Big Ten Basketball 2024-2025 Season

Spartacus1987

Well-known member
We can keep this as a discussion for all things Big Ten basketball for this upcoming season.

Right now I’m watching Rutgers play a very athletic and deep St John’s team.

Rutgers has the two freshman that are great players but not a lot of size inside or much else besides them for scoring.
 
 
Not sure the league has a final four team in it like last year with Purdue, but should be another good season for the Big ten. I'm partial in Indiana, and as much as I hate NIL and the transfer portal, it benefits a program with deep roots (and pockets). Incredibly, even though IU hasn't made much of a splash nationally for years, they've been able to get guys drafted. First round picks just in the last several years include one and dones Romeo Langford, Jalen Hood Schifino, all everything Trayce Jackson-Davis and last year Kel'el Ware. Jackson-Davis starts for the Warriors and Ware looks like he's going to be in the rotation for the Heat. Hood-Schfino and Langford went way too early and should had stated at IU. Anyway, IU traveled to Tennesse and played the Volunteers in a charity game over the weekend.
Major contributors back from last year includ Malik Reneau, Mackenzie Mbako and Trey Galloway. Transfers Myles Rice, Oumar Ballo and Luke Goode expect to make major impacts. Indiana basketball is one of those programs that was a national program and still has a big following, but Mike Woodson really needs to get the program to the upper part of the conference and a long tournament run soon or the fans will turn on him.
 
As of now, I have no idea what to expect in terms of who can win this league.

I looked at rosters and there are a lot of new names on every team. As for returning players that I recognize as good, Indiana and Purdue seem to have the most, and Purdue has the usual 7'4" freshman center, but I have no idea if he is any good. So those 2 seem like best choices today, but I have no idea. Time will tell. I will have a better idea in late December.
 
As of now, I have no idea what to expect in terms of who can win this league.

I looked at rosters and there are a lot of new names on every team. As for returning players that I recognize as good, Indiana and Purdue seem to have the most, and Purdue has the usual 7'4" freshman center, but I have no idea if he is any good. So those 2 seem like best choices today, but I have no idea. Time will tell. I will have a better idea in late December.

Painter keeps playing the same game. He can't adjust. Hard to argue against a guy that just played in the NC but fact of the matter, he never adjusts. He never developed Edey past the basics, never moved him to the perimeter and now Edey is struggling. None of his centers has succeeded at the NBA. He's a match-up away from losing to just about anyone.

He has chance to build a more guard, motion game with the talent in house. But he'll build a low post centered in concrete game instead of a high key game.
 
Painter keeps playing the same game. He can't adjust. Hard to argue against a guy that just played in the NC but fact of the matter, he never adjusts. He never developed Edey past the basics, never moved him to the perimeter and now Edey is struggling. None of his centers has succeeded at the NBA. He's a match-up away from losing to just about anyone.

He has chance to build a more guard, motion game with the talent in house. But he'll build a low post centered in concrete game instead of a high key game.
Edey is avg 11 and 6 in 19 minutes. Hardly struggling
 
Edey is avg 11 and 6 in 19 minutes. Hardly struggling
Lol, after I posted, he put up a monster game against the nets. Might be more of a Nets problem than a Zak success. Beffore then,
he had more fouls than points. I hope they find a way to use him as he develops. 11ppg would be a great stat. Reducing those fouls is priority #1 though.
 
He reminds me a bit of Lamar Jackson in his pro recruitment. The guy was so dominant but not prototypical in college so he tanked in the draft. Sometimes you just have to realize if someone is incredibly dominant in college they’ll do just fine at the next level
Slowly the Grizzles are encouraging him to develop parts of a game that Painter never would. And if he had, would have made Connecticut's job a whole lot more difficult. Edey is nowhere close to creating his own shot outside but hell, there's only four guys maybe in the whole NBA tall enough to keep him from taking his set shot from outside three.

Where is his potential? Filipkowski did more than hold his own against the new wonder of the ages. Edey ate Filipkowski's best, twice. Fouled out four 7 footers in one game, one of those Filipkowski.

The kid has amazing hand - eye. That's his biggest strength I feel. He sees the pass before it's coming and he catches in shot motion. Did at Purdue and is now. He rarely fumbles a pass. Having Bradan Smith for a PG two years really helped him prepare him for catching passes from NBA talent. His feet are still a bit clumsy for NBA play. When outside the post, his hands are always out for the ball or he's running the one or two drill sets he had in college. He was always a learner though. He's faster and quicker than credited. He covers a LOT of ground before most large defenders can react and he's unselfish. He has no problems passing the ball out to a player in a better spot. He fun to watch when he puts the ball on the court because it reminds people of their first day playing basketball, lol. Yeah, handles he doesn't have.

