aiglick

January 29th, 2014 at 10:43 PM ^

Wisconsin did go undefeated in the non-conference with wins against Florida, Virginia, and Saint Louis among other solid wins. They faced an actual out of conference schedule. The Big Ten has some really good teams and others that punch above their weight and play with intensity there is no question that this bottom part of the league is relatively fierce.

B-Nut-GoBlue

January 29th, 2014 at 10:46 PM ^

Debateable. It's a little of both. I'm on my phone or would go into a little more detail on my opinion but though it's a little of both I think it's more the latter and the top of our conference is proving to not be that good this year.

*By not that good I mean they're some damn good teams but not as good as once thought.

aiglick

January 29th, 2014 at 10:40 PM ^

There is a lot of minutes left and this is still the home court for Wisconsin. This is something this game is not a Mona Lisa but Northwestern is doing what Wisconsin has lived on forever so yes good job Northwestern this is great. Keep it up and stn the Badgers in Madison again.

J.Madrox

January 29th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^

Holy cow, I don't know if I have ever seen a college basketball team handle the press worse then this. Northwestern just gave Wisconsin five free points with a complete inability to get the ball past half court, and now a five second call, geez.

aiglick

January 29th, 2014 at 10:51 PM ^

I have a feeling this is going to be more college football than basketball based on the last couple of minutes and here we go. Get the ball in and drive.

snarling wolverine

January 29th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^

Kind of torn here.  Under normal circumstances I'd be fine with NW beating Wisconsin.  But it does make our win at Kohl seem not quite the rare feat.

Chris Collins really is doing a nice coaching job.  That team looked hopeless a few weeks ago.

SF Wolverine

January 29th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^

Did not see Matta and Ryan having to bail to keep afloat the way they are now. 

So, what do we think about the conference now:

Top tier -- Michigan/MSU/Iowa

Second tier -- Wiscy/Minnesota (?)

Third tier -- OSU/Indiana/Nebraska

The rest -- can't say whether any of PSU, Purdue, Northwestern or Illinois really break out here.  Cats looked awful to start year, but have had a couple of decent wins.

I will say that "road win is a good win" has been proven in this conference,

ixcuincle

January 29th, 2014 at 11:20 PM ^

That's what I think too, Iowa is too inconsistent to be top tier. They have played a lot of Top 25 teams such as Michigan and Michigan State and lost them both. They've also lost other games to ranked teams (i.e. Wisconsin) so they're not top tier but they're a solid third place. It should be clear that there's a huge gap between them and MSU / Michigan though. Michigan teams are clearly the best in the B1G right now. 

ixcuincle

January 29th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^

How did Wisconsin get from dangerously good to terribly bad? 

Also, while we're ranking teams, Michigan is best in conference obviously. MSU is 2nd best. There's a huge gap between MSU and the third team  in the B1G, which is probably Iowa. NW is also playing well (and as 11W points out, is a half game up on Ohio). 

Wisconsin might turn things around eventually but they are in a tailspin right now, as is Ohio. 

Minnesota is okay under Pitino but needs more wins. 

Crazy crazy crazy B1G conference