Big Ten schedule stays hard in January

[kcg88]

First three games when league play resumes: at Purdue, home for Wisconsin, at Michigan State.

Then we get to play the more beatable teams

 

[bethlehemfan]

First three games when league play resumes: at Purdue, home for Wisconsin, at Michigan State.

Then we get to play the more beatable teams

That is a pretty brutal opening 5.

 

[bac2therac]

Wisconsin is the game most winnable. They are not a very good offensive team and are in a funk right now even with the win over Penn State. Happ will be tough to stop and RU will have trouble scoring against their good D. Might be another ugly game like last year. We probably have an even chance to go 0-5 or 1-4

 

[BigEastPhil]

Wisconsin at home is not brutal. We should win this game. In fact - with the exception of Michigan State; Purdue; Minnesota and Maryland (top 4 B1G 10 squads and possible only NCAA Teams) at home - every home game is winnable and we need to learn to close towards the end of games.

 

[ruman]

Wisconsin is down this year

 

[bac2therac]

thats true but I am certain this team needs to give 100% effort to win these games and overcome their bad offense. I fear alot of these games may follow a similar pattern as FSU/MSU even as the competition is a bit weaker. Margin of error is so slim for us

 

[BigEastPhil]

thats true but I am certain this team needs to give 100% effort to win these games and overcome their bad offense. I fear alot of these games may follow a similar pattern as FSU/MSU even as the competition is a bit weaker. Margin of error is so slim for us

Agreed.....as we need to play at same intensity for the Iowa / Nebraska games as we did for FSU and MSU

 

[kcg88]

Yeah, Wisconsin looks winable, but my point was that four of our first five games are against the three best teams in the conference (Minnesota's loss at Nebraska notwithstanding), and 3/4 of those are on the road. Just a brutal way to start.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

B1G stays hard all year.

 

[kcg88]

B1G stays hard all year.

Big difference between Michigan State and Purdue and the rest of the league.

 

[RutgHoops]

B1G stays hard all year.

I agree, but certainly not as hard as that first five.

From kenpom:

@#29 Minnesota, #3 Michigan State, @#9 Purdue, #47 Wisconsin and @#3 Michigan State is just about as tough a league start as you can have. Only one realistically winnable game.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

thank goodness we aren't in big 12. Take a look at that conference top to bottom!

 

[RutgHoops]

thank goodness we aren't in big 12. Take a look at that conference top to bottom!

I've seen Texas Tech, TCU and Baylor play and I'm not sure those three are as good as where kenpom has them right now, but yes the Big 12 looks like it could challenge the the ACC for best league in the country.

As an aside Jaime Dixon (now HC at TCU) is the perfect example of why fans should just shut the heck up when it comes to screaming for an HC's head. It's laughable that Pitt fans wanted him replaced. Laughable. They may challenge BC as the worst team in the ACC. And not just this year but going forward as well. It's why I never understood any RU fan who wanted to move on from Greg. Don't people realize how severe the downside of replacing a successful HC is when you are not an established power?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Pitt is getting what they deserve. Sort of Schianoesque where people get impatient that a team can't get to the next level. pitt fans have/had a short memory of where their program was before Howland/Dixon.

 

[bac2therac]

Pitt's problem is who they hired

 

[RU-ROCS]

Wisconsin is the game most winnable. They are not a very good offensive team and are in a funk right now even with the win over Penn State. Happ will be tough to stop and RU will have trouble scoring against their good D. Might be another ugly game like last year. We probably have an even chance to go 0-5 or 1-4

Wisconsin at the RAC is actually the proverbial "must win" game if RU wants to show any real improvement in conference this year.

 

[RutgHoops]

Pitt's problem is who they hired

Completely and totally disagree. Pitt's problem is who they fired. They fired an HC who went 328-123 at Pitt with 11 NCAA bids in 13 years because he "didn't make it to the second weekend" enough. Stupid, stupid, stupid. While I am not a huge Kevin Stallings fan he did win 300+ games at Vandy and went to the tournament 7 times.

The Pitt job like BC, because they are a remote ACC outpost without a history like Syracuse, is about the right HC for the school. A good, competent HC can fail at Pitt because of their new ACC reality. That was not true for Pitt (or BC) in the Big East. If you have an HC who wins at Pitt or BC (or Rutgers football) you hang on to them like grim death because the downside is both very severe and very much in play.

 

[bac2therac]

for one, Dixon wasnt fired, but the writing was on the wall that his seat would be in trouble the next year...it was the best time for him to make the move....and Pitt certainly did not appreciate what he had done and were backing off of support but they could have recovered from that if they actually had a plan on who they wanted and were realistically on who would take the job. Hiring an old coach who was sort of middling toward the end at Vandy is a horrific move. For a program like Pitt who does not have the sexiness of the programs like Duke, UNC, and Syracuse you want to be able to bring in a hungry young guy not an old man

Schiano left but RU could have recovered if they didnt hire Elmer

ditto when Tom Young left and even Gary Waters...Tom Coughlin with the Giants......replacing coaches with the wrong guys are big issues

 

[Mr Magoo]

Wisconsin is down this year

our game with Wisconsin is going to be ugly, ugly, ugly....could be something like 30-29.

 

[ScarletDave]

We always match up with Wisconsin for some reason, even when they were good. Obviously the win when they were #4, but then last year the OT game when they were #15, and even when we played them away and they were ~#10 it was a game similar to Minnesota last week, had it within single-digits most of the way and they took over at the end. Now that they're having a "down" year, and it's at home ... blood in the water