With Dejon hurt and Sasser in foul trouble for most of the first half we still won in a “neutral” venue. That despite Rutgers shooting well above their averages. Memphis on the other hand would have taken us to over time in Houston if not for a miracle buzzer beater by Mr. March. It isn’t even up for debate that they’re the best team we’ve played.
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Yea Memphis is our second best team and in the NIT.
We are the only team carrying the AAC banner and let’s hope we continue to do so.
And I never said the Big was the best conference. It’s a very physical group that has dropped like flies when matched with other physical teams.
Memphis should really good next and probably will be ranked higher than us to start next year.
Please guys, I could care less about Rutgers or the Big 10.
Simply stating Rutgers was good last night and we would not have won had Deeky not played.
Way Memphis was playing at the end of the year (i.e when we played them), they’d beat over half this field. Agreed that we wouldn’t have won without Dejon, but thats how it would be for basically any team in the tourney if you took out they #1 or #2 player. Good news is we did win and our reward is 6 days of rest for Mr. Jarreau. Hopefully the time off is good for Mr. Sasser as well.
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Michigan struggling against LSU, will the big 10 make it to the sweet 16?
The Big pre10ders.
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And you can predict how well Memphis would have done?
Yes I have said many times the Tigers were the second best team in our league. By them not playing WSU screwed us all.
Been that kind of year.
And the way top seeded teams are falling maybe Memphis could have stunned everyone but us.
But we will never know. Right now we have a big game ahead us.
Btw Rutgers handled Syracuse early in the year.
Of course we know that has nothing to do with how the ‘Cuse is playing now. Go Coogs
Looks like the big 10 power conference will only have one team in the sweet 16
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Big 10 is still better than the Big 12. Biggest issue I had is that Michigan St and Maryland should not have made it because they were below .500 in conference. Also Purdue was overrated. Really Loyola-Chicago should have been a 4 and Purdue an 8.
Michigan and Illinois are great teams, Illinois just got beat by another very good team. Ohio St seemed to be up and down all year. Iowa was flawed because they don’t play defense and that came back to bite them. Wisconsin was solid.
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The B1G just doesn’t have the athletes to compete in March. And it showed. Yet again.
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Don’t they always get bounced early as a conference in the last decade?
Agree big time w Loyola Chicago being under seeded. Worse case they should have been a 5/6 seed. They were in Top 25 then lost a game and flew out of their n never to be seen again!
Turrible-- Charles Barkley voice
I don’t know where I stand on this. I can say Rutgers gave us one of our three toughest wins this year. I like their style of play. They were true competitors. Our athleticism won it in the last five minutes. Otherwise we didn’t play well and they did.
Its been decades since we had a team talented enough to lose 75% of the game and still win.
To put it into a metric perspective. the most games played by a team in the tournament so far is two, people like Ohio St. only played one. At a glance, it seems most of the Big 10 dropped a spot or two in Ken Pom. Now imagine if the entire conference, including those that didn’t make the tournament, played seven more non-conference games…
I don’t have some great formula, and some teams would drop only two spots and some would drop 20, but I think on average they are all 7-10 spots overrated.
That is also what some people don’t get, we aren’t saying the B1G sucks. They would still be a very competetive conference, they just didn’t deserve all the hype or the seeding they got because of such bias.
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The problem was mostly not having enough games out of conference. Because there are really only two Big 10 teams you can point to using NET or other metrics to say there was too much bias towards their ranking, Michigan St getting in the tourney and Purdue as a 4. Probably also make the argument against Ohio St as a 2 with 9 losses and 5th in Big 10.
There were just not many teams at the top you could move up. Did 24-6 Alabama deserve a #1 over 23-6 Illinois? Maybe. Other than Arkansas, who deserved a 2 more than Ohio St and Iowa? Not UT, OK State, Kansas, WVU.
But I agree the Big 10 hype was too much. This year anything could happen, and anything is happening. lol
The problem has been they were all rated. So they kept feeding off of one another. You could have a two or three game losing streak and barely drop. While you may be the best of your conference , the lack of outside competition never gave you a truly accurate assessment of where you stood nationally.
Looking at Baylor, they got a rest in the middle of the season. Yes, it was Covid. But we don’t know how many players may or may not have had it. And yes, it took them a few games to get their sea legs back, but how far did they drop?
Do I feel the B1G was overrated? Yes. they always get more bids than I feel they deserve based on reputation alone. But with Covid this year, everything has been out of whack.
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Watch the gymnastics this guy does to defend the big Ten, why can’t these experts just say the tournament proves the big Ten was overrated.
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Cuz there’s a $2.44 billion contract with that league. ESPN isn’t news. Sports isn’t news. It’s all marketing.
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I think you meant Big preTENders.
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Wow Captain Obvious. How did you ever break the numerical code?
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It’s a complex algorithm you wouldn’t understand.
