2015 Projected Big Ten Tournament Bracket

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SelectionSunday

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Wednesday, March 11 (1st Round)
#12 Penn State vs. #13 Purdue
#11 Northwestern vs. #14 Rutgers

Thursday, March 12 (2nd Round)
#8 GOPHERS vs. #9 Maryland
#5 Nebraska vs. Penn State/Purdue winner
#7 Iowa vs. #10 Indiana
#6 Illinois vs. Northwestern/Rutgers winner

Friday, March 13 (Quarterfinals)
#1 Wisconsin vs. GOPHERS/Maryland winner
#4 Michigan vs. Nebraska/Penn State/Purdue winner
#2 Ohio State vs. Iowa/Indiana winner
#3 Michigan State vs. Illinois/Northwestern/Rutgers winner

Notes
* Vonleh already gone from Indiana.

* Assumes Michigan loses Robinson, Stauskas, and perhaps McGary.

* Assumes Michigan State loses Harris and perhaps Dawson.

* Assumes Dekker and Kaminsky both return to Wisconsin.
 

yes! we finally got a bye!! :cool:

by adding more teams, it makes it easier to get a coveted bye, but the road ahead still as daunting.
 

SS, I thought I saw on the Big Ten website that the tournament next year was still Thursday-Sunday. I though dates were marked March 12-15. Confused me.

By the way, if Kaminsky does not go in the draft this year, I bet he regrets it. I see no way he duplicates this year's performance, and he could lose a bundle by not cashing in now. Dekker is probably a pro, but not ready yet.

McGary is the wild card for me. Great potential but will the NBA risk his injury, which is not the first.
 

Go4 said:
yes! we finally got a bye!! :cool:

by adding more teams, it makes it easier to get a coveted bye, but the road ahead still as daunting.
Click to expand...

Very true!

However, the true byes are for those who don't have to play until Friday (seeds #1-4). That won't change even with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers. Not playing until Friday should always be the goal for the Gopher program. Only once in 17 years has that happened.
 

Go4 said:
yes! we finally got a bye!! :cool:

by adding more teams, it makes it easier to get a coveted bye, but the road ahead still as daunting.
Click to expand...

We could now have that impressive conversation on whether not playing on Day 1 is really a bye or not!
 


Holy Man said:
SS, I thought I saw on the Big Ten website that the tournament next year was still Thursday-Sunday. I though dates were marked March 12-15. Confused me.

By the way, if Kaminsky does not go in the draft this year, I bet he regrets it. I see no way he duplicates this year's performance, and he could lose a bundle by not cashing in now. Dekker is probably a pro, but not ready yet.

McGary is the wild card for me. Great potential but will the NBA risk his injury, which is not the first.
Click to expand...

I think Dekker and Kaminsky will both come back. Dekker probably needs it more than Kaminsky. Dekker still a NBA talent, but he's regressed a little bit.

Regarding the Big Ten tourney, they haven't officially announced all 14 teams will go to Chicago, but as soon as they do I'm sure they'll update the web site to March 11-15.
 

Holy Man said:
We could now have that impressive conversation on whether not playing on Day 1 is really a bye or not!
Click to expand...

If we play on Day 1 next season or anytime in the near future, God help our program!
 

SelectionSunday said:
Wednesday, March 11 (1st Round)
#12 Penn State vs. #13 Purdue
#11 Northwestern vs. #14 Rutgers

Thursday, March 12 (2nd Round)
#8 GOPHERS vs. #9 Maryland
#5 Nebraska vs. Penn State/Purdue winner
#7 Iowa vs. #10 Indiana
#6 Illinois vs. Northwestern/Rutgers winner

Friday, March 13 (Quarterfinals)
#1 Wisconsin vs. GOPHERS/Maryland winner
#4 Michigan vs. Nebraska/Penn State/Purdue winner
#2 Ohio State vs. Iowa/Indiana winner
#3 Michigan State vs. Illinois/Northwestern/Rutgers winner

Notes
* Vonleh already gone from Indiana.

* Assumes Michigan loses Robinson, Stauskas, and perhaps McGary.

* Assumes Michigan State loses Harris and perhaps Dawson.

* Assumes Dekker and Kaminsky both return to Wisconsin.
Click to expand...

