Now that the rosters are set...

[millerhusker]

A preseason Big Ten rankings rough draft. Seems like conference depth might be down this year. I do this every year and am truly awful at it. 

 

1.       Michigan State: May be preseason #1 in the country. Winston might be preseason national POY.

2.       Maryland: Jalen Smith (potential 2020 lottery pick) and Anthony Cowan return. Wiggins has NBA potential. Ayala and Morsell have shown a lot of promise on the wing. Four 4-star incoming frontcourt players.

3.       Purdue: Obviously losing Edwards hurts. But they lose go-to players every year and are always picked too low in the preseason. Painter has enough pieces and finds a way to be a top 3 team in the league for the sixth year in a row. My B1G breakout player – Trevion Williams.

4.       Ohio State: Wesson brothers return. CJ Walker (Florida State transfer) is eligible. Talented freshmen guards are a year older. DJ Carton might be the best incoming freshmen in the conference.

5.       Penn State: Watkins and Stevens return. Stevens can take over games and will be one of the best players in the country. Dread and Bolton had impressive freshmen campaigns. Chambers has his best, and maybe last, chance at having a tournament team.

6.       Illinois: Could be a sleeper team. Dosunmu will be on early 2020 lottery boards. A lot of young talent on this team. Underwood has built a similar looking team to the one he had in Stillwater, but this one has a post presence (Giorgi B.)

7.       Michigan: If Matthews and/or Iggy and/or Poole would’ve returned, I’d have them a few spots higher, even with a new coach. Simpson, Teske and Livers have played in a ton of huge games and are good enough to make Juwan Howard’s first season respectable.

8.       Nebraska: I have no idea. It wouldn’t shock me if we finished several spots higher or lower than this. I’m trying not to have any expectations. I’ll be optimistic as ever going into the season, though.

9.       Indiana: Underachieved last year. Morgan and Langford are gone, but they still have talent and another stud freshman coming in. If Archie Miller puts another mediocre product on the court, fans will start getting impatient in Bloomington (if they haven't already). 

10.   Iowa: I might’ve had them as high as #3 if Bohannon wasn’t injured, Moss didn’t transfer and Cook pulled out of the draft. Wieskamp, Garza and McCaffery x 2 will still make them tough to guard.

11.   Minnesota: Read an article on a Gopher site that predicted Minnesota will be a Sweet 16 team next year… They lose Coffey, Murphy, McBrayer and Washington. Oturu and Kalscheur will be a fantastic inside-outside duo for a few years. Eric Curry should be healthy.

12.   Rutgers: I was feeling pretty good about Rutgers being an NIT team next year until Omoruyi decided to transfer. That kills them. They still have some decent talent. Geo Baker is no joke.

13.   Wisconsin: Might have them too low, but on paper this team might be worse than the Badger team that went below .500 two years ago.

14.   Northwestern: I feel bad for Chris Collins. They’re a mess right now.

[Handy Johnson]

The only person who thinks the Gophers are going to the Sweet 16 is sitting in Liquor Lyles right now...

[Norm Peterson]

Omoruyi transferring is just a dagger for Rutgers. Yeah, Geo is a decent player but he's only one guy. Omoruyi was a player.  Wait, any chance he could ... graduate by August?  Just, y'know, askin.

 

So, what's our floor and our ceiling?  If everything pans out and all the players are what we think/hope they could be, we should be top half, right?  Like maybe 6th best in conference? 7th?

 

But if it takes guys awhile to gel and figure out how to play together and some of the pieces aren't quite as good as we thought/hoped, it could be pretty tough, like even Minnesota bad.

 

Granted, it's Hoiberg's first season, but this roster is pretty set. We don't have a lot of room to add players for the '20 class. So, whatever we are this year, it might not be a whole lot different next year.  Which means if you think we have some pretty good talent, I don't think it's necessarily unreasonable to pick us to do fairly well in Hoiberg's inaugural campaign.

