B1G Non-Conference Games 2019-20

Ignatius L Hoops

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Season Openers:

Illinois 96, Chicago St. 66
Maryland 119, Wagner 56
Missouri St. 77, Minnesota 69
Penn State 73, Towson 67
Michigan State 85, Eastern Mich. 50
Rutgers 77, South Ala. 56 Mobile, AL
Wisconsin 75, North Florida 62
Nebraska 68, Alabama A&M 46
Iowa 85, Fla. Atlantic 53
Indiana 75, Mt. St. Mary's 52
 

Gee, Maryland really challenged themselves with the first game on their schedule.

Guess we’re the only ones who took on a Sweet-Sixteen team.

I’m glad we got a tougher non-conf schedule this year. It will pay off at RPI compute time.

Look at our loss this way. We’re pretty much the only Big Ten team that learned something from the first game.
 

#8 South Carolina over #4 Maryland, 63-54. Hard to image a Freese team scoring only 54.
Purdue over future Gopher opponent Milwaukee, 68-55.
Nebraska over Missouri, 90-85. Sophomore Sam Haiby from Minnesota leads Nebraska with 28 points.
OSU and Indiana with blowout wins over Valpo and Nicholls.
PSU loses to Rider, so PSU and Maryland are only BIG teams to lose on a busy Sunday of action, which also included Michigan over Bradley, Wiscy over Wofford, and Northwestern over Loyola MD.
 

https://www.testudotimes.com/maryla...-final-score-stats-recap-results-ashley-owusu

This seems like a movie we've seen before:

Down 19 points to James Madison at the start of the fourth quarter, No. 8 Maryland women’s basketball was in jeopardy of starting with two losses in three games for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

But the Terps mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter, which included a 16-2 run over the final 3:01 of play fueled by their full-court defense. Culminating in a go-ahead basket from sophomore forward Shakira Austin from the top of the key, Maryland jumped ahead by two for its first lead of the game with 1:20 remaining.

The Dukes tied it back up thanks to two free throws, and with 14.8 seconds remaining, Maryland pushed down the other end, leaving the ball in the hands of freshman guard Ashley Owusu. She took a defender to the hole and banked it off the top of the glass with just 4.8 seconds remaining to give the Terps a 70-68 victory.

“Obviously just extremely proud of our poise,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “Proud of the fourth quarter, we could have put our heads down, and we brought a lot more energy on the defensive end.”
 

https://missouristatebears.com/news...overcome-20-point-deficit-to-top-sooners.aspx

In case you missed it on Thursday night: Minnesota's first opponent, Missouri State, rallied from a 20 point 46-26 deficit mid-way through the second quarter to knock off Oklahoma 96-90. They now play Oregon State on Sunday for the Pre-season WNIT Championship.
After the Sooners pushed the margin back to 15 points early in the third quarter, Alexa Willard, Brice Calip, Jasmine Franklin, Mya Bhinhar and Abby Hipp all scored in a 14-0 run to make it 60-59 with 5:10 on the clock.

...

The margin remained between six and nine points until the Sooners rattled off a 6-0 run to close to 89-86 at the 1:39 mark, and the MSU defense responded on the next two possessions while Bhinhar went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final 27.1 seconds to seal the game.

The comeback was Missouri State's first of at least 15 points since February 2016, while records were not readily available to determine if a 20-point comeback has occurred in MSU history.

Franklin collected her second double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Calip tallied 16 points with five assists and no turnovers.

The Lady Bears shot 37-for-69 (.536) from the floor and 8-for-15 from beyond the arc to take sole possession of the nation's longest road winning streak at 13 games. Missouri State owned a 39-26 rebounding edge.
 


https://www.swishappeal.com/ncaa/20...partans-notre-dame-fighting-irish-nia-clouden

Also, last Thursday, Michigan State led from start to finish in defeating Notre Dame 72-69 in South Bend. The Spartans were without Shay Colley whom is away playing for Team Canada.

Coming back from losing all five starters — especially when they accounted for 98 percent of their scoring last season — is a Herculean task. But that the Irish not only find themselves still ranked, but also hanging with other ranked teams, is a testament to both the team’s winning culture and the talent that head coach Muffet McGraw can still attract to the program
.

