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MSU just lost at home

I continue to say: MSU's roster this year doesn't fit how Izzo generally likes to play. The big bruisers are mostly injured. Its Izzo so they may surprise me, but I just don't see them being as good as their recruiting- this year.
 
Didn't they have a head-scratching loss last year at home around this time? Some team from Texas that former Indiana coach Mike Davis was coaching, correct?

Wisconsin also had some goofy losses early in the season last year.

Ya just never know.
 
MSU is still probably going to be really good by season's end. The question is whether they can turn it on before their tourney resume is irrevocably damaged.
 
The B1G did not show well this non-conference season. Wonder how many teams are going to make the dance.

And check out out Alum-Ni's thread, 3 of those B1G teams with gaudy preseason records at the top of the B1G standings - Maryland, Rutgers and Minny hardly took any risks sticking their necks out playing anybody with a hearbeat compared to some other B1G teams like Iowa.....
 
Just saw the standings. How in the heck is Minnesota so damn good this year? Guess that's what getting a blue chip recruit and a few impact transfers will do for you. Pitino Jr. went from nearly fired to COY so far this season. Unreal turnaround. Rutgers tied for 1st as well but saw they had 350/351 SOS. Still, amazing turnarounds. Iowa may take their lumps this year but at least they are playing tough teams and are growing up quickly. Just going to be hard seeing NW and Minnesota in tourney and not the Hawkeyes after past few seasons.
 
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This is why I think IA can still get a 20+ win season if they continue to play defenses. IA's schedule is softer than usual in the B1G; they meet the strong teams less than last year, Purdue x2, Ind, Wis, and MSU once. I think they can finish within the top five.
 
Just saw the standings. How in the heck is Minnesota so damn good this year? Guess that's what getting a blue chip recruit and a few impact transfers will do for you. Pitino Jr. went from nearly fired to COY so far this season. Unreal turnaround. Rutgers tied for 1st as well but saw they had 350/351 SOS. Still, amazing turnarounds. Iowa may take their lumps this year but at least they are playing tough teams and are growing up quickly. Just going to be hard seeing NW and Minnesota in tourney and not the Hawkeyes after past few seasons.

Fool's gold. All of them, especially Rutgers, have played weak schedules and metrics like Pomeroy that include strength of schedule aren't enthusiastic about them. Minny is the best of the 3 ranked 7th in the conference, Rutgers is dead last at 118th in the nation despite being 11-1.

Two years ago Minny went 11-2 in the nonconference against a similarly weak schedule and then 6-12 in conference play. It's going to be another month or two before we know if these teams are actually good.
 
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Fool's gold. All of them, especially Rutgers, have played weak schedules and metrics like Pomeroy that include strength of schedule aren't enthusiastic about them. Minny is the best of the 3 ranked 7th in the conference, Rutgers is dead last at 118th in the nation despite being 11-1.

Figured so. Rutgers and Gophers receiving votes in polls though. Clearly voters don't account for poor RPI/SOS. Just record.
 
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MSU has had a ton of injuries, including their frosh stud, Bridges.
Our only meeting with Sparty is 2/11. By then, they'll probably be rolling again.
 
Fool's gold. All of them, especially Rutgers, have played weak schedules and metrics like Pomeroy that include strength of schedule aren't enthusiastic about them. Minny is the best of the 3 ranked 7th in the conference, Rutgers is dead last at 118th in the nation despite being 11-1.

Two years ago Minny went 11-2 in the nonconference against a similarly weak schedule and then 6-12 in conference play. It's going to be another month or two before we know if these teams are actually good.

Folks need to go look at Iowa's B1G schedule in the month's of January and Feb home and away and outside of a couple of games with PU and watch out for the game at Northwestern and no Wisky once in March....imo, absolutely zero reason to think Iowa cannot beat those teams we have to play home and away...

Not with the way this team has been improving w/o Cook especially on the D end cause we know this team can score points ...and we've got something all these teams we play don't have and that is Peter Jok....

Can't wait to see this team play 2 games this week....just keep improving.
 
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Figured so. Rutgers and Gophers receiving votes in polls though. Clearly voters don't account for poor RPI/SOS. Just record.

Yeah, it's definitely fools gold for Rutgers with their non-conference schedule but I can understand why they had a schedule like that. They need confidence to believe that they have a chance to win games. Maryland also had an easy non-con but they have enough talent to be competitive in every conference game. I believe Minnesota is improved (possibly middle of the pack finish), even if their non-con is a bit weak overall.
 
I am more in the boat of playing tough non-conf schedule and getting your lumps out the way early. Instead of beating a bunch of teams RPI 250+ and being 12-1 and then getting blasted in Big Ten Play. Getting beat I realize people don't like it, but you can learn more from a loss than you can a Win. I seriously think Iowa's young guys learned a lot from the losses to UVA, MEM, and ONU.

Look at OSU last year, they played the weakest schedule in the non-conf. It ended up costing a trip the NCAA and they were playing pretty good ball towards the end of the year. They played some bad teams and actually got beat by 1 or 2 really bad teams early on.
 
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Play bad teams pre-season and win:

Fans say: we need to play tougher teams to prepare them for the Big Ten.

Play good teams pre-season and lose:

Fans say: we need to play lesser teams to break in the young guys before the Big Ten.

Can't win with the fans.


How about playing more average teams? Maybe they're too tough to schedule because they don't want to come into Carver-Hawkeye for a single game/paycheck, but I would like to see some teams with projected RPI between 100 and 200.

The sub-300 RPI teams who travel the country playing games to fund their program seem like a lose/lose deal to me.
 
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I watched the game and this is what I witnessed. Izzo tried to get rough with Northeastern but the refs kept calling the correct calls. I mean they were roughing them up pretty good. Izzo got a T then the refs continued to make the correct calls. Loved every bit of it. Big10 channel showed Izzo more than the game. Makes me sick. And yes, Bridges did not play.
 
Didn't they have a head-scratching loss last year at home around this time? Some team from Texas that former Indiana coach Mike Davis was coaching, correct?

Wisconsin also had some goofy losses early in the season last year.

Ya just never know.

I thought at one point they were 16-2 last year... or should I say 16-0 against everyone else, 0-2 vs us.
 
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Once they lost the bigs they were going to use this year I knew they were in trouble. The can't play the style Izzo likes.
 
Agree with ZumaHawk - if the refs don't yield to Izzo's lectures and hysterical outbursts, MSU is definitely beatable.
 
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msu this year is not as good as msu of last year, that's apparent. They certainly don't have a player of the year caliber guy like Valentine.
Let's see what izzo does with them in B1G play. I wouldn't count them out yet. Probably not going to implode like his buddy dantonio's guys did.
 
This is why I think IA can still get a 20+ win season if they continue to play defenses. IA's schedule is softer than usual in the B1G; they meet the strong teams less than last year, Purdue x2, Ind, Wis, and MSU once. I think they can finish within the top five.

But that maximizes the importance of beating one of those "good" teams on their home court. Otherwise, if we go 11-7 and don't have "quality" wins on the road, what good will it do us with an RPI in the 50s? Well, I'd be fine with NIT to be honest.
 
The B1G did not show well this non-conference season. Wonder how many teams are going to make the dance.
My sentiments exactly. The B1G teams are not playing at a premier level at this juncture of the season. Indiana went down to Butler. The ACC vs. B1G challenge was pretty lopsided in favor of the ACC, I believe the final results were 9-5 for the ACC. I think this will bode well for Iowa. I think with the league generally down Iowa has a chance to play well.
 
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