Semifinals

Gophers versus Michigan
Iowa versus Michigan State

Finals

Gophers versus Iowa

Gophers win

Other than that- I am projecting the Gophers as the 5 seed.... :)
 

Dang. Are they doing the double bye thing for the top few times? I don't like that.
 



Too bad about the 8 seed. But on the bright side we swept Wisky.
 

Edited after last night (NIT semis)

Last night further cemented what I thought after watching 4 consecutive days of the Big Ten Tournament. ... the Gophers are a long ways away from being an upper-tier Big Ten team. Hope it's not so, but there's a really good chance we're gonna' take a couple steps back next season. Glaringly apparent the Gophers will need more than one new player to make significant contributions in 2014-15. Not bit players, significant players. How ironic that the Gophers don't win that game last night without the contributions of a guy who arguably was forced off the 2014-15 playing roster.

Wednesday, March 11 (1st Round)
#12 Penn State vs. #13 Purdue
#11 Northwestern vs. #14 Rutgers

Thursday, March 12 (2nd Round)
#8 Maryland vs. #9 Indiana
#5 Nebraska vs. Penn State/Purdue winner
#7 Iowa vs. #10 GOPHERS
#6 Illinois vs. Northwestern/Rutgers winner

Friday, March 13 (Quarterfinals)
#1 Wisconsin vs. Maryland/Indiana winner
#4 Michigan vs. Nebraska/Penn State/Purdue winner
#2 Ohio State vs. Iowa/GOPHERS winner
#3 Michigan State vs. Illinois/Northwestern/Rutgers winner
 

So, I dont want to drag the "T" word into this so please stay away from mentioning his name, especially 3 times as some posters crawl out of the woodwork on the 3rd mention of the man whose name starts with a "T".

However, during the time honored tradition at the Gopherhole of comparing current coaches vs prior coaches based on record and various subjective items, does an 8th place finish in the Big 10 in 2015 look better than an 8th place finish in the Big10 prior to the addition of the new teams? My opinion is it would be exactly the same, as there are still 8 teams better than us, however, I can just imagine how the conversations will go next year and if I'm on either side of this argument I would start campaigning hard on making sure the consensus matches my view.
 

The comparison (from 12 to 14 teams) will be a little bit tricky, but it's safe to say the Maryland program, at worst, enters the Big Ten on equal footing with the Gophers, while Rutgers clearly enters as a presumed bottom-feeder. We certainly shouldn't be finishing behind Rutgers in the standings anytime soon.
 



You still think Nebraska can follow up on this year? #5 seems high to me, but I guess they were a #4 this year.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Last night further cemented what I thought after watching 4 consecutive days of the Big Ten Tournament. ... the Gophers are a long ways away from being an upper-tier Big Ten team. Hope it's not so, but there's a really good chance we're gonna' take a couple steps back next year. Glaringly apparent the Gophers will need more than one new player to make significant contributions in 2014-15. Not bit players, significant players. How ironic that the Gophers don't win that game last night without the contributions of a guy who arguably was forced off the 2014-15 playing roster.

Wednesday, March 11 (1st Round)
#12 Penn State vs. #13 Purdue
#11 Northwestern vs. #14 Rutgers

Thursday, March 12 (2nd Round)
#8 Maryland vs. #9 Indiana
#5 Nebraska vs. Penn State/Purdue winner
#7 Iowa vs. #10 GOPHERS
#6 Illinois vs. Northwestern/Rutgers winner

Friday, March 13 (Quarterfinals)
#1 Wisconsin vs. Maryland/Indiana winner
#4 Michigan vs. Nebraska/Penn State/Purdue winner
#2 Ohio State vs. Iowa/GOPHERS winner
#3 Michigan State vs. Illinois/Northwestern/Rutgers winner
Click to expand...

SS.. I like everything you post but I think the combo of not enough shot fakes and some poor clutch free throw shooting is giving you a bad taste. :)

Seriously, we are in the NIT finals.. its not like we lost in first round of the CBI. Every year a good program has contributions from a player that was a non impact the year before. This year Lil Dre and Walker fit that bill nicely. King as well. Why would we expect that trend to stop? Especially with a new coach who is bringing in lots of new faces.

