College Basketball 2020-2021

[Bobson Dugnutt]

Illinois digging themselves into early holes is getting really old.

[gflore34]

Illinois digging themselves into early holes is getting really old.

 

Its lack of effort, plain and simple, out rebounded by a shorter team, you're not trying that hard. The potential is there but, they allow themselves to pushed around, out hustled, don't know what it'll take to light a fire under their asses. I'm certain Underwood has tried all sorts of methods, must drive him crazy to sit there and give credit to the other team, strength of Big Ten, etc. when it's obvious his team really isn't putting forth its best effort.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[ConstableRabbit]

[tweet]

[/tweet]

Wearing a mask and taking it off to scream is peak moron.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

John Chaney died. He was somehow only 89.

[Tim]

As a bitter Illini fan, I just want to throw it out there that Iowa sucks rocks.

 

I'm not just talking the school. The entire state, from the governor on down through the racist congressmen and on.

 

But let's just start with their basketball program and work from there.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

As a bitter Illini fan, I just want to throw it out there that Iowa sucks rocks.

 

I'm not just talking the school. The entire state, from the governor on down through the racist congressmen and on.

 

But let's just start with their basketball program and work from there.

Come on, horsefeathers off. There’s plenty of horsefeathers to hate about Illinois too.

[bukie]

Now that it's the end of January, and the regular season is effectively half over (considering it started in mid-December), it's worth an early look at what the tournament field might look like.

 

Records are going to look weird overall, since basically all the major conference teams are missing 5-6 gimme games from the preseason being shortened. So a team that would normally be, like, 20-12 could very well be 14-12 and still easily in to the tournament. That would put them at 7-6 at this point in the year, so it's almost necessary to disregard overall record when considering a team's tournament resume.

 

Also, the Ivy League isn't playing this year, so if the tournament still will have 68 teams as planned, that means only 31 auto bids and 37 at large bids.

 

Starting at the top:

 

1 and 2 are definitely Gonzaga and Baylor, in some order. If Baylor does finish the season undefeated, they'll undoubtedly take the #1 overall spot, but as of right now, Baylor has 6 T1 and T2 wins and Gonzaga has 7, so Gonzaga gets the nod at this point for #1 overall with Baylor #2. In reality, it doesn't matter a whole lot, they're the top 2 teams.

 

The other 1 seeds right now will be chosen between the next tier, which consists of Michigan, Houston, Virginia, Villanova and Alabama. Villanova is currently short games which makes it difficult, and Michigan will be short games here over the next couple weeks. Alabama is the only one with a bad loss against a non-tourney level team, and Michigan gets the nod by playing in by far the toughest conference this year, so they're #3. Villanova has 5 T1 and T2 wins and just the 1 loss against T1, with Houston having 6 T1 and T2 wins with a T2 loss. I'll give Houston the nod at #4 with the last 1 seed, and Villanova slots in at #5 overall. Virginia with the nod at #6 with 6 quality wins.

 

After that, it's Alabama, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio State, Wisconsin for consideration. Illinois did just beat Iowa and has 8 quality wins to 9 for Alabama, but Bama has the bad loss, and Iowa/Texas have effectively identical resumes, so for right now let's go Illinois #7, Texas #8, Iowa #9, Alabama #10. Ohio State is 7-4 against tourney teams, Wisconsin is 8-4 against tourney teams, Tennessee is 3-3 against tourney teams. Ohio State won at Wisconsin, so give them the slight nod overall with Ohio State #11, Wisconsin #12.

 

For the rest of the protected seeds, it's a choice between Tennessee, Texas Tech, Florida State, West Virginia, Creighton, Kansas, and Colorado. Tennessee has the 3-3 vs quality teams, Texas Tech 3-5, Florida State 6-1 with 1 bad loss, Colorado 5-3 with a bad loss, West Virginia 6-4, Creighton 7-3 with a bad loss, Kansas 6-5. I'll give WV the nod at #13, Tennessee #14, Creighton #15, Florida State #16, Kansas #17, Colorado #18, Texas Tech #19.

 

Past that I'll skip the detailed analysis, but there are 2 MVC teams with high raw NET values (Drake, Loyola), but only Loyola has a win against a tourney team, and Drake has played absolutely nobody. They'll play each other twice at Drake coming up, with the victor of the conference the only feasible at-large team from outside the usual suspects.

