Maryland is a bottom team but they won at Wisconsin by 6.... how exactly does that make sense....??
YES, this is not the standard 1 or 2 seed MSU, but the difference between being a 1 seed is 14 to 15 B1G Wins in a 20 game B1G schedule and a 7 to 11 seed is 9 to 11 B1G wins.
As far as RU is concerned, road wins are not going to be a factor like years past, with no fans in arenas. Good basketball home or away is what will matter.
The road nonsense or narrative being trumped up has to stop being continuously mentioned as some sort of grand difference between the process of playing good sound basketball. RU has won 2 out of its last 4 B1G road games dating back to last year with the Purdue win, Maryland win at the start of this B1G slate....the referees completely disarmed RU at Ohio State where they played good for 28 minutes before the refs stepped in.....and then MSU dismantled RU on the defensive end of the court for 40 minutes last night. At no point during any of the 3 out of last 4 road games, did I watch RU do anything drastically different in terms of playing hard....last night, they just didn't make shots or got.out of sorts in half court.
Road games are tough because you are playing quality opponents....home games are tough because you are playing quality opponents. Wins against so called bottom B1G teams, which is very difficult to determine 5 or 6 games into a 20 game slate, with roster, lineup changes and improvements is also not an accurate way to try and make assessments about college basketball.
Teams ebb and flow during a season....kids get hot and make shots and then can go cold....players that are not clicking now, could start to play better in a couple of weeks. Players that were starting 2 to 3 weeks ago, may have roles reduced or changed.
The questions are what areas can improve with RU from January to February....
A) get healthy with Cliff returning to the lineup and able to provide some minutes and gain experience....he will make lots of mistakes learning the grind of this league.
B) Allow Caleb McConnell to play through his rust and get him making some shots, when he has made in the past when open. He has played 2 games, I'd like to determine things after 12 to 13 games for Caleb, not 2....
C) Find a role where we reduce the workload of Harper Jr, Mathis and Jacob Young now, so they have legs left in mid February to mid March....that is where Caleb, Palmquist and Mag can help or have to be asked to play....dare I say throwing a Jaden Jones into practice cannot hurt his development, where he may find the floor in a few weeks....never say never, we learned that already with Caleb.
D) Stop looking at the league or CBB in a vacuum...if you want to hold RU to a standard that no one else is achieving on a consistent level, that is fine....but in this B1G, teams don't ring up 6-4 or 7-3 road records. If they are, show me where it happens (it rarely if ever happens) ....the 1 -3 NCAA tournament seeds if they come out of the B1G, usually go 5-5 or 4-6 on the road in the B1G at best, most usually land at 2-8 or 3-7........while the Big 12, Big East,, ACC or SEC may not trend that way for NCAA resumes, the B1G does year in and year out.