Even though it took Notre Dame some time to get going from three, it’s clear that freshman Sam Brunelle is going to be a dominating presence from beyond the arc. The 2019 Powerade JAM Fest 3-point champion accounted for two of the Irish’s three made 3-pointers and six of the team’s eight total attempts.

Sophomore Danielle Cosgrove, meanwhile, scored all 12 of the Irish’s bench points (including the third made 3-pointer), a career-high. For a team that’s not known for its depth, having that kind of spark off the bench will be invaluable moving forward.
 

https://goredbirds.com/news/2019/11...irds-roll-past-illini-for-first-road-win.aspx

Illinois State rolled past Illinois 74-58 in Champaign.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Senior Lexi Wallen scored 26 points and grabbed nine boards in front of her hometown crowd to guide the Illinois State women's basketball team to a 74-58 win over Illinois on Saturday afternoon, inside the State Farm Center.

Illinois State improved to 2-1 on the year while the Illini dropped to 3-1 in their first loss of the season.

The win marked the first time the 'Birds have defeated a Big Ten team since they last beat Illinois during the 2012-13 season. It is also the first victory over a Power Five conference team since Nov. 29, 2013, when Illinois State bested Florida, 68-64.

The 'Birds and Illini battled back and forth throughout the first two quarters of play, including seven lead changes. Illinois State went on a 6-0 scoring run in the final 2:19 before halftime, to establish a 28-22 lead at the half. ISU never trailed for the remainder of the game, gradually increasing to an 18 point-lead, the largest of the game, to start the fourth quarter.
 

Some interesting games on 11/17/2019, I haven't had time to check out the details:

Ohio (3-1) defeated Ohio State (2-1) in Columbus 74-68.

LaSalle (3-1) defeated Penn State (2-2) 69-67.

Northwestern (4-0) went to Duke (2-2) and beat the Blue Devils 63-42.

Iowa (2-1) went to Northern Iowa (4-0) and lost 80-66.

Wisconsin (3-1) defeated Milwaukee 71-40.

Oregon State outlasted Missouri State 80-69 in Corvallis.
 

Penn State gave up 33 points in he 4th and was outscored by 20..

Iowa was 15-27 from the free throw line..

Missouri State was up 8 LATE in the 3rd.. then Oregon State went on a run and Missouri State just couldn't get their shots to fall until to late.
 



Stanford needed OT to take down Gonzaga.
 


A quick team by team review of the B1G non-conference season thus far. Here's the Penn State write-up (they look destined to be this seasons afterthought).

Penn State Lady Lions 2-2
Game 1
Penn State opened their season with a close win over Towson, 73-67. The Lady lions only shot 20% from three point range and 33.3% from field goal. They also turned the ball over 21 times and narrowly lost the boards battle 46-45. Alisia Smith got a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Siyeh Frazier and Makenna Marisa each scored 15 points apiece to lead the team.
Game 2
Rider came to Happy Valley and left happy they got the win, 78-70. Yet again, Siyeh Frazier and Makenna Marisa each scored 15 points apiece to lead the team.
Game 3
The Lady Lions beat Fordham at home in their third game of the season, 72-59. And boy were they hot from three, shooting 50% from deep making 7 of 14 attempts. Siyeh Frazier got a double-double with 10 rebounds and a team-high 19 points.
Game 4
la Salle got the win over Penn State in Happy Valley yesterday, 69-67. 20 turnovers, getting out-rebounded 43-38, and shooting a paltry 10% (2 of 20) from three-point range will get you the big, fat L if your opponent is shooting 44% from deep most days. That’s what happened for the Lady Lions in this case. Kamaria McDaniel led the team with 25 points.
Week Ahead
The Lady Lions host Clemson Thursday night at 7 pm et on BTN+, and George Mason on Sunday at 2 pm et on BTN+.
 

In Iowa City, Iowa (3-1) defeated Princeton (4-1) 77-75 in OT. The Hawkeyes trailed much of the game but took a three point lead with 0.8 seconds remaining. BUT, Princeton advanced the ball with a timeout and Cunningham nailed a side shot straightaway three sending the game to OT. Princeton lead early in OT but ran out of steam. For the Tigers, 6'4 senior Bella Alarie was tough for the Hawkeyes to handle. Alarie had 26 points (3-4 from three) and 7 rebounds.
 

