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| Who will win the 2015 Big Ten Tournament? |
| #1 Maryland |
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48% |
[ 17 ] |
| #2 Iowa |
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17% |
[ 6 ] |
| #3 Ohio State |
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11% |
[ 4 ] |
| #4 Northwestern |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| #5 Rutgers |
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8% |
[ 3 ] |
| #6 Minnesota |
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5% |
[ 2 ] |
| #7 Nebraska |
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2% |
[ 1 ] |
| #8 Michigan |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| #9 Michigan State |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| #10 Illinois |
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5% |
[ 2 ] |
| #11 Wisconsin |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| #12 Indiana |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| #13 Penn State |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| #14 Purdue |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 35 |
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purduefanatic
Joined: 10 Aug 2011
Posts: 2819
Location: Indiana
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 Posted: 03/04/15 10:32 pm ::: |
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| The fun thing is that Purdue will now play Minnesota, whom they beat in Minneapolis during the regular season. However, since that victory, Purdue has been pretty awful and Minny has been on a roller coaster...could make for a very interesting game, esp seeing as Purdue has already gotten the nerves out of the way with a game tonight.
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Shades
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 63811
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| Posted: 03/05/15 12:23 am ::: |
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| purduefanatic wrote: |
| The fun thing is that Purdue will now play Minnesota, whom they beat in Minneapolis during the regular season. However, since that victory, Purdue has been pretty awful and Minny has been on a roller coaster...could make for a very interesting game, esp seeing as Purdue has already gotten the nerves out of the way with a game tonight. |
If I remember that game right, it was tightly officiated, which doesn't favor the Gophers. Wagner, one the least foul prone starters for the Gophs, fouled out with about 5 min left in regulation. Zahui fouled out with a lil over 2 min left. I think it went to OT and the Gophs got edged out.
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Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned
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purduefanatic
Joined: 10 Aug 2011
Posts: 2819
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: 03/05/15 10:00 am ::: |
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If you haven't seen the ending of the Purdue/Wisconsin game last night, you NEED to check it out. I was trying to figure out how to copy a video from a tweet to place it here but couldn't figure it out.
That is one of the craziest endings I have ever seen.
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beknighted
Joined: 11 Nov 2004
Posts: 11050
Location: Lost in D.C.
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| Posted: 03/05/15 5:21 pm ::: |
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| SpaceJunkie wrote: |
| Shades wrote: |
| SpaceJunkie wrote: |
| Maryland's competition this season isn't any better than UConn's. |
Are you talking conference games? |
Except for Iowa (who Maryland only beat by 5), the rest of the top Big Ten teams are pretty much no different level of competition than South Florida. I bet UConn could've gone undefeated in the Big Ten, and probably not have any scares (like barely beating Minnesota) in the process. |
Even if you were right (which I don't think is the case), there's a pretty big difference between a conference schedule with 2 games against South Florida and the rest against a bunch of tomato cans and a conference schedule with Maryland, Iowa and 4 teams on par with South Florida.
And while I don't think one pair of games is conclusive, it's worth noting that USF beat Temple at Temple by 12 and Rutgers beat Temple at Temple by 33.
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dinkytown
Joined: 18 Sep 2011
Posts: 2591
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| Posted: 03/05/15 11:45 pm ::: |
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Wednesday's results
(12) Indiana 68, (13) Penn State 63
(14) Purdue 58, (11) Wisconsin 56
Thursday's results
(9) Michigan State 69, (8) Michigan 49
(5) Rutgers 63, (12) Indiana 52
(7) Nebraska 86, (10) Illinois 71
(6) Minnesota 82, (14) Purdue 78
Friday, March 6 - Big Ten Network
11:30 AM CT - (1) Maryland v. (9) Michigan State
2:00 PM CT - (4) Northwestern v. (5) Rutgers
6:00 PM CT - (2) Iowa v. (7) Nebraska
8:30 PM CT - (3) Ohio State v. (6) Minnesota
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010
Posts: 9646
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| Posted: 03/06/15 7:32 am ::: |
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| The Big 10 coaches must really be happy that the league decided to expand with Maryland, who is better than all of their programs. Meanwhile, Duke's coach is no doubt pleased with the move. And even Rutgers is better than the average Big 10 school. The coaches were probably suggesting Clemson and Wake Forest.
