Looking ahead to the Big 10

[SelectionSunday]

I know a lot can happen in a month's time; teams will improve and/or have a significant injury that sets them back, etc. But I feel safe in saying after seeing some results from the first couple weeks that if the Gophers aren't 2-0 to start the Big 10 season, we'll have reason to be concerned. The Gophers have a golden opportunity to hit the ground running & must take advantage. ...

Penn State at home
Iowa on the road

In a league expected to be loaded, those are 2 games you gotta' get. Not that we didn't know this before, but seeing how the Nitts got handled by previously winless UNCW and seeing the struggles of the Hawkeyes in their atmosphere-less arena. ...

 

[OSUfan]

Most definitely, those are 2 games MN should win handily. I think the Big 10 is looking weaker than expected, at least in the bottom half. Northwestern's loss of Coble takes them from a potential NCAA team to being another somewhat average Northwestern team. PSU is also somewhat weaker than most expected (losses to UNC-Wilmington and Tulane!) as their supporting cast guys haven't filled the void left by Cornley/Pringle/Morrissey. Iowa will really struggle in the B10 - losing home games to UTSA and Duquesne is no way to start the season! Indiana lost to Boston U (and will almost certainly lose to G Mason).

Teams like PSU and Indiana have a variety of guys who can step up and help them become better as the season goes on, so maybe they'll turn out to be much better than they've been so far.

 

[mnboiler]

You are right if the Gophers are going to compete in the Big 10 this year they have to win those first two. For any team to compete for a title this year they are going to have win ALL of there games(and I mean ALL) against IU, Iowa, PSU, and NW. The rest of the league is just to tough to try to make up ground with.