"Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

[9YRPLAN]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

well, it was brought up that the big ten having 8 teams was a joke, and Minny was the 8th place team in the final standings...thats where I got that.

i am really not that high on the big ten's quality of teams, but i thought saying that it was "a joke" was a extremely inaccurate, and seemed to be an example of the anti-BCS sentiment that is so common here.

[JCPanthers]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

well, it was brought up that the big ten having 8 teams was a joke, and Minny was the 8th place team in the final standings...thats where I got that.

i am really not that high on the big ten's quality of teams, but i thought saying that it was "a joke" was a extremely inaccurate, and seemed to be an example of the anti-BCS sentiment that is so common here.

I don't believe I said the Big 10 was a joke....I said that having 8 teams in the NCAA tourny from the Big 10 was a joke.

[9YRPLAN]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

JC- no offense, my man, but i was not quoting you.

the big ten has 9 teams that could beat nearly anyone on any given night. thats typically the argument i use when defending the valley.

[williebat]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

JC- no offense, my man, but i was not quoting you.

the big ten has 9 teams that could beat nearly anyone on any given night. thats typically the argument i use when defending the valley.

9? 7 Maybe on a really good night.

I am hoping you are saying Iowa and Indiana are on the outside looking in. I would add NW. Good try this year for them but any team on a given night I don't know same as Penn state.

I do agree that the big 11 is better than I thought pre season

[jman2004]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

9? 7 Maybe on a really good night.

I am hoping you are saying Iowa and Indiana are on the outside looking in. I would add NW. Good try this year for them but any team on a given night I don't know same as Penn state.

I do agree that the big 11 is better than I thought pre season

I agree. 9 might be pushing it. Northwestern and Penn State already had that opportunity in their non-conference schedule and they beat no one.

Even a team like Wisconsin could be pushing it. Despite their preseason ranking, they played UConn, Marquette, and Texas in non-conference play and got beat by all of them. (That's also why their strength of schedule is so high). Then they went on to lose 6 straight in Big Ten play before turning it on again. I don't know if I'd be so quick to include them in that last of "teams that could beat anyone either".

Even Ohio State . . . beat Butler in non-conference play, but only significant victory over a BCS school was Notre Dame, and if you watched any college basketball this year, you saw how impressive Notre Dame was. Their other opportunity for a win against a quality BCS opponent was West Virginia, and they got beat by NEARLY 30 POINTS. I don't know that I'd be quick to include Ohio State in a list like that either.

Otherwise, Michigan St, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota all have decent-to-impressive non-conference wins. I'd agree with you on those 5. Those 5 could beat anyone in the country on a given night and they've proved it in their non-conference schedules. Ohio State and Wisconsin proved that they could play competitive in the Big Ten, but they didn't prove much in regards to who they could beat out of conference.

Either way, the Big Ten has had a surprisingly good season overall. I don't mind it. I like the Big Ten. Behind the Valley they're the conference I root for the most. I'm just not going to be so quick to lump teams like Northwestern, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State in with the teams from the conference that have pulled off some very impressive wins this season.

EDIT: Sorry . . . I just saw that Northwestern had a rather impressive win over Florida State. Props to them. However that would seem to not be the norm for them this season, and at 17-13 (and a losing record in conference play), I'd still have a hard time saying that they could beat anyone in the country on a given night.

[9YRPLAN]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

NW and PSU both won at MSU. if you can do that, i would say that you are capable of beating most anyone. iowa and indiana are both awful.

[9YRPLAN]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

also, the entire big team first-team was sophomores. there were only 3 seniors on the entire all-conference roster.

[morrism0]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

Maybe MSU isn't quite as good as everyone thought. They had an outside chance of claiming a number #1 seed if they won their tourney and they lay an egg against a team they should have handled. I don't think the big ten will have any representation in the elite 8, maybe just a couple teams in the sweet 16 (msu and purdue). The big ten is extremely inconsistent (Iowa beating PSU and then laying an egg against Michigan in a matter of days). Of course the way the tourneys are playing out I realize that that describes most of the conferences at this point.

[clenz]

Re: "Excuse Week" - Good Article by Feinstein

Maybe MSU isn't quite as good as everyone thought. They had an outside chance of claiming a number #1 seed if they won their tourney and they lay an egg against a team they should have handled. I don't think the big ten will have any representation in the elite 8, maybe just a couple teams in the sweet 16 (msu and purdue). The big ten is extremely inconsistent (Iowa beating PSU and then laying an egg against Michigan in a matter of days). Of course the way the tourneys are playing out I realize that that describes most of the conferences at this point.

I wouldn't put that much stock in MSU's loss. UNC, OU, UCONN all lost to teams they should have beaten/handled. UCONN is the only one that shouldn't have handled their opponent.