[Milk]

Wow.  You have us finishing close to top half of conference with no returning starters, no less any players that have ever played together before?   Most the Big 10 returns teams intact.   Wisconsin is way too low too.   Davison, Trice, Reuvers return and they have Potter from Ohio St.  No way in hell they are 13th, let alone below us. 

Edited June 2, 2019 by Milk

[Norm Peterson]

1 minute ago, Milk said:

Wow.  You have us finishing close to top half of conference with no returning starters, no less any players that have ever played together before?   Most the Big 10 returns teams intact.   Wisconsin is way too low too.   Davison, Trice, Reuvers return.  No way in hell they are 13th, let alone below us. 

 

We have some really effing good players we've brought in. Well, I didn't really have much to do with it, so not much me as part of the "we" but ... you get the idea.

 

Yeah.  Top half. Could happen. If you've been keeping up with our recruiting -- and maybe you have and maybe you haven't -- we have some players.  Mack, the PG, has game changing speed and quickness.  Drops dimes like you'd be amazed.  We have a lot of players who can make some pretty impressive passes, actually. We have shooters with range, we have guys who can drive the ball and get to the rim (and a lot of those are the same guy who can do both things) and we have depth in those spots.

 

You want a particular skillset? You can probably look at our roster and find it.  Except 7 footers who can shoot hook shots with either hand.  Don't have any of those.  But, other than that ...

[millerhusker]

Definitely have top half talent. Who knows how it will mesh. Jon Rothstein even mentioned our backcourt, saying it’s talented enough to compete with anyone. Admittedly, I have rose colored glasses every offseason.

[Milk]

I know.  It’s just that usually the teams with experience tend to do very well in this conference.   

[millerhusker]

24 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Granted, it's Hoiberg's first season, but this roster is pretty set. We don't have a lot of room to add players for the '20 class. So, whatever we are this year, it might not be a whole lot different next year.  Which means if you think we have some pretty good talent, I don't think it's necessarily unreasonable to pick us to do fairly well in Hoiberg's inaugural campaign.

And I’ll bet Hoiberg feels better about his first season here than he did at Iowa State. He flipped the roster there also and only had 6 or 7 scholarship players available that first year. 4 of their top 6 players had to redshirt after transferring, including Royce White. He still went .500 overall (and won at Iowa).

[Handy Johnson]

However good you think we’re going to be, I’d bump it up a couple of notches. If we had the Big 4 (3) last year, this season we won’t have any dead spots in the line-up who can’t shoot/score...

[aphilso1]

25 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

However good you think we’re going to be, I’d bump it up a couple of notches. If we had the Big 4 (3) last year, this season we won’t have any dead spots in the line-up who can’t shoot/score...

 

We also have zero guys that have played a minute together.  Hence why this is a tough year to predict.

[Handy Johnson]

Very true, but I’m a glass  is FULL kinda guy...

[kleitus]

Sometimes having talent that knows each other is overrated.  You fall into ruts and get eaten alive 

 

We have the talent to be absurdly good by our historical standards.  Sure the proof is in the pudding.  But no reason to be negative either.

[BannedAccount]

3 hours ago, aphilso1 said:

 

We also have zero guys that have played a minute together.  Hence why this is a tough year to predict.

And zero film or experience in the conference playing against these guys with a new coach.  Weak non con schedule added and i could see this team finishing above .500 and possibly another NIT bid as I feel they will gel by the end of the season and get some wins.

[kleitus]

3 hours ago, coughunter said:

And zero film or experience in the conference playing against these guys with a new coach.  Weak non con schedule added and i could see this team finishing above .500 and possibly another NIT bid as I feel they will gel by the end of the season and get some wins.

That's extremely beyond conservative imo... it is basically assuming we win around 7 or 8 conference games out of 20 because our nonconference schedule is light.

 

8 conference wins with our roster is flat low.  You'd need a collapse similar to last year.   And this team is much deeper.

