Big Ten Hoops Tonight -- Who do we root for?

ummm I'm going to go to bed and not cheer for anybody and wake up in the morning hopefully with michigan up a few spots. That way i won't feel like a sinner and michigan will be in better position. thats my game plan

It's more likely that Minnesota beats us on their home floor than MSU beats us at Crisler.  We may only need to beat one of these guys for a spot on selection Sunday, so I say we pull for Minnesota and hope to beat Sparty next Saturday.

MSU over minnesota as long as we beat MSU again.

Also, paging MfaninOH to tell us all how it doesn't matter because we have too many "holes" to make the dance

I'm torn.  A Sparty win would make our win over them look better, but I don't want them rounding into form before they play us again.  It also would be nice, from a local recruiting standpoint, for MSU's tourney streak to end, especially if we can get in.  But we may not get in if that win doesn't look good . . . this would all be easier if MSU would just agree to tank next season, when Lucas is gone.

I don't see many situations where the outcome of this game impacts us a whole lot.  Minnesota has been slipping and that's a winnable game for us, if they want to continue the tailspin I am fine with that.  MSU's going to give us their best shot regardless of their win or loss, so we might as well face them with a slightly better resume and a chance to sweep.  But I won't ever be rooting for MSU so I think I'm just going to send whatever energy I would have dedicated to this game all to us winning out .

i will be rooting for whatever team helps us beat wisconsin tomorrow. 

Because Sparty sucks.  

And them not making the tournament despite being a top 5 preseason team is fun.

When in doubt, not State.  I don't think this has any huge effect on our tournament chances, so that makes the decision easy.  And I really don't want State to go on their usual zombie can't-kill-'em run right before they play us.

Root against OSU, Notre Dame, and Michigan State, in that order.  Win 9 or 10 games and the rest doesn't matter anyway.

Honestly, I dont  think it matters.

The true rooting interests are to pull against the likes of Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Memphis, UAB, Maryland, Nebraska, Boston College.

For example, if Va Tech losses at Wake tonight, that's a much bigger impact on Michigan than whatever happens in the two Big 10 games this evening. I know it's a weird way to look at it, but I think it's the way to go.

So, Go Deacs! Beat The Hokies!!

I will be rooting for Michigan to take care of business on its own, so that the whole "who beat who" doesn't even come in to play.  We do control our own destiny.  If we go 3 for 3, and win 1 in the B10 tourney, we are in.  Some guy on the WWL even said that if we go 2 for 3 and win 1 in the B!0 tourney, we are likely in.  Hell, we could go 1 for 3, but go on a streak and WIN the B10 tourney.  Who the hell knows.

My point is that there are way too many variable out there to consider (until the last week, perhaps), so at this point, I will default to:

(1) always - no matter what - root against OSU,

(2) always root against MSU, unless MSU is playing OSU, in which case see rule #1, and

(3) maintain complete apathy for Minnesota.

I think Illinois will be in if they beat Iowa and Indiana at home, so them losing to OSU doesn't change anything for Michigan. Also, fuck Ohio State.

Minnesota because MSU is a bubble team and I want every bubble team except UM to lose. Also, fuck Michigan State.

Well, we need MSU to lose 1 between Minn, Iowa, Purdue if we beat MSU. We need Minn to lose 2 between MSU, Mich, NW, and PSU in any case because we will not get the head-to-head over them. So, if you expect to beat the loser of this game, then it doesn't matter.

Honestly, I'd say root for MSU to win this game and lose to Purdue. That means that beating either of them will move us ahead of them. If we beat both, we move ahead of both.

Most projections have the Big Ten getting six teams in. Even the SEC, which is not strong this year, is projected to get six teams in. Obviously, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin are in. And then three more out of these five: Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota and Penn State.

I don't think anything has changed for Michigan: Win two of the final three regular-season games and one Big Ten tourney game and the Wolverines are in. We have a great chance to help ourselves by beating two teams battling us for a spot -- Minnesota and Michigan State.

There is a chance, even, that if Michigan beats Wisconsin, it could get in with that and one more regular-season win even if it dropped its first tourney game. But it's not a great situation to be in, because that would mean Michigan lost to a lower-rated conference opponent to open the tournament, and that's the last game the selection committee would see.

But if Michigan wins two of three to finish 9-9 in the conference, and adds a first-round win in the Big Ten tourney, I think we're in. In that scenario, it won't matter who beat who in the conference in these final two weeks. I agree with the posters who say what's more important is to see the other nonconference teams we have beaten -- Oakland and Clemson, for example -- finish strong.

MSU could finish a game behind us and still get in the tournament because of their past tournament history.  So we need them to keep losing.  This is probably a six bid league, so if we sweep MSU and beat Wisconsin, we'll just need one conference tourney win to get a low seed.  You can't sweep a team and have them get in the tournament over you.

Well, I have a rule of thumb for situations like this:

Never root for Sparty.

Now that we got that out of the way...

How many times they talk about aaron craft like he's the greatest defensive player in the leauge during the OSU game. My guess is 20.

Isn't the answer always this?