Big Ten Basketball – Page 66 – Syndication Server

Wisconsin coach combos weren’t better than Dantonio-Izzo, but close!

Big Ten football-hoops coaching combinations

The retirement of Mark Dantonio at Michigan State just broke up the Big Ten’s best football-basketball coaching combination over the past 13 years.

Dantonio teamed with the iconic Tom Izzo — easily the best Big Ten basketball coach of the 21st century — to give Michigan State a substantial 1-2 punch, especially from 2010 through 2015, when you could count on the Spartans to make the Elite Eight most years in basketball and the Big Ten Championship Game in football. The reality of Michigan State having Izzo and Dantonio together was imposing for the rest of the Big Ten, so much so that Ohio State’s immense success under Jim Tressel and Thad Matta (2007-2010) was matched by MSU’s two Italian-American head coaches.

In looking at the entirety of the Big Ten over the past 13 seasons, what jumps out at anyone studying the conference’s combinations of football and basketball head coaches is that only three schools have had excellent coach combinations for any appreciable length of time.

Wisconsin is one of those three schools, which enables Badger fans to appreciate how good they have had it in the 21st century.

Before focusing on Wisconsin and the top three football-basketball coaching combinations in the Big Ten over the past 13 years, let’s look at the other 11 schools.

Penn State, Rutgers, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Minnesota have not achieved much in basketball at any point this century: an NCAA Tournament win once in a while, sure, but nothing beyond that.

Illinois made the Sugar Bowl in the 2001 season and the Rose Bowl in 2007, but has done very little else. Purdue made the Rose Bowl in the 2000 season, and not a whole lot else. Maryland football hasn’t done much. Neither has Indiana. Iowa football has done well under Kirk Ferentz, but basketball has never been especially strong — decent, but not particularly impressive. The Hawkeyes have not made a single Sweet 16 this century.

That’s 10 schools.

Michigan naturally emerges as a school which — to some — might seem to have enjoyed a quality football-basketball coach combination. Yet, the Wolverines never really had a great combination, at least not at the same time. John Beilein produced excellent seasons from 2017 through 2019, but Jim Harbaugh wasn’t able to bring Michigan football to the same level as the basketball program.

Beilein came to Michigan before the 2007-2008 college basketball season, right when Lloyd Carr was preparing for his final football season in Ann Arbor. Beilein and Carr shared the stage at Michigan for one college sports cycle. If they had coached together for several years, Michigan would probably be No. 2 behind Izzo and Dantonio. As it is, though, Carr left when Beilein started, so Michigan can’t claim a coach combination which enjoyed quality and longevity at the same time.

Only three schools have had those ingredients over the past 13 years. Michigan State is the leader, and it’s a battle between Ohio State and Wisconsin for second place.

Ohio State has the better football results. We don’t need to explain that.

Wisconsin has the better basketball results over the past 13 years. That seems self-explanatory, albeit by a smaller margin. Both schools have made two Final Fours in the past 13 years. Ohio State’s best basketball period within the past 13 years was the four-year sequence from 2010 through 2013, in which the Buckeyes were always a top-two seed in the NCAA Tournament and made at least the Sweet 16. However, the Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament three times in the past 13 years. Wisconsin missed only once. The Badgers have made seven Sweet 16s (or better) in 13 years, Ohio State only five.

In terms of overall achievements the past 13 years, Ohio State probably wins by a nose. However, in terms of a coaching combination, Ohio State did not have an especially durable combination due to the shortened tenures of Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel.

Because Tressel stepped down after the 2010 season, he and Thad Matta spent just four seasons together within this 13-year period from 2007 through 2019. Given that Matta’s best sustained period at Ohio State was — as noted above — the four years from 2010 through 2013, it isn’t as though Tressel and Matta were both consistently great as a tandem.

Matta’s 2008 and 2009 seasons were ordinary at best. However, when Matta maxed out in the 2007, Tressel did as well. Both men led Ohio State to the national championship game in their respective sports. Wisconsin and Michigan State can’t claim that distinction. Michigan State came especially close in 2015, but the Spartans’ basketball and football teams both lost in the semifinals (the Final Four) of those postseasons.