I think there are plenty of candidates to step up next year to compliment our returning players. Walker and EE are a good combo, probably as strong as you could hope for at the position (compliment each other). Walker should continue to improve as well. Dre can only improve over this season. Mathieu will have a year under his belt and King will keep bulking up. Throw in the newcomers, which will number at least 5 plus Buggs.. no reason to think we will take a step back IMO.

I will be shocked if we don't get significant contributions from at least one new player and likely 2. If we don't then yeah, could be a rough year.. but I have seen enough from Pitinio to think it will happen again.
 

So SS has us missing the tournament again next year with an 8 seed in the BTT I'm assuming?
 

afurry91 said:
So SS has us missing the tournament again next year with an 8 seed in the BTT I'm assuming?
Click to expand...

A lot can change between now and October. Right now I have the Gophers at #10, but that's probably the low end & me being discouraged by what I saw last night. I'd say the ceiling is about #6, #7 or #8 the more likely scenario.
 

SelectionSunday said:
A lot can change between now and October. Right now I have the Gophers at #10, but that's probably the low end & me being discouraged by what I saw last night. I'd say the ceiling is about #6, #7 or #8 the more likely scenario.
Click to expand...

Not trying to derail, but what exactly discouraged you about last night? The way the game started, with all players returning x Austin, we were lights out. Not until the refs got extremely whistle happy and put FSU in the bonus for 16 minutes did the wheels start to come off. Not to mention in the vast majority of those 16 minutes we had a lineup that has absolutely 0 chance of happening next year. Malik played major minutes, Oto played major minutes and Austin was at the 4. The only thing that I saw that has me the least bit worried about next year is the continued malaise of Andre Hollins and the complete inability of Charles Buggs to make an impact still. Last night was his time to shine again and he came away as a dud.

To me, last night only showed me that Pitino found a way to grit us through a game we easily easily could have lost. I personally was fearful of the game going bad when we were shooting 80% from the field and only up 12 points and Joey was already in foul trouble and big mo had 1 foul as well. Last night also showed me of how frustrating it can be to have a very talented team (fsu) and a completely idiotic coach that has no eye for mismatches and strategy.

I'm going to watch the highlights of last night (read first 10 minutes) and forget the rest. What we saw last night will have 0 impact on next year other than experience for Richard in coaching situations, and some more minutes logged for our returning players.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
Not trying to derail, but what exactly discouraged you about last night?
Click to expand...

No offense taken.

I finally took a realistic look at our returning talent level relative to the rest of the Big Ten. We have some decent pieces coming back (Andre needs to be a superstar next season, not just a solid Big Ten player), but right now don't see 2014-15 being much different than this season. It's a given that Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin (no matter what personnel they lose) will be right up there.

The Gophers need to find a way to separate themselves from the muddled middle of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, and Nebraska. What it'll come down to is, can the Gophers perform better than all or 4 of those teams to finish 5th or 6th? Not real confident of that at this point, but that's why we play the games & see how everyone's incoming recruits pan out.
 

SelectionSunday said:
No offense taken.

I finally took a realistic look at our returning talent level relative to the rest of the Big Ten. We have some decent pieces coming back (Andre needs to be a superstar next season, not just a solid Big Ten player), but right now don't see 2014-15 being much different than this season. It's a given that Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin (no matter what personnel they lose) will be right up there.

The Gophers need to find a way to separate themselves from the muddled middle of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, and Nebraska. What it'll come down to is, can the Gophers perform better than all or 4 of those teams to finish 5th or 6th? Not real confident of that at this point, but that's why we play the games & see how everyone's incoming recruits pan out.
Click to expand...

So it wasn't so much what transpired last night?
 


SelectionSunday said:
That played into it, but more a case of last night further exposing our limitations in several areas, much like the Badger game in Indianapolis.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I don't disagree with your assessment, I just am putting 0 stock in what I saw in the 2nd half of last night in it being an indicator of future expectations.
 

SelectionSunday said:
No offense taken.

I finally took a realistic look at our returning talent level relative to the rest of the Big Ten. We have some decent pieces coming back (Andre needs to be a superstar next season, not just a solid Big Ten player), but right now don't see 2014-15 being much different than this season. It's a given that Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin (no matter what personnel they lose) will be right up there.

