There's been lots of good news for Badger fans lately, culminating in the announcement that UW will get a home game against Duke in the Big Ten/ACC challenge next year. Incoming Freshman Ethan Happ won the MVP of his summer international tournament, although the competition wasn't as high as some of the more high profile international tourneys. Still, better that he won the MVP than was just another guy on the bench. Kaminsky and Dekker both decided to come back to the Badgers while other teams have lost players to the NBA and transfers. Neither guy looked like a likely first round pick so it's probably for the best they came back. Both guys should have professional careers beyond UW. Maybe they don't ever make it to the NBA, but they should get a crack at the D league and certainly can have a career overseas if they want to. It certainly seems possible they could become rotational NBA guys, especially Dekker.
Here are my quick next year predictions to rival the T-rank. I put no value in these since it's just too early, unless of course I am right, then I will gloat and compare the T-rank predictions to that of a monkey.
UW 14-4
OSU 13-5
MSU 12-6
MI 10-8
IL 10-8
Iowa 9-9
Nebraska 9-9
Minn 9-9
Purdue7-11
IU 7-11
PSU 5-13
Northwestern 4-14
I have done no research on Maryland or Rutgers, so I'll omit them until fall when I update this.
Bo Ryan has brought me so much joy that I am instituting a new blog rule. All badger basketball related posts will now have to be ended with:
I love Bo Ryan
Here is the latest and greatest T-Rank projection, with all the latest transfer/going pro data and some exciting new features (such as momentum!)
ReplyDeleteWisconsin 14
Michigan St.13
Michigan 12
Ohio St. 12
Illinois 11
Minnesota 10
Maryland 9
Iowa 9
Nebraska 9
Indiana 8
Purdue 6
Penn St. 6
Rutgers 4
Northwestern 3
One thing to note about the T-Rank is that it is very high on Michigan St. -- currently projecting them 6th in the country, which seems high. Basically, it likes Branden Dawson, and the fact that so many guys got minutes becuase of the injuries last year helps. But mainly MSU's "program score" -- which is the base that the other variables work off of -- is very high (number 2 in the country, trailing only Louisville, which has finished #1 in Kenpom each of the last two years). MSU has had a top 10 Kenpom finish three straight years now.
You might notice that Nebraska added 3 wins compared to the initial projection. They are the main beneficiary of the new "momentum" variable. I'm pretty excited about this. Indiana also dropped a win based partly on negative momentum.
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