State of B1G Hoops - with Michael Dinga's HumDingers

3/9/2025

As we come to the end of the regular season, here’s the state of the B1G Conference in this week’s HumDingers:

Heroes And Monsters Group

1.  Michigan St. (17-3 Conference, 26-5 Overall)

2.  Maryland (14-6, 24-7)

3.  Michigan (14-6, 22-9

4.  UCLA (13-7, 22-9)

5.  Wisconsin (13-7, 23-8)

6.  Purdue (13-7, 22-10)

Dusty Springfield Group

7.  Illinois (12-8, 20-11)

8.  Oregon (12-8, 23-8)

9.  Indiana (10-10, 19-12)

10. Ohio St. (9-11, 17-14)

11. Rutgers (8-12, 15-16)

12. Minnesota (7-13, 15-16)

Dean Martin Group

13. Northwestern (7-13, 16-15)

14. USC (7-13, 15-16)

15. Iowa (7-13, 16-15)

16. Nebraska (7-13, 17-14)

17. Penn State (6-14, 16-15)

18. Washington (4-16, 13-18)

With only the top 15 teams making the trip to Indy for the upcoming B1G Conference tourney, the final qualifiers were not determined until the last whistle of Sunday’s Iowa at Nebraska game, where the Hawkeyes’ 83-68 win propels them into the B1G tourney and keeps the Huskers out.  And who told you that was going to be THE determinative game outcome?  Oh yeah, I did last week.

So let’s Spring Forward (see what I did there?) to the upcoming B1G Conference tournament, which sets up the following first round matchups:

13-Northwestern v. 12-Minnesota (winner plays 5-Wisconsin in quarterfinals)

15-Iowa v. 10-Ohio St. (winner plays 7-Illinois in quarterfinals)

14-USC v. 11-Rutgers (winner plays 6-Purdue in quarterfinals)

The remaining quarterfinal pits 9-Indiana v. 8-Oregon.

Meanwhile, we close the book on Nebraska, Penn State and Washington as only Maria and the Von Trapp family could:

🎵 So long, farewell, auf wiederseh’n, adieu! 🎶

Goodbye.

Michael Dinga

3/3/2025

With one week remaining in the regular season, here’s the state of the B1G Conference in this week’s HumDingers:

Heroes And Monsters Group

1.  Michigan St. (15-3 Conference, 24-5 Overall)

2.  Michigan (14-4, 22-7)

3.  Maryland (12-6, 22-7)

4.  Purdue (12-6, 20-9)

5.  Wisconsin (12-6, 22-7)

6.  UCLA (11-7, 20-9)

Dusty Springfield Group

7.  Illinois (11-8, 19-11)

8.  Oregon (10-8, 21-8)

9.  Indiana (9-9, 18-11)

10. Ohio St. (8-10, 16-13)

11. Minnesota (7-11, 15-14)

12. Nebraska (7-11, 17-12)

Dean Martin Group

13. Northwestern (7-11, 16-13)

14. Rutgers (7-11, 14-15)

15. Iowa (6-12, 15-14)

16. USC (6-12, 14-15)

17. Penn State (5-14, 15-15)

18. Washington (4-14, 13-16)

With only the top 15 teams making the upcoming B1G Conference Tournament, let’s focus on the Dean Martin Group—plus the bottom 3 teams in the Dusty Springfield Group—where teams 10-15 get to make the trip to Indy and teams 16-18 get to make the trip to Starbucks one last time before their favorite blended Frappuccino is removed from the menu for good. (Ahem!  No Java Chip?  Really?!)

Looking in reverse order, 18. Washington and 17. Penn State already have been eliminated, so really we’re just talking about a “7 for 6 situation”, with teams 10-16 trying to avoid being the odd team out.  Here’s how the week ahead looks for those teams:

16. USC—2 games remaining (Washington home, UCLA away)

15. Iowa—1 game remaining (Nebraska away)

14. Rutgers—2 games remaining (Purdue away, Minnesota home)

13. Northwestern—2 games remaining (UCLA home, Maryland away)

12. Nebraska—2 games remaining (Ohio St. away, Iowa home)

11. Ohio St.—2 games remaining (Nebraska home, Indiana away)

Me thinks this can all be summarized thusly: get your popcorn ready for Iowa at Nebraska on Sunday, March 9!  That’s right, you read it here first—that game will be THE determinative game as far as who’s in and who’s out.  Trust me, I did the math.  Now ain’t that a kick in the head!

