Big Ten Last Night

[tornado]

The Big Ten showcased two games last night, and I am not sure it turned out the way it was planned...

Iowa went to Northwestern and played more like a high school team in losing...they hit 3-21 shots from the arc...Devan Bawinkle, their designated 3-point shooter,was 1-3, while others Matt Gatens 0-8, Cully Payne 1-4, Eric May 0-5 looked bad.
Meanwhile Iowa forgot that Northwestern runs an offense that mainly tries to get someone open in the lane for a short shot, and repeatedly allowed many open short shots....

The 2nd game on the Big Ten Network was Wisconsin at Indiana...and maybe someone thought this game would be a game, but it wasn't...
The Hoosiers set a new record...
they lost 78-46, the largest margin of loss ever for Indiana in Assembly Hall.

Wisconsin blew out to an early lead, had a 10-20 point lead most of the 1st half, then a 20-30 point lead the whole 2nd half...

Indiana is so bad......they look like a bunch of guys on a playground trying to create a Michael Jordan-type or LeBron James type falling-away jumper...
No one made a 3-pointer, and they never really looked for a decent shot..
In the 2nd half when referee Tom O'Neill, who did the Bradley game Wednesday, started to get pretty tired of hearing Indiana coach Tom Crean bitc*h and moan and stomp the sidelines and curse....

Then after Crean got slapped with two technicals a couple minutes apart... he stomped and cursed all the way across the floor to the locker room and gave the door a bodyslam that made him look foolish for the tamtrum.

BTW-- here are some amazing stats from the game...
only three players even had an assist and they totalled only 8 assists on 51 FG attempts...the starting five combined for 9-33...the passes were bad, but what the players did after the passes was even worse...everyone acting like the coach wants to see the re-incarnation of Dwyane Wade...jacked up bad fall away jumpers!

[Da Coach]

I watched the Iowa-Northwestern game, and a couple things I noted...
First, Coach Todd Lickliter appears to have recruited an entire team of modestly talented kids, the kind that a midmajor like the MVC or the Horizon League would like to get. But they really looked confused and inept in their offense and defense, quite atypical for a Lickliter team. I know Lickliter is a good coach, so it must be frustrating for him. They do not look like a team that can turn things around in a year or two, unless they land a big crop of Big 10-level talent.

[PTownHawkeye]

I watched the Iowa-Northwestern game, and a couple things I noted...
First, Coach Todd Lickliter appears to have recruited an entire team of modestly talented kids, the kind that a midmajor like the MVC or the Horizon League would like to get. But they really looked confused and inept in their offense and defense, quite atypical for a Lickliter team. I know Lickliter is a good coach, so it must be frustrating for him. They do not look like a team that can turn things around in a year or two, unless they land a big crop of Big 10-level talent.

Yup.

On the other hand, the reason Iowa fans are so frustrated is that we beat Northwestern by 15 pts (and led by 25 with just 3 mins left) just a couple weeks ago. In that game, we made Northwestern look really bad as we drained our 3's and smothered them on defense. The inconsistency of this Iowa team is painful because you never know which team you're gonna get on any given night.

[Future Walk-On]

I watched the Iowa-Northwestern game, and a couple things I noted...
First, Coach Todd Lickliter appears to have recruited an entire team of modestly talented kids, the kind that a midmajor like the MVC or the Horizon League would like to get. But they really looked confused and inept in their offense and defense, quite atypical for a Lickliter team. I know Lickliter is a good coach, so it must be frustrating for him. They do not look like a team that can turn things around in a year or two, unless they land a big crop of Big 10-level talent.

well we all know the big ten guards and mvc guards are equal in talent....so Iowa just needs some good bigs?

[tornado]

nice battles today between the Big Ten have-nots...
kind of entertaining in the respect of wondering who was going to ever hit a shot..and whether the clock would ever run for 30 seconds without a foul getting called...
In the end Iowa stomps all over Indiana to help secure the best chance among the inglorious three (Indiana, Iowa, Penn State) of avoiding last place in the Big Ten! And sending IU to its 10 straight loss...only one more and they'll tie their streak from last year of 11 straight losses....and to think the IU fans were expecting at least an NIT year this season!!


Penn State meanwhile absolutely torpedoed whatever tiny remaining chance Northwestern might have had to lay claim to an at large bid...
by clobbering and nailing the season sweep over Northwestern 79-60!!

[Da Coach]

A couple former Bradley recruits looked very good for Penn State in their win over Northwestern. Mike Babb started and was named the Player of the Game- he had 14 points on 4-5 from three, and played some great defense. Tim Frazier had 9 points, on 4-4 shooting.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201002280459

For Northwestern, Nick Freundt got into the game for 10 minutes of playing time, and scored 5 points. He's only played in about half of Northwestern's games, and averages 3 min per game, and 1 ppg.


In the Michigan State's win over Purdue, the Boilermakers really struggled to score, and lost 53-44. Ryne Smith, another former BU recruit, is now a sophomore and played briefly, but was scoreless. He averages 12 min per game, but hasn't scored in Purdue's last 13 games. He shoots 29% from three. Another former BU recruit, Lewis Jackson played 28 minutes and scored 2 points.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201002280474

In the other Big Ten game yesterday, Iowa beat Indiana 73-57 to drop Indiana into a last place tie with Penn State.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201002280276

[tornado]

Indiana got killed in the paint by Iowa, who really don't exactly employ a dominant center, and they had only 4 total assists to go with 20 turnovers..
fans on their boards are pleading with their coach to go out and get a couple point guards and a couple big men...and while he's at it, Maurice Creek seemed to be their only reliable scorer, and with Creek out via injury they can't get 50 pts...so they also need a decent backup at SG!!
So many needs - so few open scholarships....
Here's the catch...they have absolutely NO scholarships available...
the only two incoming guys next year (Oladipo & Sheehey) are both kinda raw SG's who are not really expected to be much of an impact next year anyway...and the only guys set to come in 2011 are yet more kinda raw SG's (Etherington, Carlino)...

In fact, counting the players they have plus the future committments, even for 2011-2012, they are all out of scholarships...so not until fall of 2012 (two and a half years away) when Verdell Jones graduates, will they be able to add another player....
Even then, since Roth (due to redshirt) will still be eligible to stay yet another year, only two scholarships (Jones & Pritchard) open up in fall of 2012...so they are more than two years away from being able to add anyone unless roster changes occur at the end of this year!

......unless roster changes occur.........so they have to boot someone in the meantime...and from what most fans are saying, it's not a matter of whether they will boot someone, but who and how many..
But then, they will effectively be "starting over" again!!
If Crean boots some of the players he already has and brings in more they'll also likely take a couple years to be able to play at the Big Ten level...

[PTownHawkeye]

I think Iowa has officially "overachieved." They were picked 11th by EVERY SINGLE PRESEASON PUBLICATION and will likely finish 9th. It is a banner year in Iowa City!! Plus, beating Indiana by a combined 30+ points in the two games is always fun.

Also Da Coach, Chris Babb was the Player of the Game for Penn St. vs Northwestern, not Mike Babb.