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Shades
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 63811
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| Posted: 03/06/15 10:29 am ::: |
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| tfan wrote: |
| The Big 10 coaches must really be happy that the league decided to expand with Maryland, who is better than all of their programs. Meanwhile, Duke's coach is no doubt pleased with the move. And even Rutgers is better than the average Big 10 school. The coaches were probably suggesting Clemson and Wake Forest. |
It's not like Maryland is the UConn of the Big Ten. They've had several close games. There's talent throughout the Big Ten. Maryland has a great team game right now. Several good players but no one considered outstanding.
You build a strong watchable conference by adding strong teams. Why would the Big Ten want bad ACC teams? I would welcome UConn to the conference with open arms.
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Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned
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sigur3
Joined: 18 Jun 2013
Posts: 6191
Location: Chicago-ish
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| Posted: 03/06/15 10:32 am ::: |
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| I'm leaving now, LET'S GOOOOOO
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 66957
Location: Where the action is
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| Posted: 03/06/15 10:40 am ::: |
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| Shades wrote: |
| You build a strong watchable conference by adding strong teams. Why would the Big Ten want bad ACC teams? I would welcome UConn to the conference with open arms. |
The people in charge of adding teams don't care how good the prospective school's WCBB team is. It's all about football and market penetration. Maryland and Rutgers get the B1G (and its TV network) into Washington and New York and have football programs with some history. UConn does nothing like that for marketing and their football team is consistently terrible.
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I'm a lonely frog
I ain't got a home
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bacabuck
Joined: 28 May 2009
Posts: 245
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| Posted: 03/06/15 11:30 am ::: |
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| tfan wrote: |
| The Big 10 coaches must really be happy that the league decided to expand with Maryland, who is better than all of their programs. Meanwhile, Duke's coach is no doubt pleased with the move. And even Rutgers is better than the average Big 10 school. The coaches were probably suggesting Clemson and Wake Forest. |
Can't speak for the coaches, but as a buckeye fan I am very happy to have an elite team like Maryland in the BIG. For the lead-dog the view is endless horizons...........for the rest of us, only butts.
My rule of thumb is, if you have a loosing record in conference, you are BELOW average. A winning record, but not the conference winner, you are AVERAGE. Thus the six teams, Iowa thru Nebraska, are "average big 10 teams."...............I see little to choose between Iowa's 14-4, OSU's 13-5, Rutgers 12-6, or Nebraska's 10-8.
Maryland's 18-0, and high national ranking, however, makes me proud that they represent the big 10........Great job!
How long they can stay at the top, is a different discussion.
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 16365
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: 03/06/15 11:39 am ::: |
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| bacabuck wrote: |
My rule of thumb is, if you have a loosing record in conference, you are BELOW average. A winning record, but not the conference winner, you are AVERAGE. Thus the six teams, Iowa thru Nebraska, are "average big 10 teams."...............I see little to choose between Iowa's 14-4, OSU's 13-5, Rutgers 12-6, or Nebraska's 10-8. |
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010
Posts: 9646
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| Posted: 03/06/15 9:40 pm ::: |
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| Shades wrote: |
| tfan wrote: |
| The Big 10 coaches must really be happy that the league decided to expand with Maryland, who is better than all of their programs. Meanwhile, Duke's coach is no doubt pleased with the move. And even Rutgers is better than the average Big 10 school. The coaches were probably suggesting Clemson and Wake Forest. |
It's not like Maryland is the UConn of the Big Ten. They've had several close games. There's talent throughout the Big Ten. Maryland has a great team game right now. Several good players but no one considered outstanding. |
Doesn't matter if they win by 5 or 35, they added losses to the records of the Big 10 women's basketball coaches this year. So did Rutgers.
