Louisville and Maryland away from home do not look so fierce....
December 10th, 2019 at 7:48 PM ^
Maryland didn't look all that great at home against Illinois, either. I suspect Mark Turgeon is once again getting less from more this season.
December 10th, 2019 at 8:29 PM ^
Turgeoning
December 10th, 2019 at 8:37 PM ^
You mean a team over the course of a long season isn’t going to play it’s best every single minute of every game?!?!?
Texas Tech and Penn St are both Top 30 KenPom teams. It’s hard to win on the road and it’s hard to win conference games. Trying to extrapolate how good a team is during one half of one game is pretty shortsighted, like most of interwebs sports talk I guess.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:37 PM ^
Illinois, on the other hand, is not a top-30 KenPom team; Maryland's game against them was at home; they were thoroughly underwhelming; and, they won the game because Illinois completely choked it away down the stretch. (Texas Tech has nothing to do with Maryland, which was the subject of my comment).
So, you have a coach who has a history of having very talented teams who always seem to be less than the sum of their parts, a rather unimpressive résumé -- they blew out Marquette, but so did Wisconsin -- and a pattern reminiscent of past failures.
But, you're right. My critique is pretty shortsighted, like "most of interwebs sports talk." You know, like people who use an ad hominem attack to rebut a comment without considering it.
December 10th, 2019 at 10:25 PM ^
On mobile, the reply was meant more for the OP...didn't realize I was replying to your post specifically.
I don't disagree with you, though Illinois is not a bad team either. That being said, I still think Maryland will be there competing for the B1G regular season title within the last couple weeks of the year.
Ad hominem attacks and shortsided overreaction are what message boards are all about though...
December 10th, 2019 at 9:38 PM ^
No I am pretty sure J is basing his opinion on Maryland consistently playing down to its opponent in Turgeon’s entire tenure including most of the games this year.
Edit: What J said above.
December 10th, 2019 at 7:49 PM ^
Not sold on Maryland yet being a Top 3 team. Waiting for Ohio to meet a top team on the road but they are looking surprisingly tough.
December 10th, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^
They pantsed UNC at UNC. Granted this doesn't look like a vintage UNC team.
December 10th, 2019 at 7:58 PM ^
I hate Louisville as much as anyone, but I think I would prefer they continue to be a "good loss" for Michigan at least until the point where we can jump them in the rankings
December 10th, 2019 at 7:59 PM ^
Louisville now only down 3 but Maryland down 10 at the half
December 10th, 2019 at 7:59 PM ^
Louisville isn't even on a true road game... but closed the gap to 3 at half, so not holding my breath for them to lose this one.
PSU / Maryland will be an interesting 2nd half...
December 10th, 2019 at 8:12 PM ^
Yeah, 10 out of 12 to start the season and one of those is on a neutral court. Nice schedule!
December 10th, 2019 at 8:09 PM ^
Penn State definitely a tourney team this year...looking good tonight
Love the alley-oop off the glass layup!
December 10th, 2019 at 8:12 PM ^
i wouldn't even be interested in this "observation" as a text message from a personal friend. "jimmy," i'd say to my friend, jimmy, "maybe wait until half time to say something that might make you look stupid."
December 10th, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
Or it can be used as the night's hoops "open thread". Crazy right?
December 10th, 2019 at 8:23 PM ^
Most teams don’t look fierce on the road.
Us included.
December 10th, 2019 at 8:34 PM ^
Maryland has had an issue showing up in the 1st half regardless of where they play. Certainly not a good trend, but they’ve been winning these games, and they’re best has looked as good as anyone in the country.
December 10th, 2019 at 8:34 PM ^
Refs in the penn state Maryland are screwing Maryland so hard right now.
December 11th, 2019 at 9:38 AM ^
So I came to the board because I saw on the ESPN bottom that the line was PSU -2 before tipoff. I had never seen that noted on TV like that before. On the face it seems odd that an undefeated top 5 team would be an underdog, but the result validated the linesmakers.
On the other hand...between the ESPN call out, your comment, PA being one of the states where betting is legal, and the fact that Tim Donaghy is from Philly, my mind is going to a certain place..
December 10th, 2019 at 8:42 PM ^
I'm hoping this won't be said about our basketball team... the one game on the road (and not neutral court) we got throttled.
Its hard to win on road, as Chris Webber said, the refs are definitely slanted to the home team.
December 10th, 2019 at 8:57 PM ^
When I'm away from home I always look fierce. Around the house I just bum around in my Michigan sweatpants because, fuck it, I'm home. So I guess it's the opposite with me.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:10 PM ^
PSU matches-up well vs. Maryland. Tonight is the 4th straight time PSU has beat Maryland at Bryce Jordan Center. Even the games in Maryland have been close.
The line on this game, when I looked this afternoon, was Maryland -1. So arguably not even an upset.
PSU hoops, being what it is, is a solid bet to dorf their home game against 4-4 Alabama on Saturday. I won't believe they are an NCAA team until I actually see it.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
The Terps Tumble !!!
December 10th, 2019 at 9:13 PM ^
Followed closely by Louisville. An ass kicking by the Red Raiders.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:18 PM ^
If we beat Illinois and Oregon we should be ranked number one next week, but we wont because Kansas has beaten absolutely nobody and is somehow number 2.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:43 PM ^
Unless OSU loses, you can't reasonably say that Michigan should be ranked ahead of them. Unfortunately, they look like the real deal.
I'd give you Kansas, whose best accompaniments to date are "getting ranked highly in the preseason poll" and "barely losing to the same Duke team that lost to Stephen F. Austin." (Although, it should be pointed out, it wasn't literally Stephen F. Austin. I suspect even Duke could win a game 5 on 1 against a guy who's been dead for, uh, 183 years :).
December 10th, 2019 at 9:56 PM ^
Look who Michigan will have beaten vs Ohio St so far. I'm not bagging on Ohio St, I think it's a close call who is actually better, but Michigan's wins (this includes a win against Oregon) are better despite the lone loss. I'd at least say Michigan being number one is reasonable.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:42 PM ^
Looks like all the early departures to the NBA is creating lots of parity this year. Should make for a fun March.
December 10th, 2019 at 9:43 PM ^
Winning on the road in college basketball is hard.
Maryland hasn’t looked like anything special, but they’re still good, and very talented.
Ohio State has looked really strong. When you can pair a go-to talent on offense like Wesson with what looks to be an elite defense, you’re going to win a lot of games.
December 11th, 2019 at 8:36 AM ^
Welp...tonight we find out how good michigan looks on the road!