Yet, does one transcendent season (2007) mean the Tressel-Matta combination is better than what Wisconsin had, with Bret Bielema and Bo Ryan? This becomes a debate between “greatest achievements” and “overall consistency.” Ohio State has the former, Wisconsin the latter.

It is similar for Ohio State’s other great — but short-lived — coaching combination, Urban Meyer and Matta. They were both really, really great in 2012 and 2013 — Urban went unbeaten in 2012 while Matta reached the Final Four; Ohio State reached the Orange Bowl in 2013 while Matta made the Elite Eight — but not beyond those two seasons. Matta’s career lost steam after 2013, and he never regained his fastball (with health problems being part of the story).

Yes, Ohio State had a better coaching combination than Wisconsin in 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2013, but that is just four years out of 13. On balance, the Badgers have had the steadier programs with both coaches doing well at the same time.

The final verdict: Izzo-Dantonio is the best Big Ten football-basketball coaching combination of the past 13 years.

Bielema-Ryan is second. Meyer-Matta is third (because OSU won the national title as opposed to finishing second in football; Tressel’s national title came before Matta and before this 13-year period began.

Wisconsin has the second-best football-hoops coach combo of the past 13 years, you say? Pretty damn good if I may say so.

3 Key Takeaways: Michigan State Basketball loses to Penn State

Michigan State Basketball lost in tragic fashion to Penn State, 75-70 last night. Here are 3 key takeaways from this game.

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Michigan State Basketball suffered a tough loss at home to the Penn State Nittany Lions last night, 75-70. Michigan State brought it close towards the end but could not overcome Penn State. The Spartans are now 16-7 overall and 8-4 in Big Ten Conference play.

Here are three takeaways from this game:

1. Turnovers Haunt Michigan State Basketball

As a team, MSU ended this game with a whopping 15 total turnovers. The Nittany Lions capitalized on this high number of turnovers, shooting eight more shots than the Spartans. Turnovers always hurt but sting even more in close games. Penn State’s defense was on full display, forcing turnovers left and right throughout this game. Michigan State must work on reducing turnovers immediately. Especially during this crucial stretch in February.

2. Cassius Winston Needs Support

Cassius Winston is absolutely excellent but he needs help. Penn State trapped Winston and forced him to pass the ball away. Teams want other MSU players to make critical decisions in key moments, not Cassius. Winston scored 25 total points against Penn State. The bench contributed 18 total points and the other starting four players contributed 27 total points. Teammates can and will step up to help Cassius.

3. The Big Ten Is Really Good

I think people really underrate the Big Ten right now. Andy Katz put 10 Big Ten teams into his most recent March Madness Bracket Prediction. Competition is incredibly arduous and no game is an easy win. Even Tom Izzo gave credit to the impressive depth of high-quality teams in the Big Ten conference. I think more people will wise up to the Big Ten’s strength towards the end of the season, but, only time will tell.

Michigan State travels to the Crisler Center this Saturday for a 12 P.M. game. You can watch this game on Fox. Stay locked on SpartansWire for more MSU Basketball coverage to come.

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Ohio State vs Michigan basketball: How and where to watch and listen

Ohio State travels to Ann Arbor for a key Big Ten matchup with Michigan. Here’s how you can watch, stream, and listen to the game.

This feels like a bigger game than what it’s being billed as. There’s never a reason to take for granted a game against That Team up North in any sport, but with both teams kind of searching for themselves, a win here could be seen as a move in the right direction. A loss however, could be seen as a further step back towards bubble territory.

It’s well-chronicled how hard it has been to win on the road in the Big Ten this year, and Ohio State will have to try and punch through that mind-trap and find a way to compete and fight in a hostile environment.

In case you don’t know where to find the game to stream, watch on your big screen, or simply dial up on the radio, we have you covered. Click over to the next page and get all the information you need to find the game.

Ohio State vs. Michigan 2019 basketball game preview and prediction https://t.co/VnsXE4BCqj

— Buckeyes Wire (@BuckeyesWire) February 4, 2020

Next … television, radio, streaming, game time, and venue

Pages: 12

Big Ten will have NCAA Tourney teams with losing league records

Big Ten update

It is something a lot of college basketball fans aren’t prepared for each year, but it keeps happening, and it will probably continue to happen most years: At least one team from a Power Five conference will make the NCAA Tournament with a sub-.500 record in conference games.

