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Absolutely anyone who cares about Big Ten basketball, no matter the size of their audience, publishes a Big Ten basketball power rankings. It’s the least original endeavor possible, and this year all of these power rankings are created equal.
From the Midwestern paper of record to somebody on Twitter with three followers and no avatar, to the people who make college basketball picks against the spread, they’re all equally valid.
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The Big Ten may not have the greatest concentration of Final Four contenders in the nation, according to college basketball public betting data, but it certainly has the highest number of likely NCAA Tournament and NIT teams.
In terms of league title contenders, you have to start in the state of Great Lakes Splendor, with the two teams who met in last season’s conference title game. Right now #8 Michigan State is above everybody else in the league, sitting pretty at 5-0 in conference play. #19 Michigan is in the congested middle, at 2-2, but with an 11-4 overall record
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Today saw Gonzaga become the sixth different team to be ranked #1 in the AP poll. The all time record, for an entire season is seven, and today is just Christmas Eve Eve/Festivus. In other words, that record will inevitably be shattered to pieces and this fact conveys just how much chaos there really is, nationally, in college basketball this season.
Not just nationally, but on a local level too! When you’re making free college basketball picks against the spread, in the Big Ten, anything can happen! Upsets are occurring all the time and now that everyone in the Big 10 has played two conference games, 12 of the 14 teams in the league are 1-1. Michigan State is 2-0 while Northwestern is 0-2. Until MSU’s 77-72 win at Northwestern on Wednesday night, the home team had won every single Big Ten league team. So up until midweek, we had perfect symmetry in the Midwestern league.
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This week is rivalry week in college football. Which conjures up memories of the Toledo War and the Frostbitten Convention. This weekend brings awesome games with cool names like “The Iron Bowl” (Alabama-Auburn) and “The Holy War” (BYU-Utah). But only one of these rivalry games can claim an actual war in the history of its geographic region. That’s the Michigan Wolverines vs. the Ohio State Buckeyes, or “The Game,” as it’s called.
The Toledo War is one of the many reasons ESPN Classic is running a marathon of past tOSU-UM games today.
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This past weekend saw Lovie Smith and the Illinois Fighting Illini defeat the #6 Wisconsin Badgers, a team that was favored by 30.5 points. And with this glorious victory, Smith matched Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh in victories over a top ten opponent while being a head coach in the Big Ten.
That total number, is one. Yes, Harbaugh, head coach in Ann Arbor since 2015 is just 1-10 versus top ten opponents. As for Smith, he’s right when he referred to the Wisconsin conquest as “a signature win,” but league his record is an abominable 5-26. He’s 3-25 against Big Ten teams not named Rutgers.
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Tell me again why the #20 Michigan Wolverines are favored this weekend at home over the #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, with the visitors having had an extra week to prepare for this game? ND’s body of work this season is much more impressive than Michigan’s and Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh is just 1-10 against top-10 teams in his career.
He has as many wins against top 10 teams at Michigan as Lovie Smith now has at Illinois. And as anyone who makes free college football predictions will tell you, he is 0-8 as an underdog. But hey, maybe Vegas knows something I don’t. Or they really believe in that Big House home field advantage; A LOT!
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Today was 2019 Big Ten Media Day for basketball, yes, really, basketball, and yes that it’s not you, it really is that much earlier than usual this year. The league has two new coaches, both of which have strong connections to the city where the league is headquartered and the event is traditionally held- Chicago.
The Michigan Wolverines’ new head coach is Juwan Howard, a graduate of Chicago Vocational High School, and former star in the Chicago Public League. Nebrasketball has a new mentor in Fred Hoiberg, whose last gig was coaching the city’s excuse for a NBA franchise, the Chicago Bulls.
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Wednesday is Big Ten Media Day, and if that seems extremely early, well that’s because it is really is. It’s 87 degrees in Chicago, host city for this event, as I type. Let’s talk basketball, amirite? I mean the Major League Baseball playoffs haven’t even started yet (the real postseason, not the play-in games) and we’re talking about an event that literally, just five years ago was held on Halloween.
That is the nature of the college basketball beast though. Everything is being moved up; way up in the calendar year. So without further ado, let’s look at the Big Ten basketball pecking order.
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We have 2020 vision, NFL Draft style, right here, right now. It’s our fourth 2020 NFL mock draft update, and the order was based on a combination of NFL.com’s power rankings plus how we see the teams finishing the season out. Team needs were sometimes, but not often taken into account, as it’s just way too early to factor in. Obviously this will be modified many times between now and 2020 NFL Draft day.
So I implore you to really not take this very seriously, and just have fun with it. Please refrain from pointless hostility and needless acrimony in the comments section. Don’t be that guy. You have too much to do in your life than to waste it on trivial online conflict like that. Enjoy!
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Republishing from 9-16-17
To pinpoint what’s so wrong with ESPN College Gameday in 2017, there are a couple different places from which you can start. You can begin with ESPN’s horrible bungling of the Jemele Hill and Robert Lee situations, and go from there. The same principle, that of “let’s try to never hurt anyone’s feelings ever, no matter what the cost, because hurt feelings means upset sponsors” applies across the board.
ESPN should have never apologized for what Jemele Hill said about Donald Trump.
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Don’t laugh- the best college football playoff contender in the Big Ten this year will come out of the West division. It’s the Wisconsin Badgers, led by Jonathan Taylor, their star tailback and strong Heisman Trophy contender. Taylor could be the best back in the country and he’s the only Big Ten individual player with a realistic shot at the highest individual honor.
He’s coming off back to back top ten finishes in Heisman voting, so the best online casinos usa will have him among the top contenders on their board to claim the award this fall. As they should, because Taylor is poised to become the first Badger to receive a Heisman finalist invitation to New York City since Montee Ball.
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Shocking news broke early Monday morning- Michigan Wolverines basketball coach John Beilein is leaving the program to become head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to various reports, with Adrian Wojnarowski being the first, Beilein will sign a year deal with the Cavaliers.
This obviously leaves Michigan in a very tough spot, having to a find a new head coach this late in the cycle. They could do an outside coaching search, but it would have to be very quick and extremely aggressive. More likely, the Wolverines will have to go the internal route.
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