineup

 

[gotime909]

Yeah they really put it to Indy and Neb in those first two road games.

 

[Spartanmack]

Yeah they really put it to Indy and Neb in those first two road games.

like that matters - they won and their remaining schedule is still much easier than ours and they're healthy or at least healthier than we are. we still have a shot at winning it outright but those odds sbee posted last week have definitely changed.