Sometimes, a team makes the Big Dance despite being FOUR games under .500 in conference play. Oklahoma made the 2019 NCAA Tournament with a 7-11 regular-season record in the Big 12, plus a first-round loss to the last-place team in the conference that season, West Virginia. The Sooners were 7-12 in 19 Big 12 games, and they got in.

No, they didn’t go to Dayton as part of the First Four, either. Oklahoma got in rather comfortably if measured by seeding. The Sooners were a No. 9 seed, meaning they were more safely in the tournament than four No. 10 seeds and four No. 11 seeds (excluding automatic bid-holders).

Teams getting in with conference records four games below the break-even mark is not common, but it happens every now and then. Teams getting in with conference records which are two games under .500 is a lot more common. Two years ago, FIVE such teams existed: Syracuse in the ACC, Alabama in the SEC, Texas and Oklahoma in the Big 12, and Arizona State in the Pac-12, all two games below .500 in their respective conferences.

This year, there is no better place for this kind of NCAA Tournament team to emerge than in the Big Ten.

Indiana, entering Monday, Feb. 3, is 5-6 in the Big Ten, but with wins over Florida State and Michigan State, the Hoosiers look fairly solid as long as they don’t implode. The same can be said for Ohio State and Michigan, which are both 4-6 but recently picked up valuable wins over Indiana (for the Buckeyes) and Rutgers (for the Wolverines).

The most interesting Big Ten case studies, though, might be Purdue and Minnesota. The Boilermakers and Golden Gophers are both 5-6 in league play entering Feb. 3, but are barely above .500 overall. It is true that having a truckload of losses doesn’t automatically eliminate a team from getting an at-large NCAA bid. In 2001, Georgia got in despite losing 14 games. In 2017, Vanderbilt got in despite losing 15 games. Can Purdue and/or Minnesota get in despite being 18-15 and 9-11 in the Big Ten? We’ll find out.

If you ignore the Boilermakers and Gophers, though, it is still very likely the Big Ten will get at least one NCAA Tournament team with a losing conference record. It is part of the modern-day reality of college basketball.

Wisconsin played the Big Ten officiating lottery last week

Ohio State basketball vs. Indiana: How and where to watch and listen

Ohio State is all set to host Indiana Saturday afternoon in a key Big Ten matchup. Here’s your television, radio, and streaming information.

The Ohio State basketball team got back in the win column last time out by winning one on the road at Northwestern. Now, after almost a week off, it gets back to the home venue to take on an Indiana team it lost to the first time around in Bloomington.

This is a game the Buckeyes simply have to have if it wants to stay in a position to dance in March. They will be without one of their key players with the news of D.J. Carton being out, but they still have to find a way to keep things together and notch the win.

We know you are looking for the game, so we have you covered with how and where to find it. You’re welcome. Just click through the next page and you can find all the information you need to watch on the tube, stream on your favorite device, or dial it up the old fashioned way on the radio.

Ohio State vs. Indiana: 3 Keys to a Buckeye victory https://t.co/DRxjcjDsMm

— Buckeyes Wire (@BuckeyesWire) February 1, 2020

Next … television, radio, streaming, game time, and venue

Pages: 12

Ohio State vs. Indiana: 3 Keys to a Buckeye victory

Ohio State hosts Indiana at home in a crucial Big Ten basketball contest. Here’s what the Buckeyes need to do for a win.

Despite all the trials and tribulations, the Ohio State basketball team has been through this year, it’s still an NCAA tournament team. But the season is not over and it has to find some way to get some more big wins in a very tough and deep Big Ten.

One of those games is Saturday against an Indiana team that already beat the Buckeyes in Bloomington. It’s a game that hat OSU simply cannot afford to notch in the win column. Holding serve at home in this league is a must, and the Bucks have already lost two in conference on their home court. If they have any designs of still dancing in March, this is a big one.

Here are three keys to a victory.

