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State of B1G Hoops - with Michael Dinga's Humdingers

Writer's picture: Michael DingaMichael Dinga


Welcome to State Of The B1G, where each week we will take a bit of an irreverent look at, well, the State Of The B1G Conference in men’s hoops.  This inaugural edition will take a look at the B1G Conference as a whole.  Each successive week will focus on two or three of the 14 states that are now home to teams in the B1G Conference and take a deep-ish dive (as opposed to a deep-dish dive, which I am in no way against) into the respective team or teams that call those states home, focusing on each team’s outlook in the B1G Conference tournament in the near future and the upcoming NCAA Tournament.  With some humor.  Or attempts at humor.  Your call.


As we turn the wall calendar page (yes, I still have one) from January to February, the current state of the 18 team B1G Conference is, yes, crowded.  Eighteen teams means lots and lots of in-conference games on lots and lots of days, and nights, with each team playing 7 opponents at home and 7 opponents on the road, plus a home-and-home series against 3 teams.  Do the math—7 plus 7 plus 3 equals 17–and that means all teams will actually face all other teams at least once in the season, which actually makes a lot of sense!  Got it?  Good.

Looking ahead to the B1G Conference Tournament, apparently 18 teams won’t fit nicely into a bracket, so only the top 15 teams will qualify into the tourney, with the bottom 3 teams left on the outside—sort of like this year’s Leicester City, Ipswich, and Southampton in the English Premier League (but, sadly, without any threat of relegation).  The top 4 seeded teams will earn the always coveted double-byes into the quarterfinals, while seeds 10 through 15 get first round tussles.  This year’s B1G Tournament will be played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in lovely Indianapolis, Indiana.


We can break down the 18 teams into 3 nice groupings of 6 teams—yes, more math!—as follows:

1.  Michigan State (9-1 Conference, 18-3 Overall)

2.  Purdue (8-2, 17-5)

3.  Michigan (8-2, 16-5)

4.  Maryland (7-4, 17-5)

5.  Wisconsin (7-4, 17-5)

6.  UCLA (7-4, 16-5)

Consider those 6 teams as The Heroes And Monsters Group—“locked and loaded” to battle it out for the double-byes and a high seed in the NCAA tourney.


7.  Illinois (7-5, 15-7)

8.  Oregon (5-5, 16-5)

9.  USC (5-5, 13-8)

10. Indiana (5-6, 14-8)

11. Ohio State (5-6,13-9)

12. Iowa (4-6, 13-8)

Consider those 6 squads as The Dusty Springfield Group—“wishing and hoping” for a good late season run that gets them a) into at least a top 9 seed and out of a first round matchup in the B1G tourney and 2) possibly a bid to dance with a Devil (e.g. Blue, Sun).


13. Rutgers (4-7, 11-11)

14. Nebraska (3-7, 13-8)

15. Penn State (3-8, 13-9)

16. Northwestern (3-8, 13-10)

17. Minnesota (3-8, 7-11)

18. Washington (2-8, 11-10)


Consider those 6 teams as The Dean Martin Group—slugging it out over the final 9 or 10 conference games to secure the final 3 seeds for the B1G tourney and avoid eating “a big pizza pie” (notice the deep-dish circle back?) as a team while the first round games tip off on March 12.


And that’s the State Of The B1G for now.

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