I watched the first game at Purdue where he drained a three. The place blew up. Edey had the biggest smile. Same will happen in the NBA if he ever successfully executes a crossover. :D
 
Painter keeps playing the same game. He can't adjust. Hard to argue against a guy that just played in the NC but fact of the matter, he never adjusts. He never developed Edey past the basics, never moved him to the perimeter and now Edey is struggling. None of his centers has succeeded at the NBA. He's a match-up away from losing to just about anyone.

He has chance to build a more guard, motion game with the talent in house. But he'll build a low post centered in concrete game instead of a high key game.
What??? Edey was only the national player of the year last year and dominated the paint for the last two seasons.
And just so you know, Matt Painter's job is to win basketball games in college, not develop players for the next level.
 
What??? Edey was only the national player of the year last year and dominated the paint for the last two seasons.
And just so you know, Matt Painter's job is to win basketball games in college, not develop players for the next level.

That's absurd. His job is the same as any other educator's on campus. But I think you missed the actual point of the post.

Can you imagine a scenario in which a two time national player of the year didn't get drafted until.....?

That's because regardless Edey's natural abilities and effort, his whole court skills were not developed or utilized. He was kept in the post. Cost him millions of dollars leaving to the NBA to do what Painter should have and could have done without risking losing those games that mattered. This also stilted the develop of the forwards who became essentially window dressing as the guards and Edey passed the ball back and forth.

BTW: how's your guys doing? I've not paid much attention other than Edey and occasionally Ivey.
 
Last edited:
That's absurd. His job is the same as any other educator's on campus. But I think you missed the actual point of the post.

Can you imagine a scenario in which a two time national player of the year didn't get drafted until.....?

That's because regardless Edey's natural abilities and effort, his whole court skills were not developed or utilized. He was kept in the post. Cost him millions of dollars leaving to the NBA to do what Painter should have and could have done without risking losing those games that mattered. This also stilted the develop of the forwards who became essentially window dressing as the guards and Edey passed the ball back and forth.

BTW: how's your guys doing? I've not paid much attention other than Edey and occasionally Ivey.
No, no no....You do realize that guys who are "working" on their next level skills hurt the team? The NBA game is completely different, that's why he was not drafted high. Believe it or not the ultimate goal of many college teams is to win, not get 15% or less of their players ready for pro ball.
 
I haven't decided if he's lost weight or just surrounded by bigger guys now.

The year's Boilers have a lot of newer parts. Players most likely to have moved up in playing time seem to have gotten supplanted. Covlin, probably as athletic as Ivey but in comes Big Dog's boy who didn't get the height gene and is playing combo. Two former Mr Basketball centers (which at Purdue translates to forward, lol) but in come the Ohio kid from Sycamore, they decided not to redshirt. Edey's heir apparent apparently too short at 7'3" so the 7'4" Fr from Chicago is starting. Too frail IMO, he should redshirt. Got hurt nearly first play against a real center.

Painter openly states he hates players doing all the practices and not getting game time. With Smith and Loyer keeping their time even in blow-out, the rest of the time gets spread thin. I doubt we keep Colvin (who did get decent time) and Heidy (who didn't), the most athletic parts of the team. They both could easily find a high P5 needing their skills.
 
Wake was picked to finish third in the ACC behind Duke and UNC. Meatchicken?
Ok? They weren’t ranked and the ACC must suck this season if that’s the case. What have they done in their history? Looking it up and there’s no comparison between the history of Michigan basketball and Wake Forest. None at all.
 
Ok? They weren’t ranked and the ACC must suck this season if that’s the case. What have they done in their history? Looking it up and there’s no comparison between the history of Michigan basketball and Wake Forest. None at all.
Does program history impact the current year teams' performance? Nah.

I don't know anything about Wake this year but they are at least in the "Receiving votes" section for AP and Coaches polls. Michigan was obviously horrible last year and had a nice portal year (Roddy Gayle and the Walters kid from Bama), but any expectations for improvement are based on Dusty May.

I'm going to reserve judgement on this being a "terrible loss". We will know more in early January.
 
I do? You called me a Michigan fan in the past when I cheered for them to win the CFP. So what’s the truth here? You’re being inconsistent
Last year when TCUN was winning in football yeah you were slobbering over Harbaugh now you have jumped off the bandwagon at least temporarily. Like OS, F TTUN hope they lose every game.
 
Last edited:
Last year when TCUN was winning in football yeah you were slobbering over Harbaugh now you have jumped off the bandwagon at least temporarily. Like OS, F TTUN hope they lose every game.
I’ve been very consistent in who I cheer for and why. It is you and your criticism of me and why that’s inconsistent. You proved it right here
 
Top