Next … Save the pumpkin

Pages: 1234

Wisconsin bubble watch: the key results beyond the Big Ten

Wisconsin bubble watch

Part of the reality of the college basketball bubble unfolds within a single conference. If you’re a Wisconsin fan, your primary point of focus is the Big Ten: How many good teams exist in the league? Which teams in the conference are on the bubble? What do teams need to do in February and early March to improve their bubble position and make the NCAA Tournament? What Big Ten Conference record will enable a given team to make the NCAAs, and what conference record won’t be good enough?

These are all important and necessary questions. Yet, the bubble picture goes beyond a team’s own conference. That conference shapes most of the bubble landscape, but the other conferences complete the picture and offer a fuller, more accurate representation of what bubble teams are fighting against. With this in mind, let’s focus a little more consciously and specifically on teams outside the Big Ten which are battling with Wisconsin for bubble spots.

Why is Wisconsin above the bubble cut line? Broadly speaking, other conferences aren’t making convincing cases that their bubble teams should be in the NCAA Tournament. More specifically, this point is affirmed when looking at individual teams such as the Stanford Cardinal.

Stanford beat Oklahoma and lost to Butler and Kansas in non-conference play. The Cardinal won their first four Pac-12 games and had no bad losses. They were solidly in the NCAA Tournament — not a lock (few teams are true locks in mid-January, given all the basketball which remains to be played), but well above dozens of teams which were closer to the bubble cut line. Now, though, Stanford looks very different.

Stanford lost on Thursday night at home to an Oregon State team which had lost four straight games. Stanford has lost to USC, California, and Oregon State in consecutive games and now faces Oregon on the weekend. If the Cardinal lose to the Ducks, they will have lost four straight games. Cal and Oregon State are not good losses.

Stanford is very clearly below Wisconsin in any two-team bubble comparison. The Cardinal have fewer losses than UW, but bubble comparisons aren’t straight win-loss comparisons, as veteran bubble watchers know. If they WERE pure win-loss comparisons, mid-majors with 25-4 records would always get in over the 18-13 team which finished eighth in the Big 12. We know that’s not how it works.

Stanford is just one of several examples which show why, as bad as things might be for Wisconsin, other teams trying to make the NCAA Tournament are in evidently worse shape. Keep that in mind over the next six weeks.

Big Ten update: Illinois over Minnesota is good for Wisconsin

Big Ten basketball update

When we at Badgers Wire share our stories on social media outlets, we hear from readers who comment on these stories. Just the other day, we posted the story about where ESPN’s Joe Lunardi placed the Wisconsin Badgers in his bracketology column. The immediate guess from one commenter was that Lunardi would have the Badgers as a No. 9 seed. That’s roughly where I expected the Badgers to be as well. Yet, Lunardi had the Badgers as a 7 seed. Remember: This was January 28, AFTER (not before) the loss to Iowa which dropped the Badgers to 12-9.

Yes, a 12-9 record normally means the bubble, but I am going to be repeating myself a lot in the next few weeks: This season, normal bubble records don’t mean much. The Atlantic Coast Conference has only three really good teams: Duke, Louisville, and Florida State. Therefore, when teams 4 through 15 in the ACC beat each other, they aren’t getting the quality wins they normally would have gained in previous years. Beating the seventh-place ACC team this season is an NIT or CBI-level victory, not an NCAA Tournament-level victory.

This domino effect exists on a smaller scale in other major conferences. There is a dearth of bids to be handed out. Few teams are making airtight arguments for lock status in the 2020 NCAA Tournament. This is why Wisconsin is still WELL above the bubble cut line entering Saturday’s game against Michigan State, which begins the month of February. (It also begins the month in which we take bracketology seriously. Anything before late January is a waste of time.)

With all of this in mind, let’s put forth the question: Was it a good thing for Wisconsin that the Illinois Fighting Illini beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Thursday night? To me, the answer is clearly yes.

Let’s explain: The Big Ten has a chance to put 12 teams in the NCAA Tournament. No, I wouldn’t expect that it will, but it’s possible. If the eighth through 12th teams in the conference all trade/exchange/balance wins to lift all boats, not just one or two, it can happen.

This is what Wisconsin should want: The Badgers need some exchanges of wins among the teams in the No. 8-12 spots in the conference. Wisconsin does NOT want teams 8-12 to ALL crumble while a stronger top seven solidifies. That means the No. 8 team in the league becomes more of an NIT candidate and less of an NCAA candidate. Wisconsin needs at least nine or 10 Big Ten teams to remain good.