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You build a strong watchable conference by adding strong teams. Why would the Big Ten want bad ACC teams? I would welcome UConn to the conference with open arms. |
You have a different definition of "watchable" than I do. UConn coming in and winning by 30 every game would not make the conference more watchable to me. There is gonna be somebody at the bottom of the Big 10 no matter what teams are there. So the coaches want it to be the new teams not them, and I was talking about the coaches. Although the league might want teams more likely to bring them national glory as someone else was talking about, or northeast corridor markets as pilight mentioned.
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mzonefan
Joined: 15 Oct 2005
Posts: 4878
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: 03/06/15 10:35 pm ::: |
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| tfan wrote: |
| Shades wrote: |
| tfan wrote: |
| The Big 10 coaches must really be happy that the league decided to expand with Maryland, who is better than all of their programs. Meanwhile, Duke's coach is no doubt pleased with the move. And even Rutgers is better than the average Big 10 school. The coaches were probably suggesting Clemson and Wake Forest. |
It's not like Maryland is the UConn of the Big Ten. They've had several close games. There's talent throughout the Big Ten. Maryland has a great team game right now. Several good players but no one considered outstanding. |
Doesn't matter if they win by 5 or 35, they added losses to the records of the Big 10 women's basketball coaches this year. So did Rutgers.
| Quote: |
You build a strong watchable conference by adding strong teams. Why would the Big Ten want bad ACC teams? I would welcome UConn to the conference with open arms. |
You have a different definition of "watchable" than I do. UConn coming in and winning by 30 every game would not make the conference more watchable to me. There is gonna be somebody at the bottom of the Big 10 no matter what teams are there. So the coaches want it to be the new teams not them, and I was talking about the coaches. Although the league might want teams more likely to bring them national glory as someone else was talking about, or northeast corridor markets as pilight mentioned. |
That's a heck of a lot of speculation and generalization. Any coach at this level is competitive. To imply they'd want to be in a conference weakened by lesser teams is laughable. If they wanted it easy, they wouldnt have taken a job in a major conference in the first place.
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010
Posts: 9646
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| Posted: 03/06/15 10:49 pm ::: |
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| mzonefan wrote: |
That's a heck of a lot of speculation and generalization. Any coach at this level is competitive. To imply they'd want to be in a conference weakened by lesser teams is laughable. If they wanted it easy, they wouldn't have taken a job in a major conference in the first place. |
I would say most coaches prefer to win easy, than lose hard. And it is no less speculation and generalization to suggest that they wouldn't, than that they would.
Competitive people like to compete - and win. Competing and losing... not so much.
The major conference schools pay a lot more than other schools, so I don't see it as correct to suggest that coaches are only there because they want a harder job than if they were at a smaller school. And they have just as many losers per game at small schools as big ones.
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Durantula
Joined: 30 Mar 2013
Posts: 5223
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| Posted: 03/06/15 11:00 pm ::: |
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Even if you lose, if its a good loss it helps your RPI and I'd think helps the leagues SOS which will help all teams. Losing to Maryland or Rutgers might help more than beating Penn State or Purdue this year RPI wise (obviously not record wise). Big 10 has a high number of projected tourney teams if you go by Creme's bracket, so the additional losses must not have mattered much.
Big 10 women's basketball coaches might be able to recruit from a deeper talent pool. Urban Meyer and Tom Crean both said the Big 10 additions helps recruiting and now it makes more sense. A 2 hour radius from Rutgers and a 2 hours radius from Maryland get you access to a ton of players. Those players will now have Big Ten Network, can see the Big Ten teams in person when they are in high school and can be promised home conference games. The population decreases in major midwest cities like Detroit make it important that you can recruit players from outside your traditional area a little.
