OSU and Minnesota both lose by 20+ on the road today
It's the dog days of the Big Ten conference schedule. OSU and Minnesota are both going through gauntlets in their schedule and look what happened.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:08 PM ^
Madison is cursed. Shouldn't have built the city on top of those ancient Native American burial mounds.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:09 PM ^
What gets me is that Sparty scraped out an unbelievably ugly 2-point win in that building earlier this year. IIRC, neither team made a field goal in the final seven minutes and Wisconsin missed a ton of free throws.
Swap results in the games in Madison (give us a win and MSU a loss), and we'd be tied with MSU in the standings.
February 17th, 2013 at 11:25 PM ^
They left the bodies and they only moved the headstones!
February 17th, 2013 at 4:10 PM ^
Minnesota's not great
February 17th, 2013 at 4:45 PM ^
But it was to Iowa.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
Minnesota had a 16 point lead and they lost by 21? Yikes.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:43 PM ^
That is unbelievably bad. I haven't been keeping up with the scores aroung the country today...so thanks for pointing this out. Losing by 21 that way is way worse than be dominated from start to finish and losing by 21.
I thought Minnesota was better than this.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^
Every time I watch Minnesota, I get Amaker-era flashbacks. Another team that never seems to be as good as the sum of its parts.
Tubby Smith is Exhibit A to the argument that coaches' abilities rise and fall just like players' do. His career winning percentage is around .700, so clearly he was a very good coach earlier in his career. But at this point, it seems like he can't get through to his players like he used to. His Minnesota teams always seem sloppy and fold in the face of adversity.
February 17th, 2013 at 7:40 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
He didn't start his career at Kentucky. He coached Tulsa, then Georgia, and then (after being very successful at both stops) got the UK job. He was once considered one of the hottest coaching names in the country. Now, not so much. I'd argue furthermore that recruiting is the least of his problems - Minnesota has a very talented roster this year, but it doesn't seem to play together. It's probably time for Smith to call it a career.
February 17th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^
I was going to make the same point. I liked Tommy Amaker, but his teams seemed to always follow big wins (like Minnesota's against Wisconsin) with deflating losses.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:17 PM ^
Iowa is playing itself onto the bubble. Their game against Illinois is going to be big for their tournament chances. Their main problem is that they only have one more chance to get a quality road win, and that's against Indiana, so it's very unlikely. They may need to make the Big 10 semis.
The Wisconsin win is actually really bad for us. We really want to avoid getting the 4 seed in the Big 10 tournament, which would likely put us up against Ohio State in the quarters, but now Wisconsin, who holds the tie breaker against us, holds the inside track for the 3 seed and only have one more likely loss (@ MSU).
February 17th, 2013 at 4:23 PM ^
non conference play will hold them back from anything better than a 4, unless they win the Big Ten tourney. And even then, the loss at home to UVA and the loss to Marquette make it hard to seem them better than a 4.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
can we stop saying the word "gauntlet"
February 17th, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 6:00 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 6:05 PM ^
I owned this game as a kid. Good times.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:30 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 6:34 PM ^
Well yeah, actually the handheld one (like most of Tiger's handheld games) was pretty crappy.
The NES was glorious. The only problem was that your thumbs/palms would hurt after awhile from using that unforgiving rectangular controller.
February 17th, 2013 at 8:12 PM ^
The coin op original...
February 17th, 2013 at 6:24 PM ^
Great first post.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:40 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:21 PM ^
now all we need is MSU and IU to start losing games by 20+
February 17th, 2013 at 4:21 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
winning on the road in this conference is actaully a pretty damn tough thing to do. Gonna be a great B10 tournament in Chicago, and it will be interesting to see how many of these teams can win a couple in the NCAAs.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
Is it in Chicago? God that is so much better than Indianapolis. Indiana would be brutal in a basically home game.
February 17th, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^
They don't play well in Banker's Life aka Conseco aka Market Square Arena isn't the same. The fans might be unbareable, but IU lost to Butler there and they have no special powers over the officials there.
