14-4, 2017 team vs 2016, Big 10 champs, nuff said.
- Thread starter PistolPt
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Down according to who...the pundits who are looking for viewers? The perception the conference is down is because MSU and IU ended up laying an egg this season while NU and Minny picked up their slack. When you look at the top of the conference and you add Purdue, Minny, Whisky, Maryland, and NU...it doesn't look all that exciting...doesn't mean the conference is wholly bad.
Let the first round games play out in the NCAA's to make that statement. In all honesty, I would be surprised to see the B1G get 6 teams to thwin second round and 4 to the second weekend (Purdue, Minny, Whisky, Maryland). Those other three teams have tremendous guard play and that can carry a team in the tourney.
No. You're the one that got excited when we were pounding teams like McNeese and thinking we were miles ahead of last season. As it turns out, we won 2 more games in a worse conference. Judge that how you will but in my mind it's very comparable to last year. Given that they've been able to finish close games on the road since the midway point of the conference season, I'd probably say this year is a little better now. But it is still close.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings/_/year/2016/week/18/seasontype/2
Here's the final polls going into the tournament last season. 2 top 10 teams (MSU and IU). Purdue (13) was actually ranked higher last season than they are right now with both Iowa and Maryland also in the top 20. Wisconsin was top 25 in the coach's poll but only 26 in the AP.
Compare the polls to this year. While Purdue is about roughly the same spot, we have no top ten teams compared to two last year and only 2 total in the top 25 compared to 5 or 6 (depending on which poll you look at) last season.
I was getting ready to post that's the perception nobody knows the reality yet. Sec sucks every year and nobody talks about it
When you have a conference like the Big12 where one team (Kansas) has won 13 in a row titles it tells me that just maybe that conference isn't really that great. We shall see but, I thing the Big 10 will fare well in the NCAAT.
Not sure where your going with this. But individually every player is playing better than they did last year. Does that make the a better team?
I guess I don't consider the NCAA tournament as the final verdict. It's a part of it, but just a part. I guess I'm not all that impressed with the other Big Ten teams though and to be honest I don't expect the conference to do well in the tournament. Wisconsin can't hit free throws. Maryland's youth got exploited in the 2nd half of the conference season. MSU's guards make me want to puke. Northwestern is a good story but they are celebrating just making the tournament. I don't think their mindset is right to get to the second weekend even if they were good enough to do so, which I don't. Michigan struggles away from Ann Arbor and last I checked there are no NCAA tourney games scheduled there.
I kind of think Minnesota could make some noise IF Mason plays well and we could have a run if we play well but we could also lose any game if we don't (which you could probably say for about everyone except 6-8 teams this year).
In the end, the B1G showed it was overrated last year. IU ran away with the championship and then sucked badly in the NCAA.
But all I care about is this year, and Purdue continuing its win streak for as many games as are left. This year I hope the B1G is underrated.
Don't forget AJ and Davis (last year's seniors) vs Spike and Carsen (newcomers).
I do think this year's team is better now. Didn't until now and still think it is close just like I did before. I just favored last year's team slightly before and now I favor this year's team slightly. Could change my mind again before the end of the season if this year's team proves itself to be either significantly better or worse than what I currently think.
IU got to the Sweet Sixteen and lost to UNC (you might remember they played in the title game?). I don't really think that qualifies for "sucked badly" but that's just an opinion.
Give me this years team 10 out of times 10 over last years. More poise, better shooters, & a national player of the candidate.
I think the answer is not that cut and dried. Our team this year has a higher ceiling when all 8 rotation guys are engaged, due to the quantum leaps made by Biggie and Dakota, the addition of CE, and swapping Spike for Hill.
When Haas and CE are MIA, like yesterday, we aren't as good. AJ and RD had their flaws, but they were at least pretty consistent.
You are blind if you don't think this year's team is more mature and has shown more poise than last year's team. Last year's team was better defensively, but this year's team is much better offensively. Our 3-pt%, FG%, FT%, FG-assisted% are all better.
I do believe I said that I think this year's team is slightly better right now. I don't believe some of you that think it is drastically better have a clue about basketball. The returning players have improved but we also had AJ and Davis last year.
As for which team had the higher ceiling, well last year we had a far better win (MSU) than anything we've had this year so far. Hoping that changes but we won't even have an opportunity for that unless we get to the S16.
Defense
last year-------this year
69.5 ppg-------66.9 ppg
Offense
last year --------this year
75.7 ppg--------80.5 ppg
We are better BOTH Defensively and Offensively this year....conference stats only.
This team has surprised me defensively. Still are challenged by the dribble drive, but overall, play good team defense and dare I say it, seem to work harder at it than last year's team. I think with AJ gone and Biggie being the clear leader of this team, his work ethic has rubbed off.
