Ohio State can recruit all the "Fab Fives" they want, they still aren't going to beat Michigan State.
I'm ready to watch the Illini actually win something tomorrow night...Wesleyan's coach was an assistant at Michigan, that's a good enough reason to hate them.
Did you know: Ohio State is the only school - probably ever - who has a student manager who has been a NBA head coach and won a NBA championship. (In case that has you scratching your head, Chris Jent, after not getting the full-time job as the Magic coach, elected to enroll back at Ohio State after 13 years and finish his degree. And volunteered to be a team manager as well.)
at least our Fighting Illini represented!!! Purdue is bad. Keady stayed 5 years too long, their recruiting suffered and now you see the results. Wisconsin played no defense last night.
I'm not sure what's funnier--that Iowa lost to Northern Iowa, or that it wasn't a surprise. What's with Indiana playing so many road games against mid-majors?
Iowa had a terrible start to the second half and Northern Iowa's best shooter got hot at the end of the game. It didn't help that Horner's knee gave out as he was chasing down N. Iowa's shooter just before he stepped behind the 3-point line and hit the three that really got them back into the game. Still, no matter the circumstances losing against Northern Iowa is pathetic and embarassing. We should be able to beat teams like them by at least 10 every time.
Oh, I understand it was Penn State, but this was the kind of light's out performance you rarely see in league play. A quarter of the way thru the game Ohio State was shooting 88% from the floor. Being a POT, most of those shots were from the outside - they were 13 of 26 for three for the game, and shot 63% over the duration, substituting liberally in the second half.
Illinois shot 63.6% from the field vs. Deleware State last season. 58.8% vs. Valparaiso. 55.7% vs. Penn State. 55.9% vs. Minnesota. 56.9% AT Michigan State. 59.3% vs. Northwestern. And, 53.1% vs. Nevada in the tournament. All of those shooting performances are about the same as shooting 63% over Penn State.
Ohio State gets to play the weak sisters of the Big 10 twice: Penn State, Purdue, Northwestern. They get an underachieving Minnesota team once, at home. They get Illinois just once at home. Ohio State should win the Big 10 just based on its easy schedule.
True, OSU gets lucky in the scheduling this year. But it always seems to rotate. Wisconsin doesn't have to go to Bloomington or Champaign this year. So that will help them. UW will be good this year and even better next year (only one senior this year and he isn't that good).
Wisconsin could be scary good next year if Tucker comes back and their two bigs keep progressing the way they seem to be. Butch looks like a completely different player from last year. He actually looks ... good.
Not good enough to beat MSU at home. I'll cut OSU plenty of slack for losing at Indiana though, as most teams are going to suffer the same fate there. That includes my Fighting Illini, who are (at least) 60% odds to lose there on Tuesday. But you have to at least win your home games to be a top team. Today, OSU didn't do that.