Michael Dinga

2/23/2025

This week’s HumDingers sees the current state of the B1G Conference as follows:

Heroes And Monsters Group:

1.  Michigan St. (13-3 Conference, 22-5 Overall)

2.  Michigan (12-3, 20-6)

3.  Maryland (11-5, 21-6)

4.  Purdue (11-5, 19-8)

5.  Wisconsin (11-5, 21-6)

6.  UCLA (10-6, 19-8)

Dusty Springfield Group:

7.  Illinois (9-8, 17-11)

8.  Oregon (9-8, 20-8)

9.  Nebraska (7-9, 17-10)

10. Ohio St. (7-9, 15-12)

11. Indiana (6-9, 15-11)

12. USC (6-9, 14-12)

Dean Martin Group:

13. Iowa (6-10, 15-12)

14. Minnesota (6-10, 14-13)

15. Rutgers (6-10, 13-14)

16. Northwestern (5-11, 14-13)

17. Penn State (5-12, 15-13)

18. Washington (4-12, 13-14)

And this week’s state of focus is Maryland, where the Terrapins have surged to the upper echelon of the conference on the heels of a 4 game winning streak.  Thanks to a B1G best 8-0 conference record at home (and a 16-1 home record overall), they seemed primed for a possible #4 seed in the Big Dance.  The Terps are lead by a quartet of studs: Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Julien Reese, Rodney Rice, and perhaps the king, Derik Queen, a 6-10 freshman center (yes, those still do exist) from Bal’more who leads the team in scoring (15.9 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg).  Way back in November, Queen also became the first player to post a 20-20 game in his freshman debut since Michael Beasley for Kansas State in 2007.

Fear The Turtle!

Michael Dinga

2/16/2025

This week’s HumDingers start with the following updated B1G Conference standings.

Heroes And Monsters Group:

1.  Michigan (11-2 Conference, 19-5 Overall)

2.  Michigan St. (11-3, 20-5)

3.  Purdue (11-4, 19-7)

4.  Wisconsin (10-4, 20-5)

5.  UCLA (10-5, 19-7)

6.  Maryland (9-5, 19-6)

Dusty Springfield Group:

7.  Illinois (9-7, 17-9)

8.  Ohio St. (7-7, 15-10)

9.  Oregon (6-8, 17-8)

10.  Nebraska (6-8, 16-9)

11.  USC (6-8, 14-11)

12.  Indiana (6-9, 15-11)

Dean Martin Group:

13.  Iowa (5-8, 14-10)

14.  Minnesota (5-9, 13-12)

15.  Rutgers (5-9, 12-13)

16.  Northwestern (4-10, 13-12)

17.  Washington (4-10, 13-12)

18.  Penn State (3-12, 13-13)

Current bracketologists have 10 B1G Conference teams making the tourney, with Purdue garnering the highest seed as a likely #2 and Nebraska potentially squeaking in as a #10. Conference leaders Michigan and Michigan St. are both slotted in as potential #4 seeds.

Let’s stay at the top with the Great Lakes State, shall we?  Since the B1G’s first conference tourney in 1997-1998, Michigan (3) and Michigan St. (6) have won a combined 9 tourney titles. Interestingly (at least to me), when Michigan won the first B1G conference tourney title, Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves was named as the Player Of the Year.  And neither of the other two times Michigan claimed the tourney title did they have a POY (‘16-‘17–Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan, ‘17-‘18–OSU’s Keita Bates-Diop).  No word yet on whether Wolverine supporters are secretly pulling for this year’s likely favorite, Purdue’s Braden Smith, aka Mr. HumDinger.

Michael Dinga

2/9/2025

This week’s HumDingers start with the following updated B1G Conference standings;

Heroes And Monsters Group:

1.  Purdue (11-2 Conference,19-5 Overall)

2.  Michigan State (10-2, 19-4)

3.  Michigan (10-2, 18-5)

4.  Wisconsin (9-4, 19-5)

5.  UCLA (9-4, 18-6)

6.  Maryland (7-5, 17-6)

Dusty Springfield Group:

7.  Illinois (8-6, 16-8)

8.  Ohio State (6-6, 14-9)

9.  Nebraska (5-7, 15-8)

10. USC (5-7, 13-10)

11. Rutgers (5-7, 12-11)

12. Oregon (5-8, 16-8)

Dean Martin Group:

13. Indiana (5-8, 14-10)

14. Iowa (5-8, 13-10)

15. Northwestern (4-9, 13-11)

16. Minnesota (4-9, 12-12)

17. Washington (3-9, 12-11)

18. Penn State (3-10, 13-11)

Interesting (at least to me) note:  A case can certainly be made for “separation anxiety”—of the teams now in the bottom half of the Conference, only 2 schools (Rutgers & Washington) have a current winning streak.  And that’s a 1 game winning streak for each. Meanwhile, life at the top of the Conference is pretty, pretty good—with only 2 schools (Maryland at 1 game & USC at 2 games) sporting a current losing streak.

