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Welcome to the week that was in OTE. Usually I have a game or two to chat about before I get into the links, but with the B1G Tournament starting tomorrow, it's been a bit quiet on the Western front (you know, because I'm on the Western front of... oh nevermind). Still, there was some good work done this week on OTE and I would be remiss to not hit on a little bit of everything. Thanks again, as always, for writing posts, commenting, and reading. We may not be nearly as interesting as black or white smoke coming from the Vatican, but we sure as hell have more fun.
The World According to the People:
So Who is the Top B1G MBB Squad This Year? by talonk
Great question, especially because this was before Zeller won it for Indiana on Sunday. Even seeing the entire year's body of work, can any one team claim to be significantly better than another? I have watched a lot of loaded leagues over the years (the Big East comes to mind) but nothing really matches the intensity that I witnessed this season. So much firepower, so many close games, so much terrible officiating. Basically, it was pretty much the best thing. While this is Indiana's title to lose for the time being, one can at least argue for a lot of people.
B10 Wrestling Championship This Weekend by br27
This is less of an article that needs to be commented on and more of an ode to br27 for doing the work this weekend on keeping updates on OTE. I love that we're starting to see some more Non-Rev love. Like I said a few weeks ago, I really am working with Hilary (and by working on, I mean we've e-mailed a few times) to come up with a format and corner of the site for these things. With baseball coming up and this whole new world of sand volleyball, I'm really excited to work on this.
A Deeper Look at Over and Under Rated Big Ten Teams by br27
I'm glad someone is taking on the project of looking at where teams may rank. I had done some cursory thoughts on the whole thing, but this is a much more thoughtful approach and leads to a little bit more telling results. Also, the whole Indiana ERROR: NO DATA FOUND thing needs to become a meme somehow. We really should shame them for not even showing up on this table once.
The World According to the Staffers
A B1G Spring Primer - Jesse
Again, really weird summarizing your own summations, but whatever. This was less of an editorial and more of an information dump, but it does have some thoughts going into spring and it does have all the dates of both the spring games (sans Iowa who does a Spring Guided Practice thing... that date is still there). While I have really enjoyed covering basketball, I do look forward to jumping back into football.
The OTE Big Ten Awards - Graham
So the more I'm reading through this week, the more I'm realizing we were a comments driven week. Here were the first, second, and third team awards from our staff along with some other *ahem* awards that we came up with. But really, the reason you come for these articles is to argue over who should be where. This year's teams weren't really all that controversial, but CoY, Game of the Year, flop of the year, etc., really should be discussed. Feel free to continue commenting thusly.
Crean: Knight 2.0 - Graham
Oh Tom. You just had to chase down an assistant and look like an ass. Oh well, it gave Graham the opportunity to compare Tom Crean to Bobby Knight, which was awesome. Personally, I don't think the comparison is fair. Coaches are notoriously competitive, a little socially inept, and probably borderline sociopathic (in that they literally don't care about somebody's emotions). So when something triggers Crean 'in the heat of the battle' like what potentially happened on Sunday, he snaps with very little thought. In a normal non-twitter world, this is brushed off after a while. Lucky for us, we can talk about it for days and make wild generalizations about his character. Crean made a mistake, but people do that. Especially in the weird world of sports where we think people should act one way, but the system is wired another.
The Search for a Big Ten Champion - apy5000
This is a great preview of the BTT. I look forward to when Nebraska is good enough to hope for more than a one and done exit from the tournament. Sure, I'll root for them to do more, but I would be hard pressed to travel to Chicago at this point. Read this for the previews, and comment away. I'm already predicting at least one reference to Matt Painter in the comments... You know, because he gets name dropped in every basketball article we do!!!
Context Free Quotes From B10@10 - Mike
- And why doesn't the Big Ten hand out awards for flopping? Or coaches who are the most dickish? Or most egregious use of the term "athlete" when you have a fat guy at center?
- No one can dispute he's a great defensive talent with exceptional acting skills (and rosy cheeks) but is he better than Payne or Hardaway?
- Regardless, simmer down, Tom.
- Unless Nike brings serious cash, the Huskers need to stay with Adidas. Because everyone loves ugly uniforms!
That's all she wrote peeps. Don't forget to vote for the best of OTE for this week. Last week's winner was Jim Bollman is a Hot Commodity by Boiler Bandsman garnering 33% of the votes. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!