Moron the Big 18

In my Big 10/18 preview I didn’t quite get to 2 things. 1) Big 10 tournament predictions, and 2) all-conference. So here goes.

Big 10 Tournament

Of course the tournament is a long, long way off, and they haven’t even said what the format will be other than it will be a 15-team tournament. Just 3 teams will miss out, and I had Iowa, Rutgers and Penn State as the misser outers.

A word about Rutgers. I note that the national rankings are out. They weren’t out when I ranked the Big 18. And, of course, there are some surprises (to me), some discrepancies between my rankings and theirs. But none so great as Rutgers. The AP has them #25 nationally and #4 among Big 18 teams. I have them at #17 out of 18. Well, Rutgers returns almost nobody, and their in-transfers are coming from Merimack, Eastern Michigan, San Diego and Princeton. So far, nothing to see. But their freshman class is #1 in the country with #2-rated Ace Bailey and #4 Dylan Harper plus another 4-star and another Top 100. If Bailey and Harper are world-beaters, well, so be it. But until they’ve proven themselves Rutgers just doesn’t impress me.

First Round

#15 Minnesota beats #10 Wisconsin

#11 Maryland beats #14 Washington

You gotta love this matchup #12 Michigan State vs. #13 Michigan. Michigan wins.

Second Round

#5 Purdue def. #13 Michigan

#11 Maryland def. #6 Oregon

#7 Illinois def. #15 Minnesota

#8 USC def. #9 Northwestern

Quarter-Finals

#1 UCLA def. #8 USC

#2 Indiana def. #7 Illinois

#3 Ohio State def. #11 Maryland

#5 Purdue def. #4 Nebraska

Semis

#1 UCLA def. #5 Purdue

#2 Indiana def. #3 Ohio State

Finals

#2 Indiana def. #1 UCLA

 

NCAA Tournament Bids

Who knows how deep the NCAA will go into the new Big 10/18.  I don’t think 9 of the old Big 10 plus UCLA, USC and Oregon all getting there is out of the question.

#1–Indiana

#2–UCLA

#3–Purdue

#4–Ohio State and Illinois

#5–USC

#6–Oregon

#8–Nebraska

#9–Maryland and Michigan

#10–Michigan State

#12–Wisconsin

 

All-Conference

Center–Vladislav Goldin, Michigan 7-1 Sr 16 ppg last year (at Florida Atlantic)

Center–Oumar Ballo, Indiana 7-0 Sr 14 (Arizona)

Center–Owen Freeman, Iowa 6-10 Soph 11

Power Forward–Dawson Garcia, Minnesota 6-11 Sr 18

Power Forward–Malik Raneau, Indiana 6-9 Jr 15

Power Forward–Payton Sandefort, Iowa 6-8 Sr 16

Small Forward–Desmond Claude, USC 6-6 Sr 17 (Xavier)

Small Forward–Tre White, Illinois 6-7 Jr 12 (Louisville)

Small Forward–Ace Bailey, Rutgers 6-8 Fr

Point Guard–Bruce Thornton, Ohio State 6-2 Jr 16

Point Guard–Dylan Andrews, UCLA 6-2 Jr. 13

Point Guard–Braden Smith, Purdue 6-2 Jr 12

Shooting Guard–Brice Williams, Nebraska 6-7 Sr 13

Shooting Guard–Kobe Johnson, UCLA 6-6 Sr 11 (USC)

Shooting Guard–Roddy Gayle, Michigan 6-5 Jr 13 (Ohio State)

 

 

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