However, Wisconsin doesn’t need more than 10 teams to be good. Wisconsin — especially if it loses several more games (which is quite possible, given everything going on inside the program) — will move a lot closer to the bubble. It will be a bubble team. Viewed in this context, the No. 11 and 12 teams in the Big Ten are bubble competitors for Wisconsin. (No. 10 is too, but that’s where the Badgers need to know that beating the No. 10 Big Ten team is a good win rather than a mediocre one. It’s a balancing act.)

If there are a few teams at the bottom of the Big Ten bubble pile, Minnesota is one of them. Minnesota, Purdue, Michigan, and Ohio State are below Wisconsin in the bubble pecking order. Wisconsin would like two of those teams to remain good so that wins over them are valuable, but Wisconsin doesn’t want all four to be good. If all four are good, that’s two more bubble teams UW has to worry about.

Illinois over Minnesota makes the Gophers a less credible bubble team. Wisconsin losing to the Illini looks better, not worse. This is a good bubble result. We will continue to have these discussions in the month of February.

The Big Ten and its big numbers are the big story in college hoops

Big Ten basketball

If one conference sits at the center of the college basketball universe right now, it is the Big Ten. You could make a clever argument and say that the Atlantic Coast Conference is the biggest story in college basketball as we approach the beginning of February, but the ACC is a huge story for bad reasons, not good ones. The Big Ten, however, is the conference poised to dominate Selection Sunday and give member schools a chance to earn a lot of NCAA Tournament win shares. (The Big Ten, like every other conference, receives more money from the NCAA based on cumulative six-year NCAA Tournament appearances and results. The more games won in rolling six-year periods, the more that conference receives each new year.)

It is the dream of every elite basketball conference to get double-digit NCAA Tournament bids. With 10 or 11 teams in the Big Dance, the opportunities for added revenue generation skyrocket. Not every team will go deep into the field, but if most teams win in round one, half make the Sweet 16, and one team makes the Final Four, that is a gigantic windfall for the conference.

The Big Ten could do that this year.

The reason why the Big Ten has a shot at this is that, as mentioned earlier, the ACC is having a nightmarish season. How bad is the ACC? It is very possible that the league could have only THREE TEAMS in the NCAA Tournament. All the frontline bubble teams have struggled massively in the past two weeks. North Carolina State and Virginia Tech are playing their way out of the field and need to stop the bleeding immediately. North Carolina will not make the tournament unless it wins the ACC Tournament or goes on a huge winning streak. Virginia played terrible basketball for multiple weeks. It beat Florida State on Tuesday but is squarely on the bubble. Syracuse moved to the head of the bubble pack but then lost at Clemson. Not one team after the top three (Duke, Louisville, Florida State) is solidifying its position in the field. All the true bubble teams are losing ground.

Even in a down year, the ACC normally gets six teams into the field. If it gets only three, that’s three more bids for other conferences.

When you then realize that the 14-team SEC looks like a six-bid league at best, and that the bubble teams in the Big 12 (Texas, Oklahoma, TCU) and Pac-12 (Washington State, Washington, Arizona State) have a lot of work to do, there could easily be a situation in which the various Power Five conferences leave a lot of bids on the table.

The Big Ten could scoop them up.

Purdue and Minnesota are just above .500, but have a realistic chance of making the field. Ohio State and Michigan are both 2-6 in the conference, but are still in the field as of right now. It’s weird, but it’s real. The Big Ten is hitting the sweet spot in terms of having a lot of average teams but hardly any bad teams — only Nebraska and Northwestern qualify there. Since every game other than a Nebraska or Northwestern game comes against a decent team with decent ratings, every win is good and every loss is not a crusher. Teams are getting rewarded when they win and not punished when they lose. It is the dream scenario for any conference, and it is playing out in the Big Ten.

As long as the ACC and Pac-12 bubble teams continue to stumble, a double-digit bid allocation for the Big Ten remains a legitimate possibility. This is good news for Wisconsin, and good news for Big Ten coffers. We will stay on top of this story in February and all the way up to Selection Sunday at Badgers Wire.