February 17th, 2013 at 9:01 PM ^
/OCD
February 17th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
How many BIG teams are we looking at in terms of making the NCAA? Definiitely Mich, MSU, IU, OSU, Wisco
Bubble: Minn, Iowa, Ill
Any chance at 8?
ESPN Bracketology has 7 BIG teams in...LINK
February 17th, 2013 at 4:40 PM ^
All 3 of those bubble teams have favorable schedules down the stretch. I think 7 is pretty much a good bet as Minnesota and Illinois have great nonconference profiles that will help them immensely as well.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:38 PM ^
I can't believe Minny was up 16 and then lost by 21.
February 17th, 2013 at 4:47 PM ^
Wisconsin only has one more difficult game this year (@Staee). They probably have an easier path to the B1G regular season title than Michigan, although Michigan will play a large role in MSU and Indiana racking up two more Ls each.
For what it's worth, MSU and Indiana both have challenging schedules.
February 17th, 2013 at 5:47 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 5:50 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^
Can somebody please explain to me why we ALWAYS get the opponents "A" game? Why are we always the red-letter, countdown clock, leave it all on the floor, maximum effort, pull out all the stops and unleash the trick play game for everybody???? Football i get but basketball? Not like we've been beating up on people and dominating the league lately.
Staee struggles with a shitty Nebraska team but beats up by about 500. Ohio State mails it in against Wisconsin but beats us at home and pushes us to OT on the road. Purdue cant do shit against anybody until they face us and then they shoot lights out for a half. Penn State is the redefinition of horrible but play as fired up as they have in two years and take us to the limit.
Jesus I would kill to have just one game where the other side looked flat but it NEVER happens. For Michigan everybody is up, up, up.
February 17th, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^
you want to be champions, you are gonna generally get everyone's best game. That's why it's hard to do.
February 17th, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
NW and ILL had bad games against us and I wouldn't say Minnesota was on top of their game. Also, our defense is terrible.
February 17th, 2013 at 5:07 PM ^
I'm referring to facing a team looking "flat". Has anybody EVER seen that against us? I watched the OSU/Wisconsin game and the Buckeye's looked like they didnt give a shit what happened. Against us? They play like their mortal soul's are up for grabs. State? Plays like they're asleep against Nebraska. But put our uniforms in front of them and they play like the reicarnation of the 300.
Just once in my life I'd like to see a game...in ANY sport....where we got less than the other side's maximum effort. I'd like to see a game where our opponent looked "flat". But for the life of me I've never seen it and my guess is I never will.
February 17th, 2013 at 5:16 PM ^
Feel free to disagree with my recollection about any of these games (I cannot look up the games right now) but Michigan has had its breaks in terms of opponents not bringing their A game--especially in terms of bad teams playing over their heads.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:10 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 6:26 PM ^
We should take it as a compliment. My guess is that during the Ellerbe/Amaker era, our opponents weren't nearly as crazed when they played us, with the exception of MSU.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:42 PM ^
As for OSU/MSU vs. Michgian its a rivalry. Rivals don't lay down for rivals.
As for getting everyone best shot, I think its pretty clear Michigan established itself as the best team in the conference early on after going 16-0 and may still be the best team in the conference. When that happens, its expected everyone is gonna give you their best shot. We're all crabs in a barrel trying to get to the NCAA tournament and win the B1G along the way.
February 17th, 2013 at 6:53 PM ^
February 17th, 2013 at 7:09 PM ^
MSU vs. OSU - I won't go as far to say that these two schools have a rivarly or bad blood between each other. Both schools play each other pretty hard and the best teams wins just like our first match up this year. I personally have no hate harbored to MSU or their fans but their fans may be bitter over the Buford shot from last year resulting in three way split for the B1G title instead of claiming it out right. Other then that, Sparty is just another conference foe. Not sure if this was the point you were trying to argue though...