 

So here are my rankings for the top 50 teams at this point based on NET resumes

 

1. Gonzaga

2. Baylor

3. Michigan

4. Houston

5. Villanova

6. Virginia

7. Illinois

8. Texas

9. Iowa

10. Alabama

11. Ohio State

12. Wisconsin

13. West Virginia

14. Tennessee

15. Creighton

16. Florida State

17. Kansas

18, Colorado

19. Texas Tech

20. Missouri

21. Purdue

22. Oklahoma

23. Florida

24. USC

25. Rutgers

26. Boise State

27. UCLA

28. Arkansas

29. Minnesota

30. Oklahoma State

31. San Diego State

32. Connecticut

33. Oregon

34. North Carolina

35. Indiana

36. Arizona

37. LSU

38. Loyola-IL

39. Virginia Tech

40. Louisville

41. Maryland

42. Saint Louis

43. Utah State

44. Duke

45. Stanford

46. Penn State(?) (I mean, their entire schedule save 2 games has been tournament teams and they have 3 wins, so...)

47. Syracuse

48. Clemson

49. BYU

50. Drake

 

It gets...dire after about 35 this season with such fewer gimme games. If you think of the rankings like seeds, 1-32 are seeds 1 to 8 in the tournament, so 33-36 is 9 seeds, 37-40 are 10 seeds, 41-44 are 11 seeds, and 45-48 are basically last four in at this point. There's not a lot to pick from this season.

[17 Seconds]

i can't tell who is worse between the announcers and the refs in this illinois game

[Irrelevant Dude]

i can't tell who is worse between the announcers and the refs in this illinois game

I'll give you a hint. It was the refs.

[SouthSideRyan]

I’ll never complain about a win, but that was a mess and wasn’t the teams’ faults

[bukie]

Illinois-Michigan game has been postponed now because Michigan didn't think it'd be ready to play Illinois after one day of practice after quarantine.

[Rex Buckingham]

Illinois-Michigan game has been postponed now because Michigan didn't think it'd be ready to play Illinois after one day of practice after quarantine.

 

The Big Ten better get a game on the schedule for Illinois... That'll be 3 games cancelled all because of issues on the opponents' side (though I know UM's team itself didn't have any cases)

[bukie]

Illinois-Michigan game has been postponed now because Michigan didn't think it'd be ready to play Illinois after one day of practice after quarantine.

 

The Big Ten better get a game on the schedule for Illinois... That'll be 3 games cancelled all because of issues on the opponents' side (though I know UM's team itself didn't have any cases)

Technically that date is open for MSU, though they have home games scheduled on the 9th and 13th. However, it's on them to catch up anyway, and this would be one way to do it.

[SouthSideRyan]

Maryland also has it open with surrounding games on the 8th and 14th. They are the only other one of our single game opponents available.

[stitchface]

Illinois-Michigan game has been postponed now because Michigan didn't think it'd be ready to play Illinois after one day of practice after quarantine.

 

The Big Ten better get a game on the schedule for Illinois... That'll be 3 games cancelled all because of issues on the opponents' side (though I know UM's team itself didn't have any cases)

 

 

Having the lead, Michigan's plan is to not play any more big ten games this season.

[UMFan83]

Illinois-Michigan game has been postponed now because Michigan didn't think it'd be ready to play Illinois after one day of practice after quarantine.

 

Its strange that they would be allowed to do this given all the games that already need to be made up. I mean yes it puts Michigan at a huge disadvantage having to play without any practice or organized team activities for 2 weeks, but I would guess the Big Ten would have told them to suck it up.

[raw]

I’ll never complain about a win, but that was a mess and wasn’t the teams’ faults

 

If IU would have won that game, I would have complained for you guys. But it was pretty bad all the way around, but I felt IU got the most bad calls in their favor.

[bukie]

I still think fouling out of a game is the worst rule in basketball, and I wish there was a better way to handle players getting excess fouls.

[Sosa21MVP]

Suck it, Iowa.

[bukie]

Illinois now playing Nebraska on Friday, as Nebraska sets up their every-other-day schedule to make up 14 games in 30 days.

[Derwood]

Blue blood programs are not doing so hot this year

[Derwood]

Blue blood programs are not doing so hot this year

 

Most recent Bracketology doesn't see a true Blue Blood school until a #6 seed Kansas. (I'm not counting #2 Villanova in that strata of schools)

 

Kansas - 6

North Carolina - 10

UCLA - 7 (and is probably borderline blue blood anymore)

Louisville - 7

Indiana - 10

UConn - 11

Kentucky - out

Duke - out

[Tim]

Illinois is a really fun team this year. We're going to lose a lot, though. Who do we have coming in for the fall?

[bukie]

Illinois is a really fun team this year. We're going to lose a lot, though. Who do we have coming in for the fall?

So far they've landed 2 top 100 recruits in wings Luke Goode and Ramses Melendez.

 

Part of me wonders if Frazier and Williams stick around another year since this one is a freebie, but probably not.

 

Cockburn is not on any NBA draft lists, so unless he wants to play overseas to make money, I'm not 100% sure he leaves either.