I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Ohio State destroyed Purdue tonight. Then I realized that both Illinois and Purdue faced us before they squared off against OSU. Could we have taken the brunt of their best effort only to set up their awaiting opponent with a "less than perfect" performance? Then I did this research and found that only two Big Ten opponents did NOT face a Top 25 ranked team before OSU.
Indiana.....previous opponent: Penn State
Iowa.....previous opponent: #25 Illinois
Minnesota.....previous opponent: Indiana
Michigan.....previous opponent: #3 Kansas
Penn State.....previous opponent: # 16 Illinois
Iowa.....previous opponent: #25 Minnesota
Illinois.....previous opponent: #18 MSU
Purdue.....previous opponent: #18 MSU
Comparatively, this is what we've been up against. Our wins are in bold.
Minnesota....previous opponent: #24 Wisconsin
Northwestern.....previous opponent: #11 Purdue
Penn State.....previous opponent: #10 Purdue
Wisconsin.....previous opponent: Michigan
Northwestern.....previous opponent: Iowa
Illinois.....previous opponent: #21 Wisconsin
Purdue.....previous opponent: Penn State
So over half of our opponents had tough matchups ahead of ours, but only one of our three toughest opponents had a pre-MSU challenge.
How does the rest of our schedule shake out? About the same. There are some favorable spots, but there are others that get to enjoy cupcakes before us. Currently ranked teams are in bold.
Michigan.....previous opponent: Minnesota
Indiana.....previous opponent: Illinois
Iowa.....previous opponent: Michigan
Wisconsin.....previous opponent: Purdue
Penn State.....previous opponent: Michigan
Ohio State.....previous opponent: Wisconsin
Illinois.....previous opponent: Michigan
Minnesota.....previous opponent: Penn State
Purdue.....previous opponent: Indiana
Iowa.....previous opponent: Illinois
Michigan.....previous opponent: Minnesota
1 comment:
I'm not surprised OSU beat Purdue handily. Destroyed? Yeah. I thought it'd be something like 66-56. But seriously, Purdue had one of those once-in-a-decade games against us, as far as shooting goes. They came back to earth against OSU, plain and simple. Being on the road against a good team, to be expected. It's how college basketball works.
I'm glad you brought up the points about the schedule, because I've been thinking about it a lot, too. I think Izzo made a comment about it earlier in the week also about how OSU has had the most adventageous schedule this year, and how we had it last year.
It's just not our year with the scheduling. The non-conference backfired completely, and we definitely drew the short end of the stick with the Big Ten scheduling.
Thanks for the research; I enjoyed this post.
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