Big Ten Basketball November 13 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

All numbers via Torvik. All predictions not financial advice.

Last Night's Games

Indiana Hoosiers 101, Milwaukee Panthers 70

MaximumSam: Hoosier Hype Train is still rolling.

Kind of...: My worst case scenario for Tucker DeVries was that his handle wasn't good enough, and his lack of speed would make him a liability on defense. He's never going to win DPOY, but I think the worst-case is safely in the rear view. No, add to the mix the fact that there are clearly other scoring options. Yeah, they seem to be ahead of schedule in Bloomington.

BoilerUp89: No let down game in Bloomington. They look like a safe bet to be a tournament team. How high is the ceiling? To be determined in their two games to the Kentuckians.

In no way will i verify this, but IU already has as many 14+ three pointers made games under DeVries as Woodson/Miller combined.

Missouri Tigers 83, Minnesota Golden Gophers 60

Kind of...: Reality finds the Gophers in Columbia, Missouri. You can only raise the floor so quickly. Be patient Kentucky answer.

BoilerUp89: Minnesota did some good things in this game. They outrebounded Mizzou 34-25 and they took care of the basketball with only 11 turnovers. Unfortunately for the Gophers, Mizzou shot 11 of 22 from three and nearly 60% overall from the field.

Oregon Ducks 83, South Dakota State Jackrabbits 69

MaximumSam: Oregon still having a bit of a rough go. The final score looks good but this was a one point game late into the second half. Not sure what is going on with them, though I did learn that sophomore guard Jamari Phillips is serving a three game NCAA suspension for selling shoes. This quote from Dana Altman: "that's still a thing they care about, I guess."

Kind of...: Altman with the perfect mixture insouciance and weary dismissiveness. Jackson Shelstad gave Oregon 22 pts, 8 asts, 3 stls, and 0 turnovers. Pretty safe to say he's important to their future. Altman gets the benefit of the doubt but, yeah, at this point, Oregon is a very questionable 3-0.

Today's Big Ten Games

#193 San Jose Spartans (0-2) at #23 Michigan State Spartans (17, 2-0)

6:30 ET, BTN

Kind of...: Intra-Spartan warfare!

BoilerUp89: Old friend Tim Miles comes to town.

#6 Purdue Boilermaker (2, 2-0) at #19 Alabama Crimson Tide (8, 2-0)

7 ET, ESPN2

Kind of...: Here we go! I don't think Purdue is afraid of Alabama's pace, but I don't think it's their comfort zone, either. Fortunately, a good PG can greatly dictate tempo. Beyond Smith, questions linger: Will TKR play? (Yes.) Will he be rusty? Even if not, will he get carved up on defense? Are we overlooking Alabama's questionable defense? (I'm not. I just mentioned it!) I'm not saying Purdue has been holding back, but #narrative is heavily in Alabama's direction, and/but that can change really quickly. I like the Boilers.

MaximumSam: Battle of the points Labaron Philon has been Bammer's best player, and Braden Smith is certainly a known quantity. TKR will apparently play, which is great because I would feel bad if Daniel Jacobsen had to run up and down the whole game. Torvik goes Bama, 85-82.

Also, did Boiler rate Alabama's schedule? They play 8 games against Top 100 teams and 5 in the top 12. Now that's giving your fans their money's worth.

BoilerUp89: TKR is going to play but the injury seems to still be an issue so we will see how it affects him. Last season Alabama came into Mackey and Purdue played their best basketball of the season to narrowly defeat them. This year its a road game for the Boilers who are still figuring some things out. Purdue can win but I'm not expecting them to.

Regarding Alabama's schedule. Despite the SEC slate only having 18 conference games, this is probably still an A given the high amount of top 15 teams and general good quality buy games. There's still four teams outside of the top 100 (same as Michigan and Purdue) but UNLV and Kennesaw State aren't awful. I would grade the SEC and ACC on a curve because they all have 1 less conference road game than the Big East or Big Ten and as we all know even the dregs of a conference can be tough outs on the road.

Thursday's Non-Big Ten Games of Interest

#75 Pittsburgh Panthers at #55 West Virginia Mountaineers, 6 ET, FS1
#86 California Golden Bears at #83 Kansas State Wildcats, 9 ET, CBSSN
#120 Loyola Chicago Ramblers at #113 Wichita State Shockers, 7:30 ET, ESPN+

Kind of...: As a huge connoisseur of MVC hoops, I regret to inform you that the conference might be ass this year. Only two teams--UNI and Belmont--are without a loss, and some of the losses--Robert Morris (Drake, home), Tennessee-Martin (Bradley, home, last night)--are of the decidedly not good variety. In the grand scheme of things, the champ is still probably talking a 13-seed at worst, but this is definitely not a two-bid league, and nobody is close to '25 Drake, '24 Drake, '24 Indiana State, '23 Drake (or even a Bradley team or two over the last three years). On the plus side, the conference race seems wide open. For example, Drake is 8th out of 11 in KenPom's rankings, with 1) a new coach and 2) almost entirely new roster, and the top 8 range from 101-139 in KenPom. Fun to be had! Arch Madness should be especially desperate!!

BoilerUp89: Agreed that the MVC is already in auto bid or bust territory. I don't like it but that's what it is.