Couple of things...

- 3 of the top 6 Big Ten teams are participating, and 6 of the top 9. So, ok, Michigan State isn't involved. But Maryland, Ohio State and Wisconsin are. Plus Iowa and Purdue.

- at least 5 BE-B1G games are typically played every year separate from the Gavitts.
These are in addition to the Gavitts:
- Seton Hall-Rutgers.
- DePaul-Northwestern.
- Marquette-Wisconsin.
- Creighton-Nebraska.
- Butler-Indiana or Butler-Purdue (Crossroads).

So we get a minimum of 13 head to head games between the Big East and Big Ten every year at a minimum. Sometimes more, like last year when Providence met Michigan State in the Wooden in Anaheim. 13 or 14 or 15 games h2h must be the most between any 2 conferences, right?

sorry but you are an idiot if you think that Minnesota is a top 9 team in the Big Ten. or Northwestern.

I like the matchups, but I am just very suspicious of the Creighton/Xavier against Wisconsin situation. Creighton was told they would not be participating this year, and Xavier was told they were. I have no doubt that Wisconsin wanted no part of a Xavier rematch and pulled strings to get that changed. Just shady IMO, but it's part of the business - and I get that.

(04-15-2016 10:33 AM)stever20 Wrote:  sorry but you are an idiot if you think that Minnesota is a top 9 team in the Big Ten. or Northwestern.

Stever, what is the point of saying that I'm an idiot? WTF?

Last year's Big Ten standings, Northwestern finished in 9th of 14.

Whether you look at last year's standings, or whether you look at the buzz generated by the school (what i wrote at the HLoH), the top 9 Big Ten schools will participate this year.

You're gonna do that thing where you fvcking have an opinion, and you're gonna fvckin ride that opinion to the end, no matter what. And you're going to call anyone who disagrees with your opinion an idiot.

So, yeah, the Gavitts won't feature Villanova vs Michigan State. So, big freakin deal. No Big East fan is heartbroken about it.

And you had Northwestern as 12 in your ratings. And Minnesota 9th. So you obviously thought that Minnesota was a top 9 program in the conference. Some ******* buzz there.....

It's a solid thing for the Big East. It really is. It's not the home run that you and others want to make it out to be. It's interesting that the bottom Big East teams have participated both years.

and what is hysterical is some Big East fans are actually saying that Michigan St is ducking Villanova. When Michigan St is playing in the Champions Classic on Tuesday, while Villanova is playing in Charleston starting on Thursday. That's not ducking, that's logistical problem.

And Xavier fans bitching about not being in it- saying they had 4 dates available. Only problem is those dates weren't in the Tuesday-Friday period that the actual challenge was.

(04-15-2016 11:10 AM)stever20 Wrote:  and what is hysterical is some Big East fans are actually saying that Michigan St is ducking Villanova. When Michigan St is playing in the Champions Classic on Tuesday, while Villanova is playing in Charleston starting on Thursday. That's not ducking, that's logistical problem.

And Xavier fans bitching about not being in it- saying they had 4 dates available. Only problem is those dates weren't in the Tuesday-Friday period that the actual challenge was.

The ducking thing I said as a joke, although it is true that MSU is not playing the National Champions next year.

the thing I'm going to be interested to see is who sits out next year for the Big East. After next year only 5 years left- and so you would expect all 10 teams to sit out once more. So there would be 6 teams after next year that have sat out once and will sit out a 2nd time. Right now that group is Butler, Seton Hall, Xavier, and Marquette.

it's a good challenge. It's not on the same level as the ACC/Big Ten or even SEC/Big 12(where there are 10 games instead of 8). Hopefully when it's redone- it will go to 10 games in the challenge vs 8 it is now.

Michigan St is something else with their schedule.....

champions classic
then easy team at home with battle 4 atlantis
then battle 4 atlantis
then acc/big ten challenge

(04-15-2016 10:30 AM)billyjack Wrote:  13 or 14 or 15 games h2h must be the most between any 2 conferences, right?

Um, the ACC and Big Ten say hi. 14 games JUST in their challenge. last year ACC/Big Ten played 24 games- 5 more than Big East/Big Ten.

the outlier is the Pac 12...
number of games vs F5 and BE...
P12 33
ACC 70
BE 55
B12 49
B10 61
SEC 67

(04-15-2016 11:40 AM)stever20 Wrote:  Michigan St is something else with their schedule.....

champions classic
then easy team at home with battle 4 atlantis
then battle 4 atlantis
then acc/big ten challenge

Oh, and they are playing Arizona in Hawaii. And Champions Classic is with Kentucky. So pretty much any one who is calling out Michigan St is a moron.

(04-15-2016 10:34 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  I like the matchups, but I am just very suspicious of the Creighton/Xavier against Wisconsin situation. Creighton was told they would not be participating this year, and Xavier was told they were. I have no doubt that Wisconsin wanted no part of a Xavier rematch and pulled strings to get that changed. Just shady IMO, but it's part of the business - and I get that.

Why would Wisconsin shy away from a Xavier rematch?

ETA-Michigan State. Izzo usually schedules a very tough nonconference slate. They don't back down from anybody. You have to admire him for that.

The dates have been set for the games

Date Matchup Time TV
Nov. 15 Maryland @ Georgetown TBD FS1
Nov. 15 Wisconsin @ Creighton TBD FS1
Nov. 15 Villanova @ Purdue TBD ESPN/BTN (ESPN 24 hours of hoops?)
Nov. 16 Northwestern @ Butler TBD FS1
Nov. 16 Seton Hall @ Iowa TBD ESPN/BTN
Nov. 17 Providence @ Ohio State TBD ESPN/BTN
Nov. 17 Rutgers @ DePaul TBD FS1
Nov. 18 St. John's @ Minnesota TBD ESPN/BTN

Michigan State just renewed their spot in the Champions Classic so that pretty much means they won't play in the Gavitt Games until 2020.

(08-24-2016 03:15 PM)Rube Dali Wrote:  Michigan State just renewed their spot in the Champions Classic so that pretty much means they won't play in the Gavitt Games until 2020.

they have to appear 4 times in the next 6 years. It's called a contract. They can still play in the Champions Classic on Tuesday and then play a Big East team on Friday.

I really don't think the Big East would let them out of it.

All of the Big Ten home games in this series will be on BTN. No games on any ESPN channels.

https://twitter.com/wildjays/status/768466463128596480

Quote:Patrick Marshall
‏@wildjays

BTN is also airing all Big 10 home games that are part of the Gavitt Games-Villanova/Purdue, Providence/Ohio St., Seton/Hall/Iowa, SJU/Minn.

8:14 AM - 24 Aug 2016

I'm disappointed that Marquette was one of two Big East schools left off the docket this year (along with Xavier). I love the scheduling agreement and am hopeful for more intriguing match-ups in future years. The first two seasons' match-ups have, thus far, been pretty underwhelming, IMO.

well for Marquette- they hadn't missed yet- and with next year Nova being in the Puerto Rico tourney- that knocks Nova out- so gets down to 3 pretty soon. The others who haven't missed yet- St John's, DePaul, and Georgetown.

As far as the matchups- I don't think we're ever going to see a real great slate of games. Only half the Big Ten participates and so of the top 7 or 8- we'd at the most see 4 of those teams ever in the same year.