Why do so many people think the B1G is so good?

[Spartanmack]

I don't understand why so many people think the B1G is so good this year - it's nowhere near as good as it was last year - not even close. MSU lost less than anyone (I actually think we're a better team without Nix) but they've been a huge disappointment, IU is a shadow of what it was last year, OSU isn't nearly as good, Minn struggled w/ injuries last year but they are worse this year - even with guys stepping up, michigan has less talent this year than last. I'm not taking anything away from michigan - they're a good team but the fact that they are outright champs has more to do with the level of competition in the B1G than anything that's gone on in ann arbor.

Last year at this time there were several teams competing if not peaking at the end and the middle of the pack teams were a much bigger threat. This year, the league is so bad that Nebraska earned a bye in the first round of the BTT. The fact that Illinois beat 2 of the top 4 teams down the stretch indicates that the top of the B1G isn't all that good, not that the league is so competitive top-to-bottom.

 

[MSUMatt28]

The league is still ranked #2 overall behind the Big 12 but I'm not sure what to make of it. Wisconsin and MSU have good non-conference wins. UM had good losses I guess. OSU played a soft schedule but won them all with a few ok wins but nothing really noteworthy. Iowa was thought to be good because they had a couple of decent wins and looked good in losing efforts to Villanova and Iowa State, who as it turns out are pretty good. Some others like Illinois and Minnesota did ok outside of conference.

Strange how things have changed during the conference season though. UM is now surging. Wisconsin had a rough patch but seems to have recovered. OSU was always overrated but is still decent. We certainly are not the team people thought we'd be (yet???), Iowa at one time appeared to be VERY good but seems to really be fading. Illinois, Minnesota, and Indiana are up and down with some moment here and there, but more downs.

The conference season has been a mess and the league has really cannibalized itself. We've seen in the past where teams look rough for awhile in the Big Ten and then step back outside of conference and suddenly look like a different team again. I'm not so sure it's going to happen that way this year, but we'll see.

 

[Spartanmack]

The league has fallen off a cliff from where it was last year but based on all the talk you would think it hadn't regressed at all, or was even better. Another thing that boggles my mind is when people say it's so competitive from top-to-bottom. If that's the case, it's because of deterioration at the top more so than the bottom half being any kind of real threat.

 

[MSUMatt28]

It's definitely not what it was last year. But last year might have been the strongest the Big Ten had been since probably the early 90s.

 

[MSUMatt28]

I'll add that I don't think any conference is all that good this year. The Big 12 has the most depth but other than maybe Kansas it's just a collection of nice teams. The ACC is very weak after the top 4 with only Pitt, and maybe Clemson consistently approaching decent. And actually if the top 4 can lose games to teams like Maryland, Georgia Tech (at home), Notre Dame, and Wake Forest, then maybe that says something about the top of the ACC. The Pac 12 is a lesser version of the Big 12. One very good team and then a few "nice' teams after that. AAC is top heavy. The Big East is plain bad and the SEC is even worse. I think that's why we're seeing so many mid majors climb in the rankings this year.

 

[Spartanmack]

I'll add that I don't think any conference is all that good this year. The Big 12 has the most depth but other than maybe Kansas it's just a collection of nice teams. The ACC is very weak after the top 4 with only Pitt, and maybe Clemson consistently approaching decent. And actually if the top 4 can lose games to teams like Maryland, Georgia Tech (at home), Notre Dame, and Wake Forest, then maybe that says something about the top of the ACC. The Pac 12 is a lesser version of the Big 12. One very good team and then a few "nice' teams after that. AAC is top heavy. The Big East is plain bad and the SEC is even worse. I think that's why we're seeing so many mid majors climb in the rankings this year.

I would agree with that - I'm not making the case that any other conferences are better or worse. I wasn't looking at it on a relative basis - just looking at the B1G in isolation, and it seems like it's riding a reputation from last year when in my eyes, it's nothing like it was in the 2012/13 season.

As for KU, they just lost to WV and Ok St. Similar to the issue with the overall weakness in the B1G, parody in basketball in general this year seems to stem more from a lack of great teams separating themselves from the field than from competition from the 2nd and 3rd tier.

 

[MSUMatt28]

Riding the reputation from last year and also early this year when MSU, OSU and UW were all in the top 5. UW had good wins but was playing over their heads (and also got Florida short-handed and Virginia before they started playing well), OSU hadn't played anybody and climbed because others above them had lost to tougher opponents, and we were pre-injuries. Then we all started losing Big Ten games and people started thinking "whoa, the Big Ten is ridiculous".