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Big ten is deeper than ever

Eh, Big XII for sure. Others are pretty debatable. I’m guessing your looking at the rankings, but ranked teams keep dropping like flies. It’ll look totally different in even two weeks.
Well, I've seen enough of Providence, Xavier, Marquette, Creighton, and UConn to say that they are ahead of Purdue, RU, Michigan State, Michigan, and Iowa as a group. It's debatable, of course, but I just don't see the B10 teams, in general, being as capable offensively as the teams above, or as well as the top teams in the other leagues I mentioned.
 
It probably has the most parity, but if you take the top halves of the Big East, ACC, B12, and PAC10, they're all stronger than the top part of the Big10, imo.
The bottom half of the B1G would destroy the bottom half of the other leagues

That's why it's the best league top to bottom every year. That's what makes the B1G so special
 
I guess the question is the deepest conference the best conference? What’s the criteria?
If you are talking depth, BIG 12 current 7/8/9/10 is
Oklahoma
OSU
WVU
Texas Tech
B1G current 7/8/9/10 is
Northwestern
Illinois
Wisconsin
Indiana

B1G wins that plus you have Ohio State and Maryland behind those four.
That’s a deeper conference.
I mean, this ALL has to be subjective, right? I don't think there is really any way to effectively compare how good each conference is, honestly, much less an objective measure. March Madness is a crapshoot, things like the Big Ten/ACC Challenge depend entirely on matchups, teams get hot at different times in the season, you can't use intra-conference results to pump up or disparage a single conference, etc. I honestly think it comes down to the eye test.

I think the Big XII, in my own personal opinion, is both the best AND deepest conference. However, I think that was the Big Ten in 2020-21, and we laid an egg in the Tournament ... Big XII just might do the exact same thing! Additionally, Alabama is the only team that has me convinced they are TRULY elite this year.

I mean, just looking at some of the teams in a top 25 with not many Big Ten teams, it's quite clear that the teams in our conference are capable of playing with these teams that the national media (and many of our self-hating fans) are screaming are so much better than our conference's teams...

#2 Kansas - Needed a miracle putback at the buzzer to beat Wisconsin on a neutral court. They did beat Indiana handily at home, but IU hasn't exactly proven to be the top of our conference...
#5 UCLA - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#6 Gonzaga - Got spanked by Purdue on a neutral court that was heavily favorable to the 'Zags (Portland).
#7 Texas - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#8 Xavier - Lost to Indiana at home...
#9 Tennessee - Beat Maryland by three points on a neutral court.
#10 Virginia - Beat Illinois in a really close game on a neutral court.
#12 Iowa State - Got absolutely demolished at Iowa...
#16 Auburn - Beat Northwestern by one point on a neutral court...
#17 Miami (FL) - Won a close game at home vs. Rutgers.
#19 Clemson - Lost to Iowa on a neutral court and needed TWO overtimes to beat Penn State at home.
#20 Marquette - Lost to Purdue.

The point is NOT that the Big Ten is the best conference or even that it is the deepest ... it's that the following points are only being repeated at this point by COMPLETE morons:

(A) The Big Ten is bad ... this is ridiculous, when you look at the inter-conference results.
(B) The Big Ten is "OVERRATED" ... we have TWO RANKED TEAMS, lol.

P.S. Congrats on the ranking. :)
 
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I mean, this ALL has to be subjective, right? I don't think there is really any way to effectively compare how good each conference is, honestly, much less an objective measure. March Madness is a crapshoot, things like the Big Ten/ACC Challenge depend entirely on matchups, teams get hot at different times in the season, you can't use intra-conference results to pump up or disparage a single conference, etc. I honestly think it comes down to the eye test.

I think the Big XII, in my own personal opinion, is both the best AND deepest conference. However, I think that was the Big Ten in 2020-21, and we laid an egg in the Tournament ... Big XII just might do the exact same thing! Additionally, Alabama is the only team that has me convinced they are TRULY elite this year.

I mean, just looking at some of the teams in a top 25 with not many Big Ten teams, it's quite clear that the teams in our conference are capable of playing with these teams that the national media (and many of our self-hating fans) are screaming are so much better than our conference's teams...

#2 Kansas - Needed a miracle putback at the buzzer to beat Wisconsin on a neutral court. They did beat Indiana handily at home, but IU hasn't exactly proven to be the top of our conference...
#5 UCLA - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#6 Gonzaga - Got spanked by Purdue on a neutral court that was heavily favorable to the 'Zags (Portland).
#7 Texas - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#8 Xavier - Lost to Indiana at home...
#9 Tennessee - Beat Maryland by three points on a neutral court.
#10 Virginia - Beat Illinois in a really close game on a neutral court.
#12 Iowa State - Got absolutely demolished at Iowa...
#16 Auburn - Beat Northwestern by one point on a neutral court...
#17 Miami (FL) - Won a close game at home vs. Rutgers.
#19 Clemson - Lost to Iowa on a neutral court and needed TWO overtimes to beat Penn State at home.
#20 Marquette - Lost to Purdue.

