Gophers announce B1G opponents for 2016-2017

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Not encouraging by any means but I think most of us expected this based on last years schedule.
 

Good teams to face on the road if we only play them once.
 

Not the worst schedule. Wisconsin and Sparty are tough teams to get twice, but there's no reason we can't get the home win on the other home and homes. Penn State will be similar to us, Maryland loses a lot and I think Ohio State will be middle of the pack as well. Indiana will still be tough, Michigan will probably be about where they were last year, no reason we can't beat Nebraska and Iowa on our home floor. Illinois and Purdue are always tough road trips regardless of talent. Northwestern will be a tough game as well. Gotta get the Rutgers game this year. I think we can go 6-3 at home, but as always winning on the road will determine where we end up in March.
 

Looks about how we expected it to. The teams we play twice are all going to be solid squads. Even Penn St is supposed to be a vastly improved team next year. My way too early prediction is 6 B1G wins next season. If I put on my homer hat and squint real hard through my maroon and gold glasses I could maybe see nine B1G wins, but that's the upper limit for me.
 


Tough schedule!

Home and home group- 4-6 record- beat Mary/PSU/OSU at home and beat PSU on the road
Home only 3-1 record- beat Neb. Iowa and Michigan
Away only 1-3 record- Beat Rutgers
8-10 is my thought and this is if we have Lynch. Need to steal a couple to get to 10-8 and in the tournament.
 

How do they come up with these? We got the 4 worst teams in The conference as away only games?
 

Winasota Gopher said:
How do they come up with these? We got the 4 worst teams in The conference as away only games?
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You think Purdue and NW will be among the 4 worst? I can see NW being on the margins but Purdue has a lot coming back don't they?
 

Winasota Gopher said:
How do they come up with these? We got the 4 worst teams in The conference as away only games?
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There aren't many B1G power rankings out yet since it is still a long ways before the season starts, but in the ones I have found the bottom 5 in their predictions are Penn St, Nebraska, Illinois, Rutgers, and us. Purdue is usually around 3-4. Northwestern around 8-9.
 



K, so the question still remains my main point wasn't these are the 4 worst, but how are these schedules decided? Is it systematic like in the NFL the tops of each division always play each other in the same conference? Or is it random?
 

Winasota Gopher said:
K, so the question still remains my main point wasn't these are the 4 worst, but how are these schedules decided? Is it systematic like in the NFL the tops of each division always play each other in the same conference? Or is it random?
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Going off memory of the past three schedules I think they try to make sure a school doesn't play someone twice in back to back years, and making sure a school travels to and host all of it's conference members at least once in a two year window.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
K, so the question still remains my main point wasn't these are the 4 worst, but how are these schedules decided? Is it systematic like in the NFL the tops of each division always play each other in the same conference? Or is it random?
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I don't know the exact process, and I'm not sure they have ever actually revealed it. My understanding of it is that they try to balance it so that you get a chance to play every school the same number of times (and same number of home and aways) in a given cycle. I don't think they try to balance it based on where teams are predicted to fall in the standings which is why some years (like Indiana last year) a team might have a pretty favorable schedule.

For example, last year we had Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska, and Iowa as our away only games. We get home games against all those teams in 2016-17, some in a home and home and some just once, but get a home game against all of them. Michigan State, Purdue, Maryland, and Wisconsin were our home only games last year. In 2016-17 we have to play all of them on the road, some just once and some in a home and home. And all of our home and homes in 2016-17 are against teams that we only played once last year. The B1G probably has a software program that figures it all out.
 

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GophersInIowa said:
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So, If I'm reading this table/chart correctly, this guy is saying that the Gophers have the second toughest schedule in the Conference, based on the whatchamacallit rating.
 

Yeah and the Badgers get second easiest. Go figure.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
So, If I'm reading this table/chart correctly, this guy is saying that the Gophers have the second toughest schedule in the Conference, based on the whatchamacallit rating.
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Yes, it's a little bit of a flawed way to do things, but that is correct. It's flawed in that I'm pretty sure he is using the KenPom ratings for each team from the end of last year. It's not based on a projection for the 2016-17 season. Wisconsin and Maryland both get to play us and Rutgers two times. We only get to play Rutgers once and we can't play ourselves. So the Terps and Badgers schedules are each calculated with 2 games against the #223 KenPom team (us) and 2 against the #291 KenPom team (Rutgers), while we only have one game against Rutgers and their #291 rating.

Obviously teams get better or worse from one year to another, so while it is probably somewhat accurate it is definitely not a perfect way of doing things. Teams that were at the bottom start out behind because they don't GET to play themselves, and teams that were at the top start out ahead because they don't HAVE to play themselves. I would guess that if you did the same thing for the ACC Boston College would end up with one of the toughest schedules in the league and UNC would end up with one of the easier ones.
 

XMan said:
Yeah and the Badgers get second easiest. Go figure.
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Good teams get easier schedules by not having to play themselves. There was a Reddit post a little while back that showed most conference winners play one of the easiest conference schedules. I guess it's a little tough to say whether good teams make their schedules appear easy by giving their opponents losses, or if catching a break on scheduling is one of the most important factors for winning the conference.
 

bga1 said:
Tough schedule!

Home and home group- 4-6 record- beat Mary/PSU/OSU at home and beat PSU on the road
Home only 3-1 record- beat Neb. Iowa and Michigan
Away only 1-3 record- Beat Rutgers
8-10 is my thought and this is if we have Lynch. Need to steal a couple to get to 10-8 and in the tournament.
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I'd be thrilled with an 8-10 conf record next year frankly.
 

I had posted a handful of times that last year was frustrating because we had a joke of a team with a very easy schedule. Knew a tough one was coming.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I'd be thrilled with an 8-10 conf record next year frankly.
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Going 3-7 vs. the two-play opponents (or even 2-8) very much in play, but I like the schedule. Plenty of quality-win opportunities + we get all the expected top-tier teams at home except for Purdue. Really nice home schedule (again).

6-12 with Reggie Lynch, 4-14 without him.
 


With or without Lynch plays I got us at 7-11. Home court is a huge deal in the Big Ten, as bad as we were last year we were really only embarrassed once in big ten play on our home court.
Home Games Away Games
Maryland (W) Maryland (L)
Wisconsin (L) Wisconsin (L)
MSU (L) MSU (L)
Ohio State (W) Ohio State (L)
Penn State (W) Penn State (L)
Nebraska (W Northwestern(L)
Iowa (W) Illinois (L)
Indiana (L) Purdue (L)
Michigan (W) Rutgers (W)
That's how I think it should go, but the thing about basketball is they'll probably drop a game or two that I think they should win and win a game or two they have no business winning. I think the team has some nice talent, good depth, but if they want to get out of that 7-9 win range someone needs to step up and be the man. I think all the guys who are candidates for that are a year away from it, but Pitino shouldn't have an issue with having to play guys out of necessity or having guys out of position this year
 

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