Penn State (3-2) knocked off Clemson (2-3) in Happy Valley 68-55. Penn State led at the half 40-26. Clemson cut it to three at the start of the third quarter when PSU didn't score for the first 5:10 minutes. But the Lady Lions got things turned around. Guard Siyeh Frasier had a night for Penn State: 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Forward Lauren Ebo tossed in 16 points.
 



For the Tigers, 6'4 senior Bella Alarie was tough for the Hawkeyes to handle. Alarie had 26 points (3-4 from three) and 7 rebounds.

She’s an intriguing player that could be available when the Lynx pick at #6.
 


Yesterday, Notre Dame defeated Michigan 76-72.

Down three with 30 seconds remaining on Saturday, the Michigan women’s basketball team had an opportunity to force overtime against Notre Dame. Freshman guard Michelle Sidor found herself open from three, with a chance to keep the Wolverines’ perfect season intact.

The shot clunked off the right side of the rim, sealing a 76-72 victory for the Fighting Irish (4-2).

The Wolverines (4-1) started off strong offensively, largely thanks to tough play down low from their bigs. In the first quarter alone, they picked up six offensive rebounds that led to nine second-chance points. Senior forward Kayla Robbins led this effort, picking up three first-quarter offensive boards.
“Kayla was outstanding,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “We really challenged her this week to get a double-double and try to be a great rebounder, and I thought she was really a great rebounder for us tonight.”

The fourth quarter was all Notre Dame. Defensive adjustments allowed the Irish to shut Michigan down in the paint, and the Wolverines only managed two field goals in the entire quarter. They didn’t help themselves on free throws, either — they were a poor 7-of-12 from the line in the fourth.

As the buzzer sounded, Michigan knew it had let this one get away. It had led for almost the entire game and used its superior height to dominate off the glass. But their careless mistakes and 24 turnovers ultimately led to their defeat.

“I would definitely say that they were more so our turnovers (and not forced by Notre Dame),” Brown said. “Whether that be a travel, or even we’re catching it, reversing it and throwing it right to the team’s hands.”

Added Barnes Arico: “I think we just need to be able to make our free throws and finish games out.”
 

Once again Penn State (3-3) gassed out in the second half losing to George Mason (4-1) in Happy Valley 78-68. The Lady Lions led by 11 at half but were outscored 49-29 the rest of the way. George Mason's Nicole Cardano-Hillary scored 41 points.

Creighton (4-1) knocked off Nebraska (5-1) in Lincoln 79-74. It was the Bluejays fourth straight win over the Huskers.
 
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In what appeared to be Rutgers first test, Rutgers lose 58-64 to LSU In what was a physical defensive struggle. Rutgers called for 28 fouls. LSU unable to pull away from the charity stripe shooting 57% 20-35 on FT’s.
 

Towson put up 100 points against Iowa today in a holiday tournament.
 

Towson put up 100 points against Iowa today in a holiday tournament.

Sorry, NCAA.com had the scores flipped. It was Iowa who put up 100 on Towson. That’s sounds more like it.
 

Indiana beating South Carolina is good news for the conference RPI.
 

#1 Oregon & #2 Baylor both fall. #3 Stanford still to play...
 


The Big Ten had a nice holiday tournament, I would say. Northwestern and Purdue still unbeaten, both play tonight.
 

Those aren’t Big Ten games. This topic is centered around Big Ten.
Then why did you post Stanford needed OT to take down Gonzaga in this thread on post #10?
 

Then why did you post Stanford needed OT to take down Gonzaga in this thread on post #10?

I noticed that made I made the same mistake, but that was two weeks ago.
 

Good battle going on in Hilton. Iowa and Iowa State tied 48 all at the end of three. It's on FS1.
 

Iowa pulled it out 75-69. The Hawkeye's 6'3" Monika Ciznano gave Iowa State fits on the low block. Ciznano scored 20. Meyer had 18 and Doyle was the leading scorer with 21. The Hawkeyes were 8 of 19 from three.
 