The point is NOT that the Big Ten is the best conference or even that it is the deepest ... it's that the following points are only being repeated at this point by COMPLETE morons:

(A) The Big Ten is bad ... this is ridiculous, when you look at the inter-conference results.
(B) The Big Ten is "OVERRATED" ... we have TWO RANKED TEAMS, lol.

P.S. Congrats on the ranking. :)
Good points
 
I mean, this ALL has to be subjective, right? I don't think there is really any way to effectively compare how good each conference is, honestly, much less an objective measure. March Madness is a crapshoot, things like the Big Ten/ACC Challenge depend entirely on matchups, teams get hot at different times in the season, you can't use intra-conference results to pump up or disparage a single conference, etc. I honestly think it comes down to the eye test.

I think the Big XII, in my own personal opinion, is both the best AND deepest conference. However, I think that was the Big Ten in 2020-21, and we laid an egg in the Tournament ... Big XII just might do the exact same thing! Additionally, Alabama is the only team that has me convinced they are TRULY elite this year.

I mean, just looking at some of the teams in a top 25 with not many Big Ten teams, it's quite clear that the teams in our conference are capable of playing with these teams that the national media (and many of our self-hating fans) are screaming are so much better than our conference's teams...

#2 Kansas - Needed a miracle putback at the buzzer to beat Wisconsin on a neutral court. They did beat Indiana handily at home, but IU hasn't exactly proven to be the top of our conference...
#5 UCLA - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#6 Gonzaga - Got spanked by Purdue on a neutral court that was heavily favorable to the 'Zags (Portland).
#7 Texas - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#8 Xavier - Lost to Indiana at home...
#9 Tennessee - Beat Maryland by three points on a neutral court.
#10 Virginia - Beat Illinois in a really close game on a neutral court.
#12 Iowa State - Got absolutely demolished at Iowa...
#16 Auburn - Beat Northwestern by one point on a neutral court...
#17 Miami (FL) - Won a close game at home vs. Rutgers.
#19 Clemson - Lost to Iowa on a neutral court and needed TWO overtimes to beat Penn State at home.
#20 Marquette - Lost to Purdue.

The point is NOT that the Big Ten is the best conference or even that it is the deepest ... it's that the following points are only being repeated at this point by COMPLETE morons:

(A) The Big Ten is bad ... this is ridiculous, when you look at the inter-conference results.
(B) The Big Ten is "OVERRATED" ... we have TWO RANKED TEAMS, lol.

P.S. Congrats on the ranking. :)
B1G overrated with 2 ranked teams is a pretty ridiculous argument. It's like a preprogrammed response
 
B1G overrated with 2 ranked teams is a pretty ridiculous argument. It's like a preprogrammed response
Yep ... I think there are three main factors that get people lazily repeating this:

(1) COVID really warped people's sense of time ... with the cancellation of 2019-20, the 2018-19 NCAA Tournament honestly seems like a LONG time ago. However, we had 8 bids that year, including two 2-seeds, a 3-seed, a 5-seed and a 6-seed. We put one team in the Final Four, two teams in the Elite Eight and three teams in the Sweet Sixteen. If Virginia doesn't have that MIRACLE vs. Purdue, we have two teams in the Final Four. However, that is somehow apparently too long ago for any of these haters to remember, so "the Big Ten is always overrated and lays an egg in March Madness!!" 😄

(2) Because of (1), people are putting WAY too much emphasis on the 2020-21 NCAA Tournament, when the Big Ten DID look amazing and yet objectively laid an egg. This literally scarred people to the point where they were desperate for the narrative to be back for 2021-22 if we didn't have any teams go deep in the NCAA Tournament, but guess what? We had ZERO teams seeded as a 1- or 2-seed and thus had zero teams in the Elite Eight or beyond; we had two teams in the Sweet Sixteen. While Purdue definitely laid an egg vs. St. Peter's in the Sweet Sixteen and Iowa laid an egg as the token 12/5 upset in the First Round, you also have an 11-seed Michigan team in the Sweet Sixteen, a 7-seed Michigan State predictably losing to 2-seed Duke, 4-seed Illinois losing a pick 'em Second Round game vs. a criminally underseeded (5) Houston, etc. Balancing everything out, you have to be looking for the narrative that the Big Ten was "overrated" last year. We really weren't rated all that highly...

(3) Adding on to the first two points, conference expansion has been really prevalent in the news, and the incredibly secure position of the Big Ten as a conference vs. all of our peers except for the SEC (a conference we are STILL richer and more geographically "diversified" than) has, IMO, led to resentment of our conference by a lot of non-Big Ten fans and inflated expectations of what we should be accomplishing. Effectively, we are being held to a standard that might be too high. How often do you ever hear about how the Pac-12 hasn't won a National Championship since the 1990s compared to the Big Ten not winning one since 2000? Even while nearly HALF of the Big Ten's teams have played in the Championship Game during that time compared to two from the Pac-12? It's because it's not fun to hate on the Pac-12, and nobody cares enough to do so.
 