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sigur3
Joined: 18 Jun 2013
Posts: 6191
Location: Chicago-ish
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| Posted: 03/07/15 1:09 am ::: |
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Best band: Maryland, for playing the Legend of Zelda theme
Best percussion: Minnesota
Funniest mascot: Nebraska
Most tubas: Ohio State
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bucks4now
Joined: 28 Feb 2006
Posts: 723
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| Posted: 03/07/15 6:49 am ::: |
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| sigur3 wrote: |
Best band: Maryland, for playing the Legend of Zelda theme
Best percussion: Minnesota
Funniest mascot: Nebraska
Most tubas: Ohio State |
We have a lot of "I"'s to dot!
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cthskzfn
Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 12851
Location: In a world where a PSYCHOpath like Trump isn't potus.
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| Posted: 03/07/15 8:30 am ::: |
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| Shades wrote: |
| SpaceJunkie wrote: |
| Shades wrote: |
| SpaceJunkie wrote: |
| Maryland's competition this season isn't any better than UConn's. |
Are you talking conference games? |
Except for Iowa (who Maryland only beat by 5), the rest of the top Big Ten teams are pretty much no different level of competition than South Florida. I bet UConn could've gone undefeated in the Big Ten, and probably not have any scares (like barely beating Minnesota) in the process. |
I don't see why you worship UConn as much as you do. The two toughest road games UConn had this year were Stanford and UND. UConn lost to Stanford and beat UND by 18. But as art would point out, UND was down an inexperienced starter. UConn, like UND, tend to schedule their toughest games at home. They're smart enough to realize that home court advantage is huge.
Even though they get most of the best recruits, UConn is not a particularly deep team, right? So yeah, going against actual competition might actually wear on them as they would be forced to give heavier minutes to starters. Stewie and KML are highly conditioned athletes? Obviously.
Also, there's only one AAC team on your sacred poll, so duh. |
As Art suggests for ND, this isn't true for UConn, either. The "big" games are generally home and home series.
The cycle had the games at home this year, but last year UConn played on the road at:
Maryland, PSU, Duke, Baylor.
I admit though, that Muffet DID schedule last year's regional on her home court. 
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Queenie
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 18038
Location: Queens
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| Posted: 03/07/15 10:04 am ::: |
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| sigur3 wrote: |
Best band: Maryland, for playing the Legend of Zelda theme
Best percussion: Minnesota
Funniest mascot: Nebraska
Most tubas: Ohio State |
Is Maryland still using the TMNT theme as an additional fight song?
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dinkytown
Joined: 18 Sep 2011
Posts: 2591
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| Posted: 03/07/15 11:16 am ::: |
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Friday's results
(1) Maryland 70, (9) Michigan State 60
(4) Northwestern 62, (5) Rutgers 57
(2) Iowa 74 (7) Nebraska 65
(3) Ohio State 83, (6) Minnesota 71
Saturday's Semifinals - Big Ten Network
6:00 PM CT - (1) Maryland v. (4) Northwestern
8:30 PM CT - (2) Iowa v. (3) Ohio State
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bacabuck
Joined: 28 May 2009
Posts: 245
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| Posted: 03/07/15 12:16 pm ::: |
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Don't get me wrong, I was rooting hard for the buckeyes and glad for the outcome, but Zahui B. is REALLY fun to watch! We had three girls working hard on her and she still came up with a triple double!..........I am sure that there are several other triple doubles in wbb, but I can't remember seeing another.
Hart, Cooper, and Blair each fought her under the basket and collected nine fouls between them (could have been more) and "B". still got 25 points and 11 rebounds. Anyway, I am now a "B." fan, and other than against tOSU, wish Minnesota the best for the next two "B." years.
