Latest Story

Big Ten Hoops is All Cain and Abel

January 19, 2012
By

Guys don't get carried off the floor on people's shoulders much these days. 43 points will do that.

Any recent fan of Big Ten athletics is undoubtedly familiar with the senseless pap that gets thrown around in the name of the conference. Something about the rust-belt Midwestern sprawl of the conference prompts senseless talking-heads to ascribe a slew of blue-collar sensibilities to the style of play in THE BIG TEN CONFERENCE (this should be said in your best Merrill Hoge “NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE” voice). The assertion is that the physical, brawny Big Ten will dissemble any newfangled wrinkle of innovation. Lately, in football, this has been a sop – the conference is down, not just compared to it’s SEC rivals, and it seems like a minimum level of competence in any scheme (TACKLING works in the BIG TEN CONFERENCE) is enough to warrant success. Further, it’s often a lie – the image of the conference is between the tackles old-school football which really only applied to Wisconsin this past year.

In basketball, however, this is close to law – the conference DOES play slower, it DOES play more physical (witness a “soft team like Michigan’s recent win over MSU for an example) and it DOES punish teams that can’t match these qualities (see: Northwestern’s significant difficulties in taking down more than one good team a year). What worse is that for the past few years, the conference has been brutally deep, with teams from the top echelon struggling to win on the road, anywhere.

Last week, the Big Ten had four teams ranked in the top 25, and every single team dropped a road game to an unranked opponent. Three of these losses came to Iowa, Nebraska, and Northwestern, and the combined conference record of the victors was an uninspiring 11-14. These games have been unforgiving, and it’s not just because the favorite plays poorly: Ohio State lost a game that saw them take 21 more shots than Illinois, Indiana out-shot Nebraska by 14 percentage points, and Michigan State posted their best eFG% of Big 10 play against Northwestern. The opposition has just found ways to win – from Illinois conference-worst shooting team hitting 60% from the floor, Nebraska’s 275th ranked offensive rebounding attacking winning the battle on the boards, and Northwestern’s porous defense forced turnovers on 25% of the Spartans possessions. It’s just a jungle out there.

What does it mean going forward? Since going to an 18-game conference slate, the conference has been won by a team that goes 15-3 or better in three of four years, with the lone exception being 2010, when three times tied at 14-4 and a fourth finished at 13-5 – the most top-heavy performance in league history. With every favorite sitting with at least two conference losses a mere third of the way through the season, this figures to be the lowest win figure to take the conference since the expanded conference slate. Illinois sits at the top with one loss, but with two to play against both Wisconsin and Michigan, road-trips to Indiana and Ohio State, and a game against Michigan State, some losses are coming. The bet here is that you see the conference’s first 13-win champion since the expanded conference slate.

Onto the power-rankings: Read more »

Indiana Is Back, Nebraska Fans Storm Court

January 19, 2012
By

I, for one, as a proud Indiana University alum, am tickled Cream and Crimson that our basketball squadron was able to provide Nebraska with its first marquee, landmark Big  10 conference basktetball win. It might not go on  page one of our rather proud and long history with the sport, but its now part of the Hoosier lore. Like it or not. It sucks to lose, but on the bright side, beating Indiana is all of a sudden a reason to storm the floor. After not just the last three seasons, but much of the last decade, its a welcome, if not bittersweet, sign of progress that the program is finally back to its proper relevancy. Beating Indiana is an important achievement again, something that could be your program and your fans highlight of the season.

Are you buying any of that? Probably not. But the rushing the court meme instantly came to me as the horn sounded and Husker fans romped towards center court. I cant even remember the last time somebody did that after beating Indiana. Most Indiana fans are more worried this morning about actual basketball issues than my quasi silver lining that we now have proof that beating IU is big news again. Nope. We’re all wondering whats become of our magical, dream season. A 3-game losing streak, highlighted by bad losses to Minnesota and Nebraska bookending a troubling, non competive beatdown at the hands of Ohio State has the pretty Bloomington sky a-falling.

Honestly, though, I am not taking that much umbrage with the loss. I did after the Minnesota loss because the team just didnt play well, they looked sloopy and almost played like a win was a foregone conclusion. The Gophers pretty much controlled the game, in Bloomington no less, the whole way. Last night was a different story. IU played well in the first half to forge a lead. Then, they played even better basketball for the first 13-14 minutes or so of the second half.  The win seemed in hand. Then, total meltdown. The Hoosiers began coming away with empty possessions. They missed a key free free throw. Nebraska hit a pair of clutch free throws. A game winning layup attempt by Jordan Hulls was blocked by the rim. It all seemed so last season, which isnt good. But road losses, even inexplicable ones like last night, happen, especially with a team that still needs to figure out how to close consistently on the road. As a nasty puncuation mark to an on-going three game losing streak, however, the final result is all that matters, not necessarily the first 34 minutes of the game when the Hoosiers looked like a polished, top-15 team and forged an 11-point lead.

So, what gives? Whats been happening on this skid? To my untrained basketball eye, here are the problems, in a nutshell: Verdell Jones needs to start dribbling with his head up. Victor Oladipo needs to stop trying to make the game winning play on every touch. They cant lose sight of Cody Zeller down the stretch and not get the ball in his hands. Jordan Hulls needs to stop playing like a spaz like he did last night. Seriously, isnt there a house somewhere on Dunn Street where we can find him something to calm his nerves? When I was in school there was, so somebody hook him up please. As a team, they need more commitment to defense. Basically the team appears to be finally struggling under the weight of expectations and being the target. Crean, a spaz in his own right, needs to find a way to calm the team down, restore its confidence and get them back to playing with the carefree, we’re back so deal with it, style that had propelled them into the top-10. Read more »