Other B1G Games

Ignatius L Hoops

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Opening Day

Dec. 28, 2018

Ohio State at Purdue West Lafayette, IN 4:00 pm BTN
Northwestern at Rutgers Piscataway, NJ 4:00 pm BTN Plus
Michigan at Nebraska Lincoln, NE 7:00 pm BTN
Maryland at Penn State University Park, PA 7:00 pm BTN Plus
Indiana at Illinois Champaign, IL 8:00 pm BTN Plus
Wisconsin at Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 9:00 pm BTN

Eastern Time
 
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I think those times are all eastern time. We tip at 8 PM central time on Friday.
 

And, following two days later on Sunday, Iowa at Michigan State. That should be a good one. I'm thinking that we'll see a lot of close games in the BIG this year, as team's are well-matched.
 

Penn State up on #4 Maryland 41-39 at half :eek:
 

Had a chance to watch some of the BIG opening games today. Some random thoughts: Michigan will be a beatable team, even on the road, for our Gophers. They rebound the ball very well, but they are young and inexperienced at the guard spots. I like Deja Church for Michigan. The Gophers recruited her hard and she would sure be giving the Gophers some quality depth if she'd decided to come here. From what I've seen of the Wolverines this year, they will not end up third in the conference as some predicted before the season began. I think they'll finish lower. Nebraska has not been as good this year as some people thought. I think they'll still be an upper half BIG team. If they're going to finish in the 3 or 4 positions, they'll certainly need to get more out of Kate Cain, who continues to be inconsistent at the post position...and also continues to be foul prone. Haiby, the Nebraska guard from Moorhead, MN., looks like she's going to be a very good player. Gutty effort by the Illini to hang with Indiana. OSU is a dreadful offensive team, at least now. Maybe they'll get it going as the season progresses. Lots of grad transfers and transfers trying to find their roles. Purdue is another offensively-challenged squad, but they play good D. I expect they'll finish slightly above middle of the pack.
 


With the general complaining about shooting percentages in B1G openers, I figured we should have a chart with a simple look at how bad it was.

Minnesota tied for third with Indiana (the Hoosiers went 2-11 in OT and still pulled out the victory). Minnesota put up more shots than any team except Indiana. And the Rutgers v Northwestern game was uglier to watch than even the stats imply.

Victorious teams bolded.

46.7 Maryland 28-60
45.9 Illinois OT 28-61
39.7 Minnesota 27-68
39.7 Indiana OT 31-78
38.9 Purdue 21-54

37.7 Michigan 20-53
36.7 Nebraska 22-60
35.5 Penn State 22-62
35.0 Wisconsin 21-60
28.6 Ohio State 16-56
27.5 Northwestern 14-51
26.8 Rutgers 15-56
 

The Scarlet Knights lead Maryland at the half 41-36. Rutgers scored 28 in the first quarter and 13 in the second. Marylands totals were 24 and 12.
 

In a scintillating third quarter the Terps outscored Rutgers 11-6 so we enter the fourth quarter tied at 47.
 

Interesting to note: In watching Friday's games on BTN, one of the color commentators said that she thought Maryland would "run the table"/go undefeated in BIG play. Nice win for Rutgers. Maybe Maryland will join the cluster that we're expecting the BIG to be this year.
 



Rutgers with the upset in College Park 73-65. Rutgers was 9-21 from three.
 

Rutgers with 2 bench players in double figures, including Carey with 18.
 

Glad the Scarlet knights got the W. Too bad Goldy is busy laying an egg.
 

Watching the Badgers versus Purdue after the Gopher loss. Wisconsin, behind 8-14 shooting from behind the arc, are leading 61-46 at the end of three.
 



In Madison, Wisconsin (1-1) opened a 67-46 lead in the fourth and fought off a Purdue (1-1) rally (the Boilers got within 6) to win 76-69.

