Big Ten Basketball: November 6 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

Indiana is back!

Tonight, nobody wants to tangle with Thursday Night Football so just a single Big Ten game for you sickos.

All numbers via Torvik. All predictions not financial advice.

Last Night's Games

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 81, Rider Broncs 53

MaximumSam: I said in our preview that the Knights might have something in Tariq Francis. One game in, against terrible competition, I will declare myself correct as he started and led the Knights with 20 points.

Indiana Hoosiers 98, Alabama A&M Bulldogs 51

MaximumSam: The Hoosiers won by 47, had five guys in double figures, and made 10 threes. They are ready to hang a banner.

Kind of...: Me, a close watcher of MVC hoops, is going to view Iowa and Indiana in tandem this year. For both, the very early returns are good. DeVries isn't the X-and-O tactician that McCollum is, but he is quickly proving that he is capable of taking an assortment of players and putting them in position to score.

BoilerUp89: Zero mid range jump shots were attempted by IU, a sign that DeVries has an eye of taking efficient shots. The level of competition was awful, so I'm not going to read into the results but the approach is a good step in the right direction.

Tonight's Big Ten Games

#319 Denver Pioneers (0-1) at #46 Washington Huskies (1-0)

10 ET, BTN, SPREAD WASH -27.5, O/U 154.5

MaximumSam: Preview of Washington is here. Denver is on a Northwest Coast swing as they already lost to Seattle. They are led by first year coach Tim Bergstraser, who is from Minnesota and previously coached Minnesota State-Moorhead. That's about as strong a B1G tie in as I could find.

Kind of...: I could've sworn Denver was better than a sub 300 team. Actually, I thought there were better than sub 200. Checked KenPom and they were...10-15 years ago when Joe Scott was making Tony Bennett look like Paul Westhead (just go with it). Time just gets away from us.

BoilerUp89: I'll be honest that surprised me too, but you can also get rapid changes in the 150-350 group in a few years. Denver kept things respectable against Seattle losing by 11 primarily because of 18 turnovers to the Redhawks 12. If they can limit their turnovers better they appear to be a decent shooting and rebounding team and might be able to keep this competitive.

Non-Big Ten Games of Interest

Illinois State Redbirds at Ohio Bobcats, 7 ET, ESPN+
Cal State Northridge Matadors at Northern Iowa Panthers, 8 ET, ESPN+
Dakota State Trojans at South Dakota State Jackrabbits, 8 ET, Not Televised