MartintheMopMan

Decision whether he travels will be made today. He still hasn't been practicing, but that is not necessarily determinative. 

That is indeed the last time.

Why is it Star Wars night?

Thanks. Ken Pom and the CBS app didn't list it so I quit.

Maybe they just pop open Ken Pom and look for the highest thrill score for the day.   UK @ A&M is on top, then OK at WVU, then us, then Duke v. Louisville.   Man, there are a lot of great games on Saturday. I probably will miss them all.

Don't you... forget about bumping me once I'm open.

OK, have to remember to make a new post in here to bring this to the top on game day.

It may be too early for this thread, but it's never too early to POTFB.    Do we really not have a network yet?   Prediction League:   https://btownbanners.com/topic/9241-prediction-league-game-28-week-15-iu-vs-purdue-022016/#entry243726   Pick'ems:   https://btownbanners.com/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=12&wid=175   The too-early numbers:   [attachment=3409:3.PNG]   This post will close at 1930 EST on 2/20.

If we want to have any shot at a piece of that radical rock, we better handle our business at home against Nebraska. Nebraska is decent this year. Not good, not bad, but, meh, decent.   Prediction League:   https://btownbanners.com/topic/9240-prediction-league-game-27-week-15-iu-vs-nebraska-021716/#entry243725   Pick'ems:   https://btownbanners.com/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=12&wid=174   The numbers:   [attachment=3407:1.PNG]   [attachment=3408:2.PNG]   This topic will close at 1930 EST on 2/17.

The loss to Stanford was entirely expected too, it's like us losing @Wisco. The numbers may not expect it, but all the fans do.   Altman is Oregon's Crean, they just don't know it because they don't have a proud enough tradition to get upset about their current predicament. He cannot field a defense and relies on teams with strong offenses to carry both sides of the court. It's pretty PAC-12 footballesque really.   And like Crean, he has his weird exception year, where he had a top defense and lost in the Sweet Sixteen (same year actually), but for the most part he's a mediocre defensive coach who fails to make necessary adjustments ultimately costing his teams. Eventually, Oregon will decide they've been almost there long enough and try and find a coaching upgrade. How does Brad Stevens feel about the west coast?

Eye test is definitely important. I'll miss Friday's game too, but since so many people here are watching it, I'll just pay attention to their analysis.     Doesn't narrow it down at all for Oregon games, I watch them all through streaming sites so it's always the same. Maybe I'll find an older game and check them out though.

I trust you have a better assessment than I do, I have not watched a single minute of Valpo.   Actually, I think I watched the end of the Oregon game, but can't mentally separate it from Oregon's other games.   I was just noting the purpose of the adjustments is to see how a team fares against an "average" opponent and remove the bias of a weak conference. So, when talking about adjusted stats, saying we don't know how they would fare against other opponents is technically true, but precisely what those stats are designed to overcome.   They have only lost once when they held their opponent to fewer than 1 point per possession (Saturday).   In interviews, Ken has acknowledged his system is less accurate in the bottom half of the league than the top, so some of Valpos numbers actually could be assisted by the difficultly of calculating the expected score of conference opponent "Illinois Chicago".   I guess we will get at least 1 tourney game to see how they fare.

I agree, though as a point of order, the adjusted efficiency numbers are relative numbers.  That is, Ken Pom's system believes when playing an average D1 basketball team, Valpo will hold them to .902 points per possession.   According to the system, they lack significantly in offense.

Arguably, in Valpo, Illinois and Indiana are both in-state.   Though, the other players do undermine this point.

Shoot, I didn't even think about the fact it wouldn't show up in recent posts. If I use it again I'll make sure to find a way around that.

Greeks - 69 The financial crisis of 2008 - 74 Anyone ever notice the hiring of Crean roughly coincided with the second worst financial disaster in America?

  I sure hope it's not 1-19. That would cause me to frown.

Oh man, this is disheartening. Who knows the series record for Indiana @ MSU since the 1991-1992 season?

You know, I'd convinced myself the decline of announcers in modern times was a myth or a trope, overblown because now we're better at complaining and stuff.   But, man, I've been watching a ton of old football lately and they're just SO much better. They tried to teach you the game instead of just getting you through it.   Noticed the same thing watching old basketball games too. It's a huge bummer. I guess I was too young to notice the change before going back and really paying attention.

And they were playing well without him. Subbing TB in would be pretty similar to any of the general substitution complaints about Crean. When something is working and no one wants a rest, then don't touch it until you have to, I thought it was great move and it paid off in the end.

Definitely agree. And I mean, KenPom has us with less than 1 in 4 shot at winning this one and I can't argue with the numbers too much. Tom Crean has never won @MSU as an underdog (and only once otherwise in 2012-13).   I think we have a shot this year and I'm certainly not picking against the Hoosiers, but this is a game we could realistically lose and I would not have to take a break from basketball for a couple of days.   That said, I want us to come in confident and hot and shove the ball down their throats.

Wear it under other clothes and take them off when you "get too warm".   Wait, did they only restrict you from wearing "cream and crimson"? What were the exact words?

What's interesting about MSU's schedule, is even if they aren't actually playing any better for this last 6 game stretch, they are very unlikely to lose more than 1, if even. We are the best team they face, they have 4 home games, and the away games are @OSU and @Rutgers. Losing to us is the only good loss available, the rest (maybe @OSU) would be pretty inexcusable.   They'll have 6 conference losses at the most I'd say. Depending on how the rest of the Big Ten shakes out, that is good enough for 5th seed in the Big Ten Tourney at the lowest, probably 4th seed ahead of Purdue if they tie in their record.

Maybe their players could use their eyes poked. See how it feels.

Just to put the numbers in perspective though, since I do totally agree our bench stepped up and kicked some tailfeathers...   We're a much deeper team than Iowa. Our starters played 69% of the game while theirs played 84.5% of the game. So, their bench should have been around 15% of their stats and ours outperformed the starters when they were over 31% of a stat.   If you compare usage rate1 then it's even more staggering, just Max and Z3 combine for 34%, yet we could not have won without Morgan and Niego's contributions and they played too few minutes to even get a rating.   Baer and Uhl combined for 14%   _________________________________   1. Usage rate -  The basic idea is to look at a player's combination of field goal attempts, free throw attempts and turnovers, and find the percentage of the team totals he uses in those same categories