2018-19 Michigan Basketball B1G slate announced
http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041918aae.html
Home: vs Nebraska, vs Ohio State, vs Purdue
Road: at Illinois, at Iowa, at Rutgers
Home/Road: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Wisconsin
I don't know if I would go that far. I don't think that schedule gives us any advantage to winning the Big Ten. Rutgers and Illinois are going to be two of the worst teams in the B1G, and those are both single plays. OSU may not be very good either--another single play. I think the only favorable single-plays we get are Nebraska and Purdue at home, and that is assuming their key players don't stay in the Draft. Most of our Home/Away matchups are teams that should be in the top 10 of the B1G.
The new 20-game schedule helps even out the competition so it is not as big a deal.
for the reasons you pointed out. Maybe even slightly more difficult than you'd expect from the average schedule given that our single plays are probably going to have an overall losing conference record, i.e. worse than the average team, and our double plays project to be better than the average team.
I think it appears easier based on this years teams but OSU and Purdue lose a ton of key pieces and Wisconsin, Maryland, IU project to improve next year.
But as you point out, much more difficult to get a really favorable schedule now that there are only 6 single plays instead of 8.
April 20th, 2018 at 10:24 AM ^
a quality home game in the ACC challenge ... don't we?
Go Blue!
overcoming all the Herpes.......
The single plays are a very nice home & away difference assuming the teams perform somewhat the same as this year.
Based on this, I'm going with undefeated B1G Champs.
So what you are proposing...#7 plays 12 games against the top 6 and 6-7 games against the bottom 6, while #8 plays 6-7 games against the top 6 and 12 against the bottom 6.
That's a huge disadvantage to be giving the #7 finisher compared to the #8 finisher--you are giving #8 about a 4 or 5 game boost over #7, and it might be just because they happened to lose a tiebreaker the year before. I don't think the Big Ten would be promoted by having such wildly divergent schedules.
That deff helps stack the deck in our favor for a regular season B1G Championship run.
nice things?
It is a shame we only get Purdue once. Beilein vs Painter is one of the more fun tactical matchups to watch in the B1G. What a damn shame
I should be able to go to that one!!!!
I was at this year's! Not very many others were though, was some pretty crummy weather across the state if I recall.
Looking at the other schools, I don't really see anyone getting screwed or receiving a significant benefit with the schedule. My goodness, could the B1G have done something right?
Some slight differences.
Purdue has the hardest schedule on the list.
Michigan and IU have the easiest.
But, with the majority being home/away instead of single play, it's easier to not fuck it up.
I would put MSU, Purdue, Nebraska and Maryland as the top contenders in next years Big Ten, so it seems like this is a slightly favorable schedule. Michigan is the clear favorite.
Big Ten could be pretty bad again next year, unfortunately.
Maryland ain't winning shit as long as Turgeon is around. It's shocking he's still there.
MSU lost their best two players and has to actually play *gasp* good B1G teams on the road.
Purdue is losing Haas, Matthias and Vince Edwards
Nebraska, while bringing back everyone, is still Nebraska. Let's see what they can do first. They were terrible on the road this past season.
#PeopleDontForget
Number is national ranking projection. I think Indiana could be a contender if they land Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan withdraws from the Draft.
6 Michigan St.
19 Wisconsin
20 Michigan
21 Maryland
29 Iowa
31 Indiana
33 Nebraska
36 Northwestern
38 Purdue
45 Penn St.
50 Ohio St.
53 Illinois
68 Minnesota
115 Rutgers
MSU #6?!??!? WTF.....seriously.
They return 3 junior players who have been 2-year starters from a top-10 team (statistically) with a top-25 recruiting class. These projections are based off analytics from returning players and projections of recruits. Not a perfect science, but I will take it over most of the early top 25 lists being put out there by writers.
I am not a KenPom subscriber, but I think he has MSU a little lower. I think KenPom had Maryland as the highest rated team in the B1G at #11 after the NCAA Tournament ended, but that may have assumed Justin Jackson was returning (he is not).
Maryland will never win the B1G with Turgeon.
The way I see it the best schedule has:
Best teams 1-offs at Home - if you gotta play them might as well be at home
Worst teams 1-offs Away - don't want to play good teams at their site
Home/Away - If you happen to lose to a team on the road at least you will have a chance to get back at them at home. We would have killed Nebraska at Crisler this year.
I think next year the B1G is going to be pretty hard to predict, but could be worse than this year.
Other than us, MSU will be MSU. They lose a lot, but have a good class. Purdue will drop a little, but still have some talent and a very good coach. Maryland has an incredible incoming class and a mediocre (ok, terrible) coach. OSU loses a lot, but has a very good coach.
After this group, IU, PSU, Nebraska and Wisky could be good.
The rest of the league is pretty much interchangeable.
Best schedule for winning the B1G is best teams as single plays (preferably home) and worst teams as Home/Away. That may not be the best schedule for making and seeding the NCAA Tournament though (as Nebraska and MSU experienced this year).
we won the B1G tourney the last 2 years so good luck charm?
Our Single Homes are against good teams and our single aways are winnable
He turned Oklahoma State around pretty well in his year there. Though, he was arguably working with a better base than he had last year. Nevertheless, that could be a tough road game next year and they could make a big leap next year.
This is mainly based on his work at SFA where he had some time to bring in his own players. At OSU, he was basically handed a good but underachieving group with enough speed to play his system.
There's a much better chance of me seeing MIchigan in person when they play in Minneapolis.
So it's good to see that MIchigan will be going to Minneapolis twice next season.
Jim Delany hates MSU so much he is making them return to the site of their worst loss since 2008...........Crisler Center. And based on the recruiting rankings he is making them do it with a class ranked below M after losing two lottery picks. I think I might enjoy this.