RaceToTheTop

@Uspshoosier If you go to the NCAA NET rankings, there is a separate column for 'WAB' but it gives a record. For instance, IU's WAB on the NCAA NET site is 9-0. Maryland's, though is 9-1. Any idea what those mean? It seems to be different than the WAB that is put on the team sheets. I did read up on the WAB calculation that the NCAA uses (not the wins/losses one which I have no clue about) and it is EXACTLY what I was doing with my WAR rating. For instance, if a team played another and the expectation was that the last at large bid team in the tournament would win that game 30% of the time then winning the game would net the team a WAB of +0.70 while a loss would net them a -0.30. The only difference would be in how they calculate those percentages and how I did.

I believe the Big Ten is now 4-1 head-to-head against the SEC in postseason this year. Ohio State (7-2 in the Big Ten) 45, Tennessee (6-2 in the SEC) 17 Missouri (5-3 in the SEC) 27, Iowa (6-3 in the Big Ten) 24 USC (4-5 in the Big Ten) 35, Texas A&M (5-3 in the SEC) 31 Michigan (5-4 in the Big Ten) 19, Alabama (5-3 in the SEC) 13 Illinois (6-3 in the Big Ten) 21, South Carolina (5-3 in the SEC) 17

Yep, rewatching the latest kerfuffle I know what Bielema was complaining about. There was no reason for South Carolina to have forty guys huddled up on the field near the injured Illini player.

I think I know what Bielema was 'taunting about'. He was going across the field to check on his injured player and while doing so in the break in the action, basically the whole South Carolina team was out in the field with Beemer addressing them. Bielema was upset with that and having to walk around South Carolina to get to his player so he was giving a repeated signal to South Carolina the signal the refs give for injured players.

Bret Bielema and Shane Beemer getting into it. Bielema taunted Beemer and then Beemer pulled a fake tough guy routine.

Illinois up 7-3 on South Carolina at half.

high tide

Bama goes down. Jalen Milroe's stock had to take a real hit today.

79.7% Michigan on ESPN going into the two-minute warning.

Going to come down if they keep pressure on Milroe.

Michigan with three straight gut runs. Ugh. Alabama will get the ball back with a little more than two minutes left and two time outs

19-13 Michigan, five minutes remaining. Michigan set to receive the kickoff.

Michigan up 9, 7:21 left

Would be sweet for Michigan to beat Alabama and Illinois to beat South Carolina later.

Big stop for Michigan. Take over on their own 34 up 6, 12:38 left.

Michigan would be pretty good if they had ANY type of quarterback.

Bailed out by undisciplined Alabama -- Alabama coach runs over female ref on the sidelines after the sack and multiple Alabama players run on to the field as well over a freaking sack int he third quarter. Sideline interference, Alabama penalty.

Pretty much every song on the Cheap Trick Live at Budoken would qualify. I'm not even a big Cheap Trick fan but they really captured the concert experience on that album. But I'll go with Take Hold of the Flame by Queensryche from their Japan tour. Not sure how Geoff Tate hit that note at 1:14.

I don’t know what rumor you heard about Ballo but Woody said his coaches would get together to ‘talk about the Ballo situation’ so it likely wasn’t an injury thing.

Further investigation -- Found his Twitter page. He transferred to Don Bosco for the 23-24 season for his senior season, so it looks like he was not a post grad transfer. First D1 offer was in January of 2024 from Incarnate Word (please no Tim Priller jokes, LOL). Received an offer from the University of Detroit in March of 2024 and then Central Michigan in April of 2024. Don't know the case, but I am guessing he wanted to hold out for better offers and decided to come back to Bosco as a post grad for another year to see what he could get. Looks like he visited Wisconsin in November of this year but does not look like he has an offer at this point.

Looking at their current roster, the two players I see there who are local (Camden Webster and Jaelyn Johnson) both graduated high school in the spring of 2024 and academics were not an issue. Looking at others I see that were local, they also were high school graduates that went there. So I can't speak for all players there, but it seems like a way for kids to take more college prep classes while concentrating mainly on basketball. I would say the classes are secondary to their purpose -- but of the players that I know that went there from the area, academics was not the issue to begin with. Kid I know very well took was a straight A student that I had in calculus and physics. Found this in their Twitter bio: Bosco Institute is a high school / post grad program designed to help young men continue their development&enhance their opportunity to play college basketball.

Don't know much about him but do know the Don Bosco school in Hammond. They've done a decent job at getting kids that weren't getting much in terms of offers out of high school to programs. Basically it's a place where high school graduates can go, mostly concentrate on basketball for a year (their classes are online) and play against some better competition and get noticed. They did take a kid who went to the high school I taught at who was getting marginal D2/D3 offers and ended up getting a scholarship to Evansville (coaching change there before he ever got on campus and he ended up playing at Delaware, so still D1). That said, they don't typically get kids to P5 levels. I found a couple they had in recent years, but they were cup of coffee guys (Tracy Ramsey who played at Maryland as a scholarship player but only appeared in five games before transferring) and Patrick Suemnick who was in West Virginia's rotation last year and is in Oklahoma State's rotation this year). I believe the two most successful players to come through Don Bosco Hammond are Nick Boyd and Kobe Knox. Boyd is a senior at San Diego State, played three years at FAU under Dusty May (in their rotation all three years, averaged 9+ points his junior year and scored 12 points in the final four loss to San Diego State as a sophomore). Currently averaging 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists at San Diego State and put up 23 against Gonzaga. Knox is at South Florida where he is a junior averaging in double figures.

I know it's not going to happen, but I wish the efficiency part of rankings would just go away. If a team is winning a lot of close games against inferior competition once the teams get through conference it should show. Based on the above NET for Maryland and Indiana it would seem that IU could go 12-8 in conference and still be behind Maryland if they went 8-12. Wins, losses, and who you won and lost to should be all that matters in my book. Guess its why I'm not on the committee. FWIW, Torvik runs a WAB ranking (wins above bubble). Based just on wins/losses and who you played. A positive win above bubble indicates that you are above the minimum number of wins necessary to make the tournament. IU is ranked 62 -- very similar to their net -- but Maryland is at 51. The WAB top 25 looks pretty good IMO: Auburn 11-1 Oregon 12-1 Alabama 11-2 Tennessee 12-0 Marquette 11-2 Memphis 10-3 Oklahoma 13-0 Florida 13-0 Duke 10-2 Mississippi State 11-1 Utah State 12-1 Iowa State 10-1 Texas A&M 11-2 Drake 12-0 Kansas 9-2 Kentucky 10-2 Arizona State 9-2 UCLA 11-2 Georgia 12-1 Pittsburgh 10-2 Purdue 9-4 Wisconsin 10-3 Michigan State 11-2 Nebraska 10-2 U Conn 10-3

I saw him play on tv (can’t remember against who). Good athlete and defender but that was as far as it goes. If I remember correctly the offer came from McLeod on a visit — Crean didn’t know about it until Williams posted it and accepted. There was no official ‘IU pulls the scholarship’ but it quietly went away as did McLeod at the end of the season.

My problem is that it’s based on what he did against Winthrop. I’m glad he’s an option at least.