Big Ten

[delish1]

Heading into the final games of conference play it seems like the Big Ten picture is starting to clear up a little bit. As much as I like my Big Ten glasses, it doesn't seem like the conference is as deep as usual. It looks like the top 3 will all be very good and it's impossible to truly know the order from what we've seen. Then there's a group of two maybe three teams that could be good (IU, Iowa, maybe Michigan). After that none of those teams look very dangerous, not that they won't steal games here and there but won't be consistent.

Wisconsin and Ohio State will probably be a lot better at the end of the year than now but definitely not as good as those teams usually are. Maybe Northwestern will surprise but the rest of the teams appear to be ugly or injured.

Thought it might be an interesting discussion.

Based on how good I think they will finish the season.
1. Purdue - because I want to enjoy this
2. Michigan St - has the best win so far
3. Maryland - Tremble is really good
4. Iowa - the way they struggled to put away ISU makes them too high probably
5. IU - because of those games they are hitting 3s
6. Michigan - road losses to UConn and SMU and loss to Xavier not bad
7. Northwestern - Probably a lot of "this is the year" talk for them coming
8. Wisconsin - who knows what happens without Bo
9. Ohio State - still talented
10-14. Penn St., Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois and Rutgers - don't know the order but doesn't really matter

 

[Grover]

iu should probably finish higher.

Not because they are better than you think, but because they have been gifted with the easiest conference schedule in at least 40 years

 

[Eastern Boiler]

Heading into the final games of conference play it seems like the Big Ten picture is starting to clear up a little bit. As much as I like my Big Ten glasses, it doesn't seem like the conference is as deep as usual. It looks like the top 3 will all be very good and it's impossible to truly know the order from what we've seen. Then there's a group of two maybe three teams that could be good (IU, Iowa, maybe Michigan). After that none of those teams look very dangerous, not that they won't steal games here and there but won't be consistent.

Wisconsin and Ohio State will probably be a lot better at the end of the year than now but definitely not as good as those teams usually are. Maybe Northwestern will surprise but the rest of the teams appear to be ugly or injured.

Thought it might be an interesting discussion.

Based on how good I think they will finish the season.
1. Purdue - because I want to enjoy this
2. Michigan St - has the best win so far
3. Maryland - Tremble is really good
4. Iowa - the way they struggled to put away ISU makes them too high probably
5. IU - because of those games they are hitting 3s
6. Michigan - road losses to UConn and SMU and loss to Xavier not bad
7. Northwestern - Probably a lot of "this is the year" talk for them coming
8. Wisconsin - who knows what happens without Bo
9. Ohio State - still talented
10-14. Penn St., Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois and Rutgers - don't know the order but doesn't really matter

As you stated it doesn't matter but just wanted to point out that Rutgers is light years behind those others they are lumped with. From what I've seen they need there own category.

 

[SqueakyClean]

Can't really argue with most of the list. I think NW could be moved up one notch as they only have one loss (respectable) and have at least been blowing out the inferior competition lately (struggled a bit at the beginning, but they had also just lost one of their better players right before the season started). If they can get past Depaul this weekend, they will likely go 12-1 in ooc and only need to go 8-10 in the B1G to go dancing. They have a B1G schedule almost as easy as IU's (Purdue, MSU, Michigan, Iowa, and IU only once, however it should be noted that all but MSU away from home)

I think Illinois is the best of those final four teams. They are scraping by their cupcakes with walking wounded players and I think they will be at least decent by the time late February comes around as they will have most of their players healthy by then.

 

[TopSecretBoiler]

Agree on Illinois. They will improve as they get their program back together. iu is hard to place. They have paper talent, but when you see them on the court they look awful. Disjointed and bad attitudes. O$U is another paper talent team but they look bad at times, and one of their guards wants to transfer already. This really might be NW's year with the conference being so top heavy.

 

[Booty Maximus]

I think Illinois is the best of those final four teams. They are scraping by their cupcakes with walking wounded players and I think they will be at least decent by the time late February comes around as they will have most of their players healthy by then.

We aren't getting any players back...stick a fork in us, we're done. Will be lucky to win 5 games in the B1G this year and that's only because it's weaker than expected and we have an "easy" schedule.