Big Ten Announces Basketball Matchups for 2015

Big Ten Announces Conference Basketball Matchups for 2015

Per Gopher Athletic Communications:

Big Ten Announces Basketball Matchups for 2015

The Big Ten Conference announced Friday the breakdown of opponents for the 2015 Big Ten basketball season, with each of the 14 conference team set to compete in an 18-game league schedule. Each program will play five teams both home and away and eight teams once, while they will play four of its single-play opponents at home and four on the road.

Minnesota’s men’s basketball team will play home-and-home series with Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. At home, the Gophers will host Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State and conference newcomer Rutgers. Minnesota will travel to Indiana, new member Maryland, Michigan and Michigan State for their lone meetings.

The Minnesota women’s basketball team will take on Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin twice next season, both home and away, while it will host Indiana, Maryland, Michigan and Michigan State at Williams Arena. The Gophers’ road games will be played at Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State and Rutgers.

The men continue their 18-game conference schedule. Big Ten women’s basketball teams previously competed in 18-game conference schedules from the 1982-83 through the 1993-94 seasons, and again from the 2007-08 through the 2009-10 campaigns.

Dates, times and television information will be announced at a later date.

2014-15 Minnesota Men’s Basketball Opponents
Home-and-Away: Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Home only: Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers
Away only: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State

2014-15 Minnesota Women’s Basketball Opponents
Home: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State
Away: Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers
Home/Away: Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin

Pretty crappy home schedule from the looks of it. No Indiana, Michigan, or Michigan State. 2 straight seasons with no Sparty to The Barn. Our "road onlys" are a bear. Maryland likely won't be a slouch, either.

Bright side? No divisions. There are going to be unbalanced schedules no matter how they do it, but am glad to see there'll be a regular-season champion. It'll still mean something. Divisional championships in basketball (like the SEC used to do it) are dumb.

Decent in terms of difficulty, but no home games with IU, Michigan or MSU is not great for ticket sales.

I was really hoping for 20 games.

Still can't believe there is 14 teams now. These unbalanced schedules are for the birds.......

Brenda Frese makes her return to The Barn.

Wow looks like the Gophers got stuck with one of the toughest single play road schedules that you could even think of. Only way to make it tougher would be to replace Maryland with Ohio State.

This blows. Let me be the first to say "26 game round robin"!

Goldy Gopher said:

Wow looks like the Gophers got stuck with one of the toughest single play road schedules that you could even think of. Only way to make it tougher would be to replace Maryland with Ohio State.

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I am fine with that though. It's not a great "win the conference" schedule. But it's a good "finish 3-4-5" type schedule. Also, tough single play road = good opps for road wins

Do not like the unbalanced schedule at all.

Yuck. Really hope we add a good non conference home game this year. as our B1G home slate is not that exciting. Coach P, are you listening?

Maybe squeeze a marquee non conference game in mid winter?

Yikes, I do not see very many road wins on that schedule. We may be favored at Penn State, Purdue may be a pick'em, but likely underdogs the other 7. (Yes, Maryland and Nebraska are going to be good next year).

I like the fact all the tough games are on the road. Likely to lose those anyway, so lets hold court at home.
I think it's a good schedule to finish 0.500.

Rouser said:

Yuck. Really hope we add a good non conference home game this year. as our B1G home slate is not that exciting. Coach P, are you listening?

Maybe squeeze a marquee non conference game in mid winter?

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It would be tough to get a good non-conference team to agree to play the Gophers in the barn. Rick Pitino sounds like he wouldn't even want any part of that.

road wins

SelectionSunday said:

Our "road onlys" are a bear. Maryland likely won't be a slouch, either.QUOTE]

The reality is the Gophers top out of a max of 2-3 B10 road wins anyway, so what's the diff...

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The "road only's" are tough, but "road only" also means we only need to play those tough teams one time. I think we got a pretty good draw in terms of who we need to see twice. I agree with fryguy that this is not great for winning a conference, but pretty solid to get a good finish in the standings.

We play 9 Games against the top 5 this year

If we have the same top 5 next year, we'd only play 7
Our next year looks like Nebraska's this year

Face The Facts said:

I like the fact all the tough games are on the road. Likely to lose those anyway, so lets hold court at home.
I think it's a good schedule to finish 0.500.

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Good schedule for RPI too. Home losses seem to hurt more than road wins help.

Disappointing home schedule.