[hhcmatt]

Current Bartovik overall rankings for B1G teams

 

1    Michigan St. 
4    Purdue 
11    Maryland 
17    Ohio St. 
19    Illinois 
20    Wisconsin 
21    Penn St. 
33    Michigan 
46    Iowa 
51    Rutgers 
58    Indiana 
71    Nebraska 
74    Minnesota 
150    Northwestern 
 

[49r]

49 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

Current Bartovik overall rankings for B1G teams

 

1    Michigan St. 
4    Purdue 
11    Maryland 
17    Ohio St. 
19    Illinois 
20    Wisconsin 
21    Penn St. 
33    Michigan 
46    Iowa 
51    Rutgers 
58    Indiana 
71    Nebraska 
74    Minnesota 
150    Northwestern 
 

 

Illinois at #19!  Michigan below Penn State!  Rutgers ahead of Indiana!!!  Human sacrafice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!!!

 

 

And then there's Northwestern...Collins' program is crumbling isn't it?  They were a top 20 team just a couple years ago.

[hhcmatt]

19 minutes ago, 49r said:

And then there's Northwestern...Collins' program is crumbling isn't it?  They were a top 20 team just a couple years ago.

 

If one is looking for a new B1G coach to lambaste about developing shooting might I suggest checking out the Wildcats' numbers.

 

19 minutes ago, 49r said:

Illinois at #19!  Michigan below Penn State!  Rutgers ahead of Indiana!!!  Human sacrafice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!!!

 

The ranking system is objective but the player rankings are subjective. Known commodities matter.  Illinois for instance brings back almost everyone plus a 4 star center.

[TourneyBound]

5.       Penn State: Watkins and Stevens return. Stevens can take over games and will be one of the best players in the country. Dread and Bolton had impressive freshmen campaigns. Chambers has his best, and maybe last, chance at having a tournament team.

 

FYI, Bolton transferred to Iowa St.

[49r]

1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

 

If one is looking for a new B1G coach to lambaste about developing shooting might I suggest checking out the Wildcats' numbers.

 

 

The ranking system is objective but the player rankings are subjective. Known commodities matter.  Illinois for instance brings back almost everyone plus a 4 star center.

 

FYI I'm really high on Illinois next year.  I think they're gonna do things.  Plus I really like Bezhanishvili, as much of a jackass as he is...I'd LOVE to have him on my team.

[GoBigRed]

On 6/1/2019 at 10:30 PM, Milk said:

I know.  It’s just that usually the teams with experience tend to do very well in this conference.   

 

We just had a year where we had more experience than almost any other Big Ten team. And we saw how that turned out.

 

Not trying to bust your chops, but what we lack in terms of playing experience I think we significantly upgraded in coaching experience and that will matter a heck of a lot more. 

Edited June 3, 2019 by GoBigFred

[GoBigRed]

I wouldn't be surprised if we finished anywhere from 4th - 13th. Top 3? Yeah I'd be a bit surprised. 14th? I would be a bit surprised. There's no way we can't be better than Northwestern, right? I think our talent is easily in the 4-10 range already.

Edited June 3, 2019 by GoBigFred

[kleitus]

Please pick us 12th or 13th.

 

Please.

 

Rank us high we implode.  Rank us low we severely overachieve.

 

Hell, pick us 14th so we make the final four.

[tcp]

Illinois going to be nasty, I think. Huskers have too many new moving parts. Actually, all their moving parts are new. They could wind up damn near anywhere. 

 

I like us 10th right now with an outside shot at NIT. 

 

 

 

 

[49r]

1 hour ago, tcp said:

Illinois going to be nasty, I think. Huskers have too many new moving parts. Actually, all their moving parts are new. They could wind up damn near anywhere. 

 

I like us 10th right now with an outside shot at NIT. 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Ten is looking to be an 8 or 9 bid league next year so 10th could be pretty solidly in the NIT.

[hhcmatt]

9 hours ago, 49r said:

Plus I really like Bezhanishvili,

 

He's a guy you root for once you know his back story https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-illinois-giorgi-bezhanishvili-mother-dancing-20181226-story.html