Illinois (0-2), Minnesota's next opponent, fell 68-45 to Northwestern (1-1). Abi Scheid put up 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Wildcats.
 

https://umterps.com/documents/2018/12/31//07_RU_Quotes.pdf

Brenda Frese on her seven player rotation in the Rutgers loss:

"I'd love to be able to extend our bench. It has to present itself. Once we show that in practice
then we will be able to extend that. We just haven't been able to get there yet."



Rutgers Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer On their [Rutgers] dominance in the paint:

“We felt that we could establish ourselves in the paint and we do have people who can shoot
the three, so it allows the post to have a little bit better opportunity to play without being
doubled. We just tend to be aggressive defensively anyways. That’s one thing we can count on.
That’s one thing any team can count on.”

 

Northwestern (2-1) throttled down everyone except Shay Colley (28 points with 4-8 from behind the arc) in a 70-62 defeat of the Spartans (1-1) in Evanston. Kunyaiyi-Akpanah, besides assisting with keeping Allen under control, put up 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats. NU's Pulliam also scored 18scored 28 for Michigan State. The Spartans kept it close by hitting buzzer beating threes at the end of the second and third quarters. Northwestern looked good tonight both offensively and defensively.

Despite Marsha Howard's 20 points and 15 rebounds, the Badgers lost to Penn State in State College 71-64.
 

Gustafson with 28 points, 17 boards in Iowa's home win over Nebraska. Another POW award forthcoming? Indiana and Rutgers the only remaining undefeated conference teams with 2 wins each. The Northwestern win over MSU was a bit of a shocker. Northwestern is a team that obviously has it in them, but they haven't played well recently. Cats with good games from Pulliam, Akpanah, and Scheid, who has really played well recently. Interesting BIG game on Sunday, with MSU traveling to Indiana. On a non-BIG note, #8 Baylor defeats #1 UConn, 68-61 in Waco. UConn shoots 29% from the field. Seems like there have been some woeful shooting performances this year by teams all across the country.
 

Gustafson's numbers against Nebraska: 28 points, 17 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 blocks, 1 steal, 0 turnovers in 38 minutes. Iowa's starters minutes:

38 Gustafson
36 Stewart
36 Davis
35 Doyle
32 Meyer


https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...tball-megan-gustafson-lisa-bluder/2473487002/

Flow was hard to find in a vintage Big Ten grind. But the Hawkeyes eventually slogged through the muck.

The style and flash Iowa usually rolls with wasn’t there Thursday night, but a veteran unit finally wore down Nebraska in the second half despite some late turbulence. The No. 20 Hawkeyes emerged with a 77-71 win in their conference home opener. It’s a victory Iowa (9-3, 1-1 Big Ten) needed after Sunday’s dud.

"There just wasn't a lot of flow to the game at times," Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder said. "Too many turnovers by both teams. Too many fouls by both teams. So it wasn't the prettiest game, but again, we're not caring about that right now."
 


Hawkeyes and Gophers both lacking depth, it seems.

Raoul noted the minutes played from last night's Baylor/UConn matchup. On the job training is not popular. Coaches want their best players on the court.

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Maryland just barely slid by Ohio State at home. The Terrapins seem surprisingly beatable.
 

https://www.michigandaily.com/section/womens-basketball/michigan-loses-thriller-west-lafayette

Here's a good explanation of the crazy, end of the third quarter, Michigan (1-2) error that came back to haunt the Wolverines in their 71-70 loss at Purdue (2-1). The end of the fourth quarter was more normal although Odin's winning bucket wasn't.


After Dilk hit a jump shot with 38 seconds remaining in the third quarter to take a one-point lead, all hell broke loose.

With a three second differential between the shot clock and game clock, Purdue held the ball for the final shot of the quarter. They missed the shot and sophomore forward Hailey Brown collected the rebound. But as she grabbed the ball, the shot clock buzzer went off. Brown, thinking it was the game clock, threw the ball to the referee standing out of bounds; there were still three seconds on the clock.