The other thing that sets them apart from last year is that this year's team can afford to have an off night by 1 or 2 players scoring wise and there are others that can pick up the slack. Painter seemingly knows how to ride the hot hand. Last year, if 1 or 2 scorers had an off night, we struggled.
The other thing that sets them apart from last year is that this year's team can afford to have an off night by 1 or 2 players scoring wise and there are others that can pick up the slack. Painter seemingly knows how to ride the hot hand. Last year, if 1 or 2 scorers had an off night, we struggled.
Nobody looking at it objectively would say that Purdue is a better defensive team this season. We had the DPOY last year, the leading shot blocker in the league (Hammons), and the best lockdown defender Purdue's had in many years, who was the DPOY the year before (Davis).
Mathias has played very good defense this season, but Davis was a defensive stud and Hammons was a swat machine in the lane. Neither Biggie nor Haas do that with regularity.
quite a margin differential
despite this year's weak big ten perception, we end the regular season ranked #13 which matches last year
im sure we are capable of and have expectations of far better results in the tourney
can't wait
agree, the mental toughness and attitude seems far better this year.
as a fan I was fairly unemotional going into the northwestern game,
but was thrilled to see how pumped the guys were during this more meaningless game!
good momentum and bit of swagger for tourney time
I don't have a clue about Basketball? Played 4 years in HS and was a member of a State Championship team in OH. Played against Steve Scheffler, Ryan Berning, and Jimmy Oliver at Purdue....
No one could view last season's results vs. this season's and say we have just a slightly better team vs. last year. No way.
Just look at our PG situation. We had PJT and the 5 year SR (Johnny boy), who tried to play hero ball in our two most important games last year (BTT Final vs. MSU and NCAAT loss to UALR). This year we have PJT, Spike, and Carsen Edwards. People don't press us anymore because we beat it now and we play much more mature and poised than last year.
We are a better shooting team this year. Much improved FT shooting team and 3-pt shooting team. We have a legit NPOY candidate who is a double-double machine and rebounding phenom.
The main difference, in my opinion, is that this year's team is much better at protecting a lead in crunch time.
Purdue does some things on defense much better this year than last. Specifically, this year's team fouls a lot less and does a better job on the defensive boards. Overall, I think that the defenses are pretty close to each other.
Crunch time is the exact reason I've switched from slight advantage last year to slight advantage this year. Over the 2nd half of the conference season this year we have been much better at crunch time. Granted, none of the teams we've played in the 2nd half of the conference season are currently in the top 25 but still most are in the 26-100 range and beating some of these teams on the road is no joke. Still wouldn't say we're dramatically better than last year but they have more season left to change my mind either way.
I agree with your points, but I'm sure that you would agree that Purdue's struggles against pressure while trying to protect leads were obvious in a lot of games last season and not only against good teams.
I think last years team didn't have the killer instinct that we see in this one. I loved Davis and Hammonds but they both had their drawbacks. The last Purdue team that really wanted to win and looked the part was in 2012 when we almost beat Kansas with Hummel alone. This team has the right energy and emotion to make a deep run. Hammonds and Davis teams never had that sense of urgency.
Maybe Hammons was laid back but don't agree on Davis. I think he played hurt most of last year too which made it difficult to replicate, let alone top, his junior season. That said he still came out and carried us to our biggest win of the season and probably the biggest win in the program since E'twaun took down OSU.
I agree with Davis last year....while his D was OK...nothing near special like he was the junior year....all B1G D standout. Senior yer - OK, above average...very tough to play against, but not close to the prior year.
That being said...I would like to have Hill on this years team. Thought he was a good player that could have thrived in a bit of a different role. Would be nice to have more of a rotation of 2 and 2 for our guards to give PJT more of a break. Combining Hill and Spike and PJT/Carsen would have been very nice.
I adjust for quality of competition.
Today's AP poll. Have to look at the very bottom of the top 25 to see any teams besides us. Wisconsin 24. Maryland 25. Maryland didn't even make the coaches poll top 25.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings
Last year there were 2 top 10 teams and a total of 5 top 25 teams other than us. We haven't played nearly the same level of competition in conference as we had to last year. This year we played 2 games against teams currently in the top 25 all conference season long. Last year we played 7 if you include Wisconsin who was in one poll but not the other similar to how I'm including Maryland this year.
Not sure what OP is digging at but I can say that this team is much better than last years and I don't need records comparison to see it. There is no comparison. The offensive firepower is overwhelmingly superior and the defense at this point is not far behind if at all. The defensive style is not the same nor is it as dramatic as AJ block festivals but it's very effective. The flaws are far less pronounced.
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