How to Stop Meatgrinder B10 Games?

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LesBolstad

LesBolstad

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Most of these B10 games are becoming unwatchable. Scores in the 40's and 50's are now commonplace. Teams are overscouted and it is so difficult to score. Can anything be done? I know the athletes are getting better and the defenses are tough but it's getting out of hand. If there wasn't a 3 point line and shot clock games would be in the 20-30s.

The NBA made some changes- calling all hand check fouls and scoring is way up. Is this what needs to be done in B10? I'm not sure that would work. Yesterday they called dozens of ticky tack fouls and both teams still couldn't score.

Incidentally, Mich. St. is the highest ranked B10 team scoring nationally @ #67! And that includes the pre B10 cupcakes.
Major Conf. Averages: B10 63; Pac 10 69; Big East 71; SEC 72; ACC 76
 

It is also worth noting that in the Big 10 we play something called defense. Rumor has that is now making it's way out east. Barring a few expections(Pitt and UConn(most because of Thabeet) in the Big East and Duke in the ACC) defense is just not being played.

Partly we reason the Big 10 gets bashed all the time is because the type of play is currently "unsexy." Most of the country has gotten to the point where they want to see 100 point games where D is option. And therefore the talking heads on ESPN say the B10 are bad because we don't score 100 points a game.

I think some coaches are wanting to get to a more fast break style but then you have Bo Ryan, Tood Lickliter, Bill Carmody, and John Belien who run these random offenses(Bo's swing, NW Princeton, jack up the 3 at Michigan, who nows with Iowa but it isn't working). That really prevents the rest of the league from getting out and running up and down the court in the fast break like they would like.

I guess I would rather see Big Ten teams to continue to play defense and games score of 57-63 than loss the d and have scores of 75-67. Then watching Big 10 teams win games they shouldn't come March.
 

while I also appreciate the tough play and defense that is in most B10 games, that gets undermined when you have ticky-tack games like ours yesterday. half the turnovers and fouls were fake (on both sides), the refs made that game ridiculously slow and having no rhythm whatsoever.
on ESPN ("Big East Network") the other day I almost vomited during one of the endless BEast games that was on, when someone made the remark "the Big East is known for its stifling defense and tough interior play, no other conference comes close in those 2 categories". PLEASE. how stifling is the D when teams average games in the 70s and 80so??? B10 gets no love on ESPN anymore, its all ACC and BEast.
 

Yeah, This is Great!

Love those 38-33 type games. Tough D will really help th B10 in March; NOT!

Seriously, the B10 is becoming a joke.
 

Yes, defense is solid in the Big Ten but this is not just because of "good defense". I think the problem lies with poor offenses and officials not letting a flow develop. Either way, its ugly to watch and does not exactly help perception of the BT.
 


Focus on the points per possession, not points on the score board. The offenses aren't nearly horrible, usually. Last night was something special though.
 

Thankfully NW-Ohio State bailed out the Big 10 last night

Was the complete opposite of the Illini-Penn State mess. Entertaining game with both teams making a lot of shots. It was quite refreshing to see the ball go through the basket for both teams. Would like to see the Gophers shoot the ball tonight like NW & OSU did last night, but I'd settle for us looking halfway competent in a half-court set.
 

A couple of thoughts:

-The Big Ten can have as many "Meatgrinder" games as they want as long as Minnesota is the one winning them.

-There is good defense being played in the big ten and the offenses aren't as terrible as we saw during illini-psu, but that being said the offenses in the big ten arent good or as efficient as the other major conferences. When looking at 6 of the top conferences in college basketball(Big 10, ACC, Big East, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC) the Big Ten ranks last in points per 100 possessions average(non conf was included as well). The disparity becomes even bigger when you just look at the top half of each of the conferences(which tend to be the teams on ESPN that everyone sees)

-Apparently no ones team ever gets any respect on ESPN. This last summer I heard a Yankee fan complain about how they werent getting respect from ESPN and it was all about Boston. The way you get respect is by winning championships(or the occasional Big Ten - ACC Challenge). Until the Big Ten starts doing that I wouldn't give them respect either. I'm sick of the "we don't get any respect", and the "east coast bias" views.
 




The "tough defense" in the Big Ten is way overplayed. If you have great athletes and great shooters, a team should average 70 a game in any conference - while I don't have any data to back it up it's pretty unlikely a poor defensive team makes it to or past the Sweet 16. The point being you also need to be able to put the pumkin in the basket to do any damage in the tournament. The Big10 doesn't have an abundance of exceptional athletes or scorers this year however I'm hopeful for the future with better recruiting since we now have some very good coaches in the Big10.
 

From the Barn said:
If you did the math the actual order would be:

1. Pac-10
2. ACC
3. Big 10
4. Big East
5. Big 12
6. SEC
Click to expand...

I got my info from http://www.kenpom.com/stats.php?y=2009&s=17. All I did was take the average for each conference of each teams raw offensive efficiency score. How did you come up with that order? When I did the math I came up with 1. Pac 10(107.5) 2. Big 12(107.3) 3. ACC(106.8) 4. Big East (106.6) 5. SEC(105.2) 6. Big Ten(104.7). Average number of points per 100 possessions in parentheses.
 


Probably why the Big Ten has a grand total of zero recruits playing in the Mcdonalds all american game
 



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