Purdue was given the opportunity to run an extra play from underneath the Wolverines’ basket and capitalized by converting a mid-range jump shot at the buzzer to take the lead going into the final quarter.


...

With just under a minute remaining, Michigan senior center Hallie Thome scored a layup off of a Dilk assist to put Michigan up 70-69. Then, with 25 seconds left on the clock, Purdue guard Dominique Oden scored a layup of her own to put the Boilermakers back on top.

On the Wolverines’ final play, Brown received a handoff from Thome and took a shot from just inside the three-point line with three seconds remaining. The ball hit the backboard and then rolled off the rim, falling into the arms of the waiting Purdue player as time expired.
 

Indiana remains undefeated in BIG play with 68-64 home win over MSU. If the Hoosiers hadn't had the terrible loss to Grambling, they'd be undefeated and most certainly in the top 15. Interesting to note that Shay Collie came off the bench today for MSU.
 


Northwestern (2-2) loses a heart breaker to Michigan (2-2) in Ann Arbor 79-78 in overtime. The Wildcats lost Abi Scheid to an injury late in the first half and Kunaiyi-Akpanah to foul trouble; but really threw the game away with late free throw misses in regulation. And still they had a chance in OT but a short jumper from the paint bounced off both sides of the rim before falling off at the buzzer.

For the Wildcats: Wolf had 17 points and 13 rebounds; but also two of the late free throw misses. Hamilton had 16 points; but was 0-2 from the line.

Thome had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Michigan.

There were 42 fouls in the game.
 

Rutgers moves to 4-0 defeating Illinois (1-3) in Champaign 71-60. After a fast start, the Scarlet Knights were cruising along until C. Vivian began taking out her starters. With about 3 minutes remaining Rutgers led 65-49. The Illini cut it to 68-60 with just under a minute to play before Rutgers shut down the comeback.
 

Carmen Grande, 19 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals, led Ohio State 1-3 past the Hoosiers (3-1) in Columbus 55-50. The Buckeyes, especially Grande, frustrated Patberg (9 points before she fouled out). Next up on BTN: Iowa at Purdue.
 

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/s...tafson-hannah-stweart-lisa-bluder/2540411002/

ICYMI: Iowa lost at Purdue 65-57.

Iowa built an eight-point lead with six minutes to play, but the Hawkeyes mustered just seven points and two field goals from there. Purdue closed the game on a 20-7 run, using a balanced scoring effort to pull the upset.

Megan Gustafson led Iowa with 19 points and 13 rebounds, but she fouled out with 1:43 to go. The Hawkeyes had just one field goal after that. That came on a Hannah Stewart layup — which sliced Iowa’s deficit to one with 36 seconds to play — but Purdue put things away at the free-throw line to clinch it.

Outside of Stewart (17 points) and Gustafson, Iowa had just seven field goals. The Hawkeyes couldn’t hit a thing from deep, sputtering to a 3-for-17 showing. Purdue (12-5, 3-1), meanwhile, had four in double figures — led by 16 apiece from Karissa McLaughlin and Dominique Oden.
 

Sounds like Iowa met its Illinois(Water)loo.

Better study that game tape, Gopher coaches.
 

Purdue's a solid club, especially at home. Not surprised they beat Iowa. Boilermakers are better offensively than they've been in previous years, just as Rutgers is better. Iowa doesn't have much of a bench this year. Gustafson got in some foul trouble and didn't dominate as she usually does. Purdue's Harris had a lot to do with that. One thing I've noticed in watching teams other than the Gophers this year: Lots of teams have starters playing 35 or more minutes. So Gophers aren't alone in not using their bench much. I'll admit that I'm a bit baffled that so many programs can't develop benches, despite 15 scholarships...but then again, when I look at the Gophers, there's such a huge difference between the abilities of the starters and the bench players.
 




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