This week, we take a quick look at the Hoosier State, led by the non-Hoosier Boilermakers. Purdue has charged up to the top of the Conference like a Johnny Cash freight train, with their only in-conference losses coming in their December opener at Penn State and a home loss to Ohio St. in January.  The Black and Gold look primed to nab a top 1 or 2 seed come March.  Nope, no blues there.

The Hoosiers of the Hoosier State, however, have struggled of late.  Losers of 5 straight Conference games, Indiana announced on Friday that Coach Mike Woodson will be stepping down after the end of this season.  With 7 games remaining in the Conference, it’s safe to say that’s about 7 games longer than Woodson thought he’d be coaching if you asked him on Thursday.

2/3/2025

Welcome to State Of The B1G, where each week we will take a bit of an irreverent look at, well, the State Of The B1G Conference in men’s hoops.  This inaugural edition will take a look at the B1G Conference as a whole.  Each successive week will focus on two or three of the 14 states that are now home to teams in the B1G Conference and take a deep-ish dive (as opposed to a deep-dish dive, which I am in no way against) into the respective team or teams that call those states home, focusing on each team’s outlook in the B1G Conference tournament in the near future and the upcoming NCAA Tournament.  With some humor.  Or attempts at humor.  Your call.

As we turn the wall calendar page (yes, I still have one) from January to February, the current state of the 18 team B1G Conference is, yes, crowded.  Eighteen teams means lots and lots of in-conference games on lots and lots of days, and nights, with each team playing 7 opponents at home and 7 opponents on the road, plus a home-and-home series against 3 teams.  Do the math—7 plus 7 plus 3 equals 17–and that means all teams will actually face all other teams at least once in the season, which actually makes a lot of sense!  Got it?  Good.

Looking ahead to the B1G Conference Tournament, apparently 18 teams won’t fit nicely into a bracket, so only the top 15 teams will qualify into the tourney, with the bottom 3 teams left on the outside—sort of like this year’s Leicester City, Ipswich, and Southampton in the English Premier League (but, sadly, without any threat of relegation).  The top 4 seeded teams will earn the always coveted double-byes into the quarterfinals, while seeds 10 through 15 get first round tussles.  This year’s B1G Tournament will be played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in lovely Indianapolis, Indiana.

We can break down the 18 teams into 3 nice groupings of 6 teams—yes, more math!—as follows:

1.  Michigan State (9-1 Conference, 18-3 Overall)

2.  Purdue (8-2, 17-5)

3.  Michigan (8-2, 16-5)

4.  Maryland (7-4, 17-5)

5.  Wisconsin (7-4, 17-5)

6.  UCLA (7-4, 16-5)

Consider those 6 teams as The Heroes And Monsters Group—“locked and loaded” to battle it out for the double-byes and a high seed in the NCAA tourney.

7.  Illinois (7-5, 15-7)

8.  Oregon (5-5, 16-5)

9.  USC (5-5, 13-8)

10. Indiana (5-6, 14-8)

11. Ohio State (5-6,13-9)

12. Iowa (4-6, 13-8)

Consider those 6 squads as The Dusty Springfield Group—“wishing and hoping” for a good late season run that gets them a) into at least a top 9 seed and out of a first round matchup in the B1G tourney and 2) possibly a bid to dance with a Devil (e.g. Blue, Sun).

13. Rutgers (4-7, 11-11)

14. Nebraska (3-7, 13-8)

15. Penn State (3-8, 13-9)

16. Northwestern (3-8, 13-10)

17. Minnesota (3-8, 7-11)

18. Washington (2-8, 11-10)

Consider those 6 teams as The Dean Martin Group—slugging it out over the final 9 or 10 conference games to secure the final 3 seeds for the B1G tourney and avoid eating “a big pizza pie” (notice the deep-dish circle back?) as a team while the first round games tip off on March 12.

And that’s the State Of The B1G for now.