Another solid win for the Big Ten, man this is going to be an interesting year. I don’t think Maryland is too far in front of the pack. In fact wouldn’t be surprised if the Hoosiers steal it from them. I think there could be as many as 8 teams that could go to the big dance
 

Hoosiers looking really solid so far. Northwestern, Rutgers, and Iowa all looking more formidable than I thought they'd be. And, yes, although Charlie Creme currently has 11 BIG teams in his NCAA tourney bracket, that will all shake itself out, as some teams suffer key injuries they can't overcome and other teams struggle in BIG play. 8 teams in the NCAA is probably a solid guess. Sure hope the Gophers are included. They have a favorable conference schedule early on, but it's much tougher near the end of the conference schedule.
 

I concur that 8 teams is a good guess for number of B1G teams invited to the Big Dance this season. Both for the reasons cited (strong Big Ten, but some teams may have injuries, and other teams may struggle in B1G play), but also for an additional reason: the mathematics of RPI is self-limiting to the Big Ten, especially in a season (like probably this one) with a very strong Big Ten.

Let me try to simplify the explanation of the latter via quoting parts of the longer explanation in the Monday NCAA RPI thread. First, let’s update the projected end-of-season RPI data to as of today (Thursday, 12/12/2019) from the Warren Nolan projections.

Projected End of Season RPIs and Charlie Creme Bracketology

RPI Team W-L (Conf W-L) SoS Charlie
—————————————————-
#5 Maryland 27-2 (18-0) 21 #13-16
#7 Indiana 27-3 (16-2) 13 #9-12
#20 Rutgers 25-4 (15-3) 66 #25-28
#24 Minnesota 23-6 (13-5) 37 #21-24
#25 Northwestern 23-6 (13-5) 41 #37-40
#34 Michigan State 21-8 (12-6) 48 #25-28
—————————————————-
#56 Michigan 19-10 (10-8) 38 #21-24
#69 Iowa 16-13 (7-11) 19 #33-36
#72 Ohio State 13-16 (6-12) 6 #41-44
#97 Nebraska 17-12 (7-11) 52 #45-48
#98 Purdue 15-15 (6-12) 22 #29-32
—————————————————-
#184 Wisconsin 10-19 (2-16) 35 out
#217 Illinois 9-20 (1-17) 54 out
#220 Penn State 7-22 (1-17) 46 out

Creme’s bracketology is as of last Monday, where (as noted) he picks 11 Big Ten teams (and not Notre Dame) for the Big Dance. The Creme numbers are a range from 4*N-3 to 4*N where N represents his ranking of the team within its regional (so that the above-listed rank ranges represent the partial ordering induced by Charlie’s bracketology).

I split the listing by projected end-of-season RPI into three segments of B1G teams: you could call them Very Good, Good and Bad.

First let’s look at the Gophers. Subsequent to our crushing of GW, our projected end-of-season RPI got bumped from a (Good) #47 to a (Very Good) #24. In other words, Nolan was impressed enough to cut our expected RPI ranking number in half. This also puts the expected Gopher season result in complete alignment with Charlie’s opinion of #21-24. Why did we make such an RPI leap? Because (in the view of the Nolan projection model), we went from a projected 10-8 Big-Ten season to a projected 13-5 record. That actually informs us of what our B1G target should be if we want to stay completely off-bubble - namely, 13-5.

Now note that Charlie’s list of 11 favored teams is comprised of the Good and Very Good groups. Per Warren Nolan, we expect the Very Good group to end the season with a better-than-bubble RPI, where we consider the bubble to be RPI = 45 (and the Gophers just moved off-bubble in Nolan’s view with that win). But the Good teams (that Charlie, at least, thinks are deserving of the Big Dance) all have a projected end-of-season RPI that is greater than bubble-level of about 45. Specifically, 56, 69, 72, 97 and 98.

Now let’s fast forward to the end of the season, and for sake of argument make the following assumptions:
(a) No outcome-influencing injuries in the B1G.
(b) Teams play as expected in the B1G season.
(c) In fact, let’s assume that the Warren Nolan projection model is very accurate, so that at end of season the RPIs as projected in the above table hold true (to within some small epsilon).
(d) Also assume that Charlie has not changed his mind, and still supports the same list of 11 Good and Very Good Big-Ten teams for the Big Dance.

In that case, we potentially have a huge argument brewing between Charlie and (the rest of) the Committee (I’m guessing that perhaps Charlie sits on the Committee).