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Well, I've seen enough of Providence, Xavier, Marquette, Creighton, and UConn to say that they are ahead of Purdue, RU, Michigan State, Michigan, and Iowa as a group. It's debatable, of course, but I just don't see the B10 teams, in general, being as capable offensively as the teams above, or as well as the top teams in the other leagues I mentioned.

Kenpom's model is based on predictions of who would win if two teams were to play tomorrow. Right now, among the BE teams mentioned:

5 - Purdue
6 - UConn
11 - Marquette

14 - Rutgers
15 - Xavier
17 - Ohio St
18 - Creighton
23 - Illinois
28 - Indiana
30 - Providence

Pretty well mixed at the top.... 5 BE teams and 5 B10 teams in the Top 30. I'd say the top of the BE (UConn, Marquette, Xavier, Creighton) has a lot of strength, and would be able to compete with anyone in the country.

But that's where the comparison largely ends.... as the B1G then has 5 more teams from 31-50, and the next closest BE team is SHU at 55.
32 - Iowa
37 - Penn St
42 - MSU
43 - Maryland
50 - Michigan

Take Top 10 teams in each conference, and the B1G has the clear advantage.
 
Kenpom's model is based on predictions of who would win if two teams were to play tomorrow. Right now, among the BE teams mentioned:

5 - Purdue
6 - UConn
11 - Marquette

14 - Rutgers
15 - Xavier
17 - Ohio St
18 - Creighton
23 - Illinois
28 - Indiana
30 - Providence

Pretty well mixed at the top.... 5 BE teams and 5 B10 teams in the Top 30. I'd say the top of the BE (UConn, Marquette, Xavier, Creighton) has a lot of strength, and would be able to compete with anyone in the country.

But that's where the comparison largely ends.... as the B1G then has 5 more teams from 31-50, and the next closest BE team is SHU at 55.
32 - Iowa
37 - Penn St
42 - MSU
43 - Maryland
50 - Michigan

Take Top 10 teams in each conference, and the B1G has the clear advantage.
No argument with any of this. The B10 is the deepest. My point was that looking at only the top teams (probable NCAA tourney teams), the B12 is the strongest right now, with the BE, ACC, Pac12 all being stronger than the top teams in the B10.
 
No argument with any of this. The B10 is the deepest. My point was that looking at only the top teams (probable NCAA tourney teams), the B12 is the strongest right now, with the BE, ACC, Pac12 all being stronger than the top teams in the B10.
Yeah, two ways of looking at conference strength. Overall, or "our best can beat your best".

BE doesn't have the same landmines that the Big 10 does, though, outside the top five. The top big 10 teams have to worry about 9 or 10 other teams in the conference biting them, while the top Big East teams only really needs to worry about 4 or so.

The question is, does that make the top Big 10 teams more resilient? Time will tell in the tournament.
 
No argument with any of this. The B10 is the deepest. My point was that looking at only the top teams (probable NCAA tourney teams), the B12 is the strongest right now, with the BE, ACC, Pac12 all being stronger than the top teams in the B10.
Who are the ACC teams stronger?
 
I mean, this ALL has to be subjective, right? I don't think there is really any way to effectively compare how good each conference is, honestly, much less an objective measure. March Madness is a crapshoot, things like the Big Ten/ACC Challenge depend entirely on matchups, teams get hot at different times in the season, you can't use intra-conference results to pump up or disparage a single conference, etc. I honestly think it comes down to the eye test.

I think the Big XII, in my own personal opinion, is both the best AND deepest conference. However, I think that was the Big Ten in 2020-21, and we laid an egg in the Tournament ... Big XII just might do the exact same thing! Additionally, Alabama is the only team that has me convinced they are TRULY elite this year.

I mean, just looking at some of the teams in a top 25 with not many Big Ten teams, it's quite clear that the teams in our conference are capable of playing with these teams that the national media (and many of our self-hating fans) are screaming are so much better than our conference's teams...

#2 Kansas - Needed a miracle putback at the buzzer to beat Wisconsin on a neutral court. They did beat Indiana handily at home, but IU hasn't exactly proven to be the top of our conference...
#5 UCLA - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#6 Gonzaga - Got spanked by Purdue on a neutral court that was heavily favorable to the 'Zags (Portland).
#7 Texas - Lost to Illinois on a neutral court.
#8 Xavier - Lost to Indiana at home...
#9 Tennessee - Beat Maryland by three points on a neutral court.
#10 Virginia - Beat Illinois in a really close game on a neutral court.
#12 Iowa State - Got absolutely demolished at Iowa...
#16 Auburn - Beat Northwestern by one point on a neutral court...
#17 Miami (FL) - Won a close game at home vs. Rutgers.
#19 Clemson - Lost to Iowa on a neutral court and needed TWO overtimes to beat Penn State at home.
#20 Marquette - Lost to Purdue.

The point is NOT that the Big Ten is the best conference or even that it is the deepest ... it's that the following points are only being repeated at this point by COMPLETE morons:

(A) The Big Ten is bad ... this is ridiculous, when you look at the inter-conference results.
(B) The Big Ten is "OVERRATED" ... we have TWO RANKED TEAMS, lol.

P.S. Congrats on the ranking. :)
Agreed, and how games are officiated is the X factor
 
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