Updated Big Ten Standings Projection

[SelectionSunday]

Gophers drop from 10th to 12th with Fox, Ihnen season-ending injuries.

 

[kg21]

What on God's green earth could put Iowa at 2?

 

[SelectionSunday]

What on God's green earth could put Iowa at 2?

Kris Murray.

Patrick McCaffery.

Tony Perkins.

Payton Sandfort.

Plus, Iowa has a favorable Big Ten schedule in what looks like a down year for the Big Ten.

I like their front-end talent. Defense, as always, will be the question mark.

 

[kg21]

Kris Murray.

Patrick McCaffery.

Tony Perkins.

Payton Sandfort.

Plus, Iowa has a favorable Big Ten schedule in what looks like a down year for the Big Ten.

I like their front-end talent. Defense, as always, will be the question mark.

Middle of the pack if lucky.

They will have trouble scoring.

 

[Lion King]

Middle of the pack if lucky.

Down Year !! I BELIEVE it will be way worse than last , and it was poor last season, but the talking heads at the Network will again convince the country it's one of the best in the country.

 

[Gopherfan84]

I’m more shocked about Indiana being 6th. Still think this roster is between 8th and 10th in the B1G

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

I was hopeful this team could be around 10th prior to the Fox/Ihnen injuries. It will now be a struggle to not finish last again. I'm just hoping Battle/Garcia have good seasons and the freshman improve as the year goes on.

 

[Gopherfan84]

I was hopeful this team could be around 10th prior to the Fox/Ihnen injuries. It will now be a struggle to not finish last again. I'm just hoping Battle/Garcia have good seasons and the freshman improve as the year goes on.

We have two of the top 15 guys in the B1G. I think the injuries suck, but we still have more depth than last year. I still think 10th is the floor. B1G is down there year compared to last year as well

 

[Fleckoff]

The one

Middle of the pack if lucky.

They will have trouble scoring.

One thing I think anyone can assure anyone on is Iowa will not have trouble scoring. On another note though Ihnen's injury doesn't change anything for me, I think this team as long as Garcia, Battle and Cooper are healthy are going to be in the 8th-10th range. I was pretty skeptical on Ihnen all of a sudden becoming a poor man's Scottie Pippen, unfortunately doesn't look like will get to find out. The four teams I'm skeptical on are Maryland, NW, Nebraska and Rutgers. Also, Michigan outside of Dickinson, I see a lot of issues with that team as well

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

We have two of the top 15 guys in the B1G. I think the injuries suck, but we still have more depth than last year. I still think 10th is the floor. B1G is down there year compared to last year as well

We had two of the top 10 players in the B1G last season and finished last. Most of our depth in the front court has been eroded by the injuries. We have less depth in the back court than last season.

While Payne and Carrington will play significant minutes, we don't know how good they'll be, and the rest of the freshman are projects. Samuels wasn't a good player for a bad team at a much lower level. If Cooper or Carrington miss any time, then things will get really bad.

 

[Gopherfan84]

We had two of the top 10 players in the B1G last season and finished last. Most of our depth in the front court has been eroded by the injuries. We have less depth in the back court than last season.

While Payne and Carrington will play significant minutes, we don't know how good they'll be, and the rest of the freshman are projects. Samuels wasn't a good player for a bad team at a much lower level. If Cooper or Carrington miss any time, then things will get really bad.

You really believe that Battle and Willis were better than

Murray
Liddell
Cockburn
Davis
Ivey
Jackson Davis
Dickinson
Harper Jr
Branham
McGowens
Gabe Brown
Trent Frazier

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

You really believe that Battle and Willis were better than

Murray
Liddell
Cockburn
Davis
Ivey
Jackson Davis
Dickinson
Harper Jr
Branham
McGowens
Gabe Brown
Trent Frazier

Battle was 7th in the B1G in scoring last season, Willis was 10th. Were they better than all of them? Nope, but they were on par with several of those players.

 

[Otis]

I’ve seen sites picking Indiana to win the B1G.

Why so low on your projection?

Gopher guard play makes it hard to put them higher, also no real big defensive presence in the middle.

Highest possible finish: 6th
Lowest: well, you remember last year.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I’ve seen sites picking Indiana to win the B1G.

Why so low on your projection?

Gopher guard play makes it hard to put them higher, also no real big defensive presence in the middle.

Highest possible finish: 6th
Lowest: well, you remember last year.

I see mostly the same team returning from last year when they barely snuck into the tournament. I don't like their guards (other than Xavier Johnson) or their perimeter shooting. Freshmen will need to help big time there.

And their Big Ten schedule appears to be among toughest in the conference.

 

[Gopherfan84]

Battle was 7th in the B1G in scoring last season, Willis was 10th. Were they better than all of them? Nope, but they were on par with several of those players.

