Sprung Forward Sunday College Hoops Open Thread
Welcome to the Sunday Open thread. Lots of games today, so let's get to the match-ups:
Around the Nation, Wichita State looks to cap off a perfect season against Larry Bird's Sycamores in the Arch Madness Final. This game is on CBS following:
Virginia at fututre Big-10 team Maryland. Maryland winning would be a good thing.
At 2:00 on ESPN3, we can all stream FSU vs. Syracuse, and watch Syracuse try and right the ship. We hope that FSU doesn't let that happen.
In the only other ranked game outside of the Big-10, we have St. Louis trying to figure things out too, and to do that at UMASS might prove too difficult.
There are a couple of mid-major championships today as well.
The Big South features Winthrop vs Coastal Carolina at noon.
FGCU aka "Dunk City" looks to punch their ticket against Mercer at 2:00 on ESPN2.
Big-10 Games:
NW vs Purdue gets the day started on the BTN at noon. The loser gets sole possession of last place!
The day continues with MSU visiting OSU at 4:30 on CBS.
PSU takes on Minnesota at the Barn.
Following the PSU/Minn game is the game of the night. Nebraska looks to hold home court, beat Bo Ryan and the Badgers, and punch their ticket to the Big Dance.
After playing around at this site, http://bball.notnothing.net/big10.php?sport=mbb , if you're in the boat that you want to see Michigan win the BTT, we would want the following results:
Purdue, OSU, PSU, and Neb to win their games. This would have Michigan face the winner of IU/Minn, and the the winner of Neb vs OSU/NW. Iowa, MSU, and Wisc would be on the other side (along with ILL).
Go Huskers!
A Wisky loss could help us get a better seed in the big dance but a Braska win might clinch COY for Miles.
But what does that have to do with Minnesota?
Beilein should win COY. His team beat every team in the Big Ten, has a top 5 offense in the nation, and he won the conference outright.
Seriously. What the fuck is this bullshit with a number of people entertaining any possibility but John Beilein as COY?
He lost the NPOY and THJr. and then lost a pre-season all-american and won the Big Ten outright by two full games.
Stop the fucking insanity. If Beilein doesn't get it, it's an out and out outrage.
I don't think there should be a conversation.
What, we won too many games to not be a cute story?
Who in fuck had us picked to go 15-3 and win the conference outright when we were 6-4 with McGary reporting to the ER?
Miles is a good coach, but he also had one super transfer and a halfway decent team. So he won some games, mostly at home. That can't trump one of the most unbelievable coaching jobs I've seen in 30 plus years of watching college basketball.
Beilein took the preseason #2 Big Ten team and made them #1 minus McGary
Miles took the preseason last place Big Ten team and has them currently in 4th and fighting for a tournament bid.
Beilein is awesome and has a built a great program here, but Miles has impressed far more with respect to expectations this year. It's going to be a close call either way
I agree - I think Illinois could give Indiana trouble, and I think we match up pretty well with Illinois.
Definitely want Nebraska to win. Tim Miles does a great job. A win would push them to the good side of the bubble. Plus it would knock Wisconsin off the 2-line for the ncaa tournament.
I'll try to catch NW/Purdue on BTN2Go. I was called into work, but sometimes BTN gets through the "security."
You need Minnesota to win because right now they are 51st in the RPI depriving Michigan of 2 Top-50 wins.
Good point. I just seem to have a soft spot for PSU basketball. But having Minny stay in the RPI Top 50 is huge.
Thanks.
Go Gophers.
And I root for PSU in nothing.
Not even PSU volleyball or W Basketball when they make their deep Tourny runs? Gotta rep the Big-10 right?
Honestly, that whole athletic department, lunatic fanbase, and lunatic community is dead to me.
I'm literally rooting for every favored team to win today, and not just for upset-sake, but every upset benefits Michigan in some way. Also, Evan Smotrycz with some early bench minutes for Maryland so far.
You are correct, my mistake. Fortunately, and hopefully, everyone else knew what I meant.
Who do we want to win the ohio vs state game? Whatever keeps state off of our side of the bracket is what I want.
For that situation, the winner doesn't matter. State won't be in our side of the bracket in either outcome. But ohio winning keeps Iowa in the other bracket and puts ohio and Nebraska in ours. So personally, I'm rooting for ohio to win that game, but state won't be in our bracket regardless.
It is admittedly morbidly amusing to watch a team like Northwestern hang onto a lead despite currently sporting a 39.65% effective field goal percentage. If you're shooting worse than Northwestern, as Purdue is at the moment (24.00% effective FG%), that's when you know it is an awful, awful start for you.
Purdue shot 5-26 (overall, not from 3) in the first half against Northwestern.
I'm really grateful we have Beilein and his excellent offensive system.
Watching Coastal Carolina always reminds me of their 1993 team we faced in the first round, led by Tony "Slam" Dunkin. That was a fun game. We shut Dunkin down and won so big that a walk-on who hadn't scored all year got a basket at the end.
Maryland sure is sticking around. It just seems like UVA is going to pull away at any time now, but Maryland isn't going away.
Now that Maryland's bigs are in foul trouble, it will be interesting if they can stick around.
Maryland is up 2 with 8:40 left in the game.
Bracket Matrix has us now as a #2 seed as of this morning. If Maryland wins should solidify a 2 seed but probably also kick us out of the Midwest if Wisconsin stays ahead of us.
yep - it looks like we have a 2-seed as long as we don't lose in our first BTT game. The Midwest we need Wisconsin to lose.
This game is such a microcosm of Northwestern and Purdue basketball
Wow. UVA can't shoot FT's.
That wasn't an inspiring possesion by Maryland.
Wow. What a turn of events.
Gotta hit these FT's Maryland.
wow calling an offensive foul on an inbounds.
Flop of the year.
EDIT: Ehhh, close up replay looked like a fullback block on that screen.