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sigur3
Joined: 18 Jun 2013
Posts: 6191
Location: Chicago-ish
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| Posted: 03/07/15 1:25 pm ::: |
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| Queenie wrote: |
| sigur3 wrote: |
Best band: Maryland, for playing the Legend of Zelda theme
Best percussion: Minnesota
Funniest mascot: Nebraska
Most tubas: Ohio State |
Is Maryland still using the TMNT theme as an additional fight song? |
Not sure. I got to that one late and most of it was being drowned out by Maryland fans berating the officials. But I guess that's what I get for sitting in the team cheering section...
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MNfan22
Joined: 20 Nov 2004
Posts: 2750
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| Posted: 03/07/15 5:19 pm ::: |
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| bacabuck wrote: |
Don't get me wrong, I was rootingin petson. AZB hard for the buckeyes and glad for the outcome, but Zahui B. is REALLY fun to watch! We had three girls working hard on her and she still came up with a triple double!..........I am sure that there are several other triple doubles in wbb, but I can't remember seeing another.
Hart, Cooper, and Blair each fought her under the basket and collected nine fouls between them (could have been more) and "B". still got 25 points and 11 rebounds. Anyway, I am now a "B." fan, and other than against tOSU, wish Minnesota the best for the next two "B." years. |
That was one of the quietest triple doubles to see I've ever seen. AZB did get some what frustrated with the physical play and looked slugish & kind of out of it at times committing some not so smart fouls.And she just continued to battle. She could have put up 30 some pts if not for missing some makeable bunnies. But not making easy shots is what really killed the Gophers in this game.
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010
Posts: 9646
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| Posted: 03/08/15 4:00 am ::: |
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| Durantula wrote: |
| Even if you lose, if its a good loss it helps your RPI and I'd think helps the leagues SOS which will help all teams. Losing to Maryland or Rutgers might help more than beating Penn State or Purdue this year RPI wise (obviously not record wise). Big 10 has a high number of projected tourney teams if you go by Creme's bracket, so the additional losses must not have mattered much. |
Adding good teams to the conference may have some benefit to the better teams in getting into the NCAA tournament, or in getting a better seed. But the coaches getting fired are the ones that aren't getting into the tournament. I think athletic directors consider conference record the most before firing a coach, and I think adding Maryland and Rutgers adds more losses to the schools at the lower half of the Big 10 and pushes some coaches closer to having the type of record that won't get a contract extension.
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Big 10 women's basketball coaches might be able to recruit from a deeper talent pool. Urban Meyer and Tom Crean both said the Big 10 additions helps recruiting and now it makes more sense. A 2 hour radius from Rutgers and a 2 hours radius from Maryland get you access to a ton of players. Those players will now have Big Ten Network, can see the Big Ten teams in person when they are in high school and can be promised home conference games. The population decreases in major midwest cities like Detroit make it important that you can recruit players from outside your traditional area a little. |
Adding Maryland and Rutgers increase the recruiting region, but also could just set up a recruiting asymptote. The mid-western schools will replace their caucasion mid-western players with African-Americans from the densely populated eastern seaboard, but never get the best - the best will always choose schools outside the corn fields of the sparsely populated, mostly white, mid-west. Schools like Rutgers and Maryland. Although the states of the Big 10 do vary. I think Penn State is an Eastern seaboard school (added as the 11th team to the "Big 10") and Ohio State is in a decent sized city in a state with at least two other large cities. Actually not sure how many of the schools could be considered as being in "corn field country". I may be focusing too much on Nebraska and Iowa.
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NoDakSt
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 4929
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| Posted: 03/08/15 12:13 pm ::: |
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I know it's All relative but Minneapolis is a pretty diverse cultural hub. Stollings is Going to have to reestablish the gopher women's basketball footprint there after Borton's tenure. Getting Allina Starr to transfer back is a good step as well as retaining Carlie Wagner.
Bluder frequently recruits Minnesota. She has also branched out to Goodrich Michigan to secure two prep guards over the next two years. These two are in the 5'4-5' range and along with current guard Whitney Jennings (5'5), might show that Bluder is increasing backcourt speed to stay competitive.
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