While they were offensively proficient that had more to do with necessity to score cause the rest of the players weren't strong offensively. I think it’s fair to say we had two of the top 20 players in the conference and non in the top 12. That won’t be the case this year and both will be in the top 15 with Battle most assuredly a top 10 played with the assumption he continues to improve (he has every year in college). Now your comparing Payne, Cooper, and Carrington with Loewe, Stephens, and Curry. I can see the fear there as there are some unknowns, but I’ve seen Payne enough to know he can contribute at a the level from day 1. Cooper is coming in with accolades higher than any of those three as well. Can Carrington give us what Stephens did? From a bench prospective it’s Suetherlin, Daniels, and freshman Thompson vs Samuels, So Thompson, Henley/Betts/JOJ. That’s a bench that also has some unknowns, but I think will be an upgrade skill wise, but is young. If we can truly play 8 instead of 6 or 7, I think we win more games. Also NW and Nebby will be worse this year. I don’t think last place will be a discussion for us unless we get more injuries.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

While they were offensively proficient that had more to do with necessity to score cause the rest of the players weren't strong offensively. I think it’s fair to say we had two of the top 20 players in the conference and non in the top 12. That won’t be the case this year and both will be in the top 15 with Battle most assuredly a top 10 played with the assumption he continues to improve (he has every year in college). Now your comparing Payne, Cooper, and Carrington with Loewe, Stephens, and Curry. I can see the fear there as there are some unknowns, but I’ve seen Payne enough to know he can contribute at a the level from day 1. Cooper is coming in with accolades higher than any of those three as well. Can Carrington give us what Stephens did? From a bench prospective it’s Suetherlin, Daniels, and freshman Thompson vs Samuels, So Thompson, Henley/Betts/JOJ. That’s a bench that also has some unknowns, but I think will be an upgrade skill wise, but is young. If we can truly play 8 instead of 6 or 7, I think we win more games. Also NW and Nebby will be worse this year. I don’t think last place will be a discussion for us unless we get more injuries.

Cooper is not a great scorer. Carrington wasn't a dominant scorer in HS either, we'll see how that translates. I mostly agree on Payne, but he also had some trouble staying healthy. Henley, Betts, and JOJ are all projects who wouldn't play for a middle of a pack B1G team.

That leaves you with Cooper, Carrington, Battle, Garcia, and Payne playing the majority of the minutes. Samuels, TT, and Ramberg will be the main contributors off the bench. Yikes. Thats a thin and not very good B1G basketball team.

 

[Otis]

Ram burg? No way he plays major minutes.

SS, agree on Indiana even though those frosh are pretty good.

 

[Gopherfan84]

Cooper is not a great scorer. Carrington wasn't a dominant scorer in HS either, we'll see how that translates. I mostly agree on Payne, but he also had some trouble staying healthy. Henley, Betts, and JOJ are all projects who wouldn't play for a middle of a pack B1G team.

That leaves you with Cooper, Carrington, Battle, Garcia, and Payne playing the majority of the minutes. Samuels, TT, and Ramberg will be the main contributors off the bench. Yikes. Thats a thin and not very good B1G basketball team.

Yeah I don’t think we will be great either, but I don’t think finishing 8-10 in this years BIG requires you to be good. I think this team will be better than last years team and they almost finished 12th in a conference that was way better, but got wore down.
We have disagreements on some of the incoming players and that’s fair. Carrington wasn’t a prolific scorer on his team because he didn’t need to be. He was the best player on one of the two best teams on the state. He’s more than capable of providing what Loewe could offensively, but he’s not where Loewe was defensively. We don’t need Cooper to be a scorer. He really needs to be the 3rd or 4th option. While I do agree that Betts, JOJ and Henley are project, that doesn’t mean they can’t come in and fill a role. Those three really only need to provide 10-15 mins max between the three of them. That will be in a role as the 5th offensive option and will really require not turning the ball over and defending. If more was needed/required, I’d be more skeptical as well.

 

[Gopherfan84]

Ram burg? No way he plays major minutes.

SS, agree on Indiana even though those frosh are pretty good.

The freshman they are adding provide what they need offensively. I think Indiana is a top 4 team this year.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Cooper is not a great scorer. Carrington wasn't a dominant scorer in HS either, we'll see how that translates. I mostly agree on Payne, but he also had some trouble staying healthy. Henley, Betts, and JOJ are all projects who wouldn't play for a middle of a pack B1G team.

That leaves you with Cooper, Carrington, Battle, Garcia, and Payne playing the majority of the minutes. Samuels, TT, and Ramberg will be the main contributors off the bench. Yikes. Thats a thin and not very good B1G basketball team.

You may end up right but you are making a lot of assumptions about guys that haven't had a chance to prove what they can and can't do at the college level yet.

If some of those freshman come in and can be productive players this still has a chance to be a solid team. Unlikely to contend for the conference title but also not a slam dunk to be cellar dwellers.

 

[gopherguy15]

Middle of the pack if lucky.

They will have trouble scoring.

Pretty dumb comment. Iowa very rarely struggles to score (under Fran). Now defense, that's an entirely different issue. They were improved last season on the defensive end though, compared to prior seasons.

 

[BarnBurner]

Yeah I don’t think we will be great either, but I don’t think finishing 8-10 in this years BIG requires you to be good. I think this team will be better than last years team and they almost finished 12th in a conference that was way better, but got wore down.
We have disagreements on some of the incoming players and that’s fair. Carrington wasn’t a prolific scorer on his team because he didn’t need to be. He was the best player on one of the two best teams on the state. He’s more than capable of providing what Loewe could offensively, but he’s not where Loewe was defensively. We don’t need Cooper to be a scorer. He really needs to be the 3rd or 4th option. While I do agree that Betts, JOJ and Henley are project, that doesn’t mean they can’t come in and fill a role. Those three really only need to provide 10-15 mins max between the three of them. That will be in a role as the 5th offensive option and will really require not turning the ball over and defending. If more was needed/required, I’d be more skeptical as well.

Just stop.