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While there are still 14 games left in the season, the clock is very much ticking loudly for the Northwestern Wildcats. Right now, they’re projected to be in the dreaded Wednesday slate/opening day of the Big Ten Tournament and you know what that means- you have to win the whole conference tourney in order to get into The Big Dance.
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In college basketball, it’s never too early to talk about the postseason. More than any other sport, it’s a game where an overwhelming majority of the followers don’t really even check in until just the postseason or just before. Last night, your #25 Iowa Hawkeyes looked very much like a team that could make some noise come tournament time.
They went out and got a conference road win despite missing Tyler Cook, who is their leading scorer and rebounder by a very wide margin. The Hawkeyes didn’t know that Cook (sore knee, day-to-day) couldn’t go until the shoot-around, but they recovered and responded nicely.
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It’s going to take nothing short of a miracle for the current Illini basketball team to avoid having the highest loss single season in program history. At 4-11, with 16 games left, Illinois will need to go 10-7 (or better) down the stretch in order to avoid tying the Illini basketball program record for single season losses of 19, set in 2007-08 (16-19 overall, 5-13 in the B1G) and tied again in 2015-16 (15-19, 5-13).
If the math seems off by one, remember there will be one more loss in the Big Ten Tournament. In order to keep his current team from figuring prominently in the “worst team in school history” debates Brad Underwood will somehow need to guide a team with a winning percentage of .267 to a .588 clip (or more than double) the rest of the way.
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After his team beat #9 North Carolina 80-72 at the United Center in Chicago, Kentucky Coach John Calipari gave a postgame press conference that had an important message- one that goes well above and beyond mere basketball. Calipari wished the media Merry Christmas, and then advised any person with the means of taking somebody in this Christmas to do so.
He was speaking about those who won’t have a place to be this Christmas. Coach Cal suggested that if you have the ability to warmly welcome one of these people into your home this holiday season, you should do so.
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The desire to see UCLA move on from head coach Steve Alford is growing stronger by the day. As the results keep worsening, the backlash in Bruins nation keeps growing. In Chicago yesterday, UCLA suffered yet another lop-sided defeat, this time at the hands of #15 Ohio State by the score of 80-66. UCLA were slight underdogs coming into this contest, and if you’re going to be doing some sports betting, via online casino canada you will see the Bruins as heavy underdogs in most games going forward.
When the NCAA Tournament, or “March Madness” gets here, it’s a sports gambler’s paradise, and one that UCLA will almost certainly not be a part of. Anybody who watched their game yesterday will tell you that it was much more one-sided than that final score would indicate. The blowout dropped the Bruins to a record of just 7-5 on the season.
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It’s always a massive struggle to generate mainstream interest in college basketball before February (and it always will be), but events like the CBS Sports Classic have the right idea. Football and the holidays will always be top of mind in December, and by a considerable margin, but the more marquee match-ups you can get schedule before conference season begins the better.
The #15 Ohio State Buckeyes will play their second game in just 17 days at Chicago’s United Center, and this one, 2 pm on Saturday against the UCLA Bruins, figures to draw a much bigger crowd than the previous contest. OSU handily beat the home state Illinois Fighting Illini, a once proud program that has completely fallen off the map, in front of pretty much just friends and family that Wednesday evening.
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Aside from the very narrow loss to #4 Michigan, the new Welsh-Ryan Arena hasn’t really yet experienced a true rocking atmosphere. While it was indeed electric inside the new barn that evening, the crowd was half (or more) Michigan Wolverines supporters. Friday night brings the Oklahoma Sooners, the first team out of the AP poll and the second out of the coaches polls this week to Evanston.
The back half of a home and home series with OU, this is pretty much the most exciting non-conference home game that Northwestern has seen since…since…well, quite a long time. It can be tough to get a good quality pre-conference opponent to come to your gym, because no one really wants to do home and homes.
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Early December polls and rankings are to be taken with a grain of salt, but we do know this about the Big Ten- “the Michigans” currently rule the roost. College hoops is a sport as synonymous with gambling as any you will find anywhere in the entire world. Wagering on college basketball at this time of year can be like real money online pokies, there is a ton of luck and chance involved. However, if you want a blue chip then #GoBlue, as the Michigan Wolverines have consistently shown a capability to beat the spread by by a comfortable margin.
They are the clear number one in the Big Ten with arch-rival Michigan State a solid #2 in the league. Next to each team name below you’ll find the following numerical values: overall record, conference record, AP ranking (when applicable) Sagarin rating and kenpom rating.
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University of Michigan- basketball school? Well, it certainly feels like it right now as the Wolverines moved up to #5 in the latest AP poll, and hold the highest current position of any Big Ten team. John Beilein has guided Michigan basketball to two national title game appearances, three elite eights and four sweet sixteens in the past five seasons.
Meanwhile Jim Harbaugh, who is paid more than three times as much as Beilein, has yet to accomplish any of the three things he was hired to do in 2015 (beat Ohio State, win Big Ten titles, compete for national titles).
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Lovie Smith isn’t going anywhere right now. In fact, now he’s going to be sticking around even longer. Contracted until 2021, the school announced a two year extension for him Sunday morning. The numbers speak for themselves: in three years he’s gone 1-17 against his division, 4-23 against his own league and 9-27 overall.
Yet here we are, as the complete football disaster has been rewarded. If you’re a betting man, perhaps with BFB, you would not have put money on this happening. This was a long shot scenario to say the least. That’s because in all three seasons that Smith has been in Champaign, the team has gotten worse as the year has dragged on.
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“There’s no bigger fan of their program than me,” said Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins in regards to Northwestern football and their historic victory on Saturday.
Northwestern, football variety, has clinched the first Big Ten title game appearance in school history, and they did it with two games still left to play thanks to the fact that both Wisconsin and Purdue lost on Saturday, supplementing NU’s double digit upset win in Iowa City.
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