The Gophers need to find a way to separate themselves from the muddled middle of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, and Nebraska. What it'll come down to is, can the Gophers perform better than all or 4 of those teams to finish 5th or 6th? Not real confident of that at this point, but that's why we play the games & see how everyone's incoming recruits pan out.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. If Dre doesn't come back as at least one of the top 10-15 in the B1G next season, our chance to go dancing maybe over before it started.
 

howieramone said:
I agree with you. If Dre doesn't come back as at least one of the top 10-15 in the B1G next season, our chance to go dancing maybe over before it started.
Click to expand...

I want to see Andre in that 1st or 2nd team All-Big Ten range. He wasn't anywhere near that this season, but I think it's fair to say his ankle injury had something to do with that. Not everything to do with it, but certainly some.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
So, I dont want to drag the "T" word into this so please stay away from mentioning his name, especially 3 times as some posters crawl out of the woodwork on the 3rd mention of the man whose name starts with a "T".

However, during the time honored tradition at the Gopherhole of comparing current coaches vs prior coaches based on record and various subjective items, does an 8th place finish in the Big 10 in 2015 look better than an 8th place finish in the Big10 prior to the addition of the new teams? My opinion is it would be exactly the same, as there are still 8 teams better than us, however, I can just imagine how the conversations will go next year and if I'm on either side of this argument I would start campaigning hard on making sure the consensus matches my view.
Click to expand...

I would say finishing 8th/ 14th would be like finishing 7th/12th. I think we will finish 7th next year, IU is a dumpster fire right now, Maryland I think will struggle in year one of a new conference, I don't see Illinois coming into the barn and winning three times in a row and Iowa without marble and Besabe won't be as good.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I want to see Andre in that 1st or 2nd team All-Big Ten range. He wasn't anywhere near that this season, but I think it's fair to say his ankle injury had something to do with that. Not everything to do with it, but certainly some.
Click to expand...

A summer of healing and a season of getting used to Little Dre handling the ball will help Andre a lot. I'm confident he'll be back to sophomore year form. Another shooter will give him a little more room, too. Will McNeil be able to step up and hit some shots? Andre was guilty of trying to make things happen after his injury that were just not going to happen on the 3/4 strength ankle.
 

Holy Man said:
A summer of healing and a season of getting used to Little Dre handling the ball will help Andre a lot. I'm confident he'll be back to sophomore year form. Another shooter will give him a little more room, too. Will McNeil be able to step up and hit some shots? Andre was guilty of trying to make things happen after his injury that were just not going to happen on the 3/4 strength ankle.
Click to expand...

Very good point. IMO that player is not on campus or on this late date, on the way. McNeil will help Dre on the defensive end by playing tough D when Dre needs a breather, but we have no one to keep the other team from game planning to stop Dre.
 

howieramone said:
Very good point. IMO that player is not on campus or on this late date, on the way. McNeil will help Dre on the defensive end by playing tough D when Dre needs a breather, but we have no one to keep the other team from game planning to stop Dre.
Click to expand...

Our hope for providing help via more room would be big mo being a force and making teams respect him with a double. The next has to be big mo learning how to pass out of said double.
 

Too early to tell. Who would have thought Mathieu could come in and be possibly our best player this year? If Pitino can bring in three more contributors to this class, we will have so much more depth and the team could be much better
 

No offense to anyone, but getting discouraged by a rough-looking NIT game is massively over-reacting. I think and certainly hope we can be better next year. We are only losing one key player and our best player is coming back from an injury. It's 2015-2016 that scares me.

Mathieu should be close to the same player. Possibly better.

Dre Hollins should be much better. We need him to be. If he's not, it will be tough.

Morris for Austin Hollins is clearly a drop-off. But how big of one? It's impossible to say. Austin's been great lately and always played D. But we can't forget he went MIA on offense for large swaths of the year.

Joey/Martin should provide more at the 4 than we had this year.

Elliot should be better or at least more consistent. Mo might be due to regress but hopefully not too much. At worst they are hopefully a wash.

Mason and McNeil should provide more off the bench than Malik/Mav/McNeil did this year. I could see McNeil taking a big step. Buggs? Who knows. There's upside. We are probably adding at least two more guys as well.

Maybe the league itself will be much better and we will indeed win less games. But I don't think we will be a worse team.
 

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