We understand that they consider other things besides RPI, such as Team Sheets, good wins, bad losses, etc. - but fundamentally, the Committee drinks their own RPI Kool-Aid.

If Charlie is promoting Nebraska and Purdue at #97 and #98, that’s gonna raise some eyebrows. Did the Committee let the Gophers in last year at RPI #102? Nope.

“But those are Good teams!” Charlie exclaims. “But the RPI numbers don’t lie,” the Committee says.

What about the case for Iowa (RPI #69) and Ohio State (RPI #72)? Both of those have losing records in the Big Ten. In fact, both teams would have had an even worse RPI (certainly over #100) if it weren’t for the fact that both teams were wise in not scheduling many non-conf opponents with really bad RPIs - such that they didn’t tank their SoS. Ohio State even achieved (under our for-sake-of-argument assumptions) the 6th best Strength of Schedule in the NCAA. Thus, in spite of (hypothetically) losing 2/3 of their Big-Ten games, they still get an end-of-season RPI of #72, since RPI is 3/4 a measure of SoS and only 1/4 a measure of won-loss record. Shrewd scheduling on the part of Ohio State. Yet, despite the losing record, Charlie (perhaps legitimately) still argues that Ohio State is a Good team that deserves an invite to the Big Dance.

When we get down to Michigan at RPI #56, with its (hypothetical) 10-8 winning record in the (admittedly) strong Big Ten, now we have a true bubble team, and Charlie has a good argument (against the Committee).

Let’s say Michigan is in (just for sake of argument). Along with the 6 Very Good teams (including Minnesota, who ends up 4th best RPI within the Big Ten, by our assumptions), we now have a count of 7 teams in so far.

In order to get the Big-Ten Big-Dance count to 8, Charlie has to successfully argue in favor of one of {Iowa, Ohio State, Nebraska, Purdue} with RPIs of {69, 72, 97, 98}. Fat chance of the latter two getting in. Perhaps one of {Iowa, Ohio State} gets in, bringing the count to 8.

So the Big Ten is self-limited to about 8 NCAA tournament contestants exactly because the Big Ten is so good this season (and in spite of Charlie arguing that 11 Big-Ten teams deserve to Dance).

That hard cap at 8 exists regardless of any unexpected injury situation. If we remove assumption (a), and significant injuries were to affect Big-Ten game outcomes, then that might only serve to reduce the Big-Ten Tournament invites from 8 to 7 or fewer.

The reason is that the very goodness of the Big Ten concentrates most of the B1G losses in just 3 Bad teams. In the B1G season, there must be 50% Wins and 50% Losses (by the definition of the word “game”). Most of those Losses get absorbed by the Bad teams, but there’s still some left over to be absorbed by the Good teams, and a few Losses befall the Very Good teams too.

But because of the high quality of the Big Ten, that extremely skews the probability distribution of where the 50% Losses go. That results in extremely bad RPI ranks for the Bad teams (#184, #217 and #220) plus lower-than-deserved RPIs for the Good teams and Very Good teams. Because they all have to play the Bad teams, which acts like a boat anchor on their SoS, but since RPI is mostly a measure of SoS (and not basketball quality of a team), that SoS boat anchor ruins the RPI for every Big-Ten team. Even the Very Good teams experience this boat-anchor effect, but their pre-boat-anchor RPI is high enough so as not to put them in jeopardy. It’s the Good teams that are in danger. Merely because the Big Ten is so good, some otherwise-certainly-in Good teams are pushed to on-the-bubble; and some otherwise on-the-bubble teams are pushed to “out.”

So, quality of the Big Ten is mathematically self-limiting in the sense that the better the Big Ten is, the worse of an SoS penalty is imposed on it (for playing themselves), and the more of a hard cap (at about 8 teams) is imposed on the B1G for admission to the Big Dance. This effect is purely due to the mathematics of the definition of RPI and SoS. In essence, it’s directly due to the horribleness of RPI. Add to that the fact that each seat at the Big Dance table comes at the expense of some other team that can’t go, plus the automatic bids, and we see that (as long as RPI is in play) it is extremely unlikely that the Big Ten will ever get more than 8 NCAA Big Dance invitations. No matter what Charlie says about 11 Big-Ten teams deserving to Dance.
 
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