Ugliest game of the year?

[hoyarooter]

Penn State traveled to Illinois and beat the Illini 38-33.

That's not a halftime score.

Penn State shot 28% and won. Illinois shot 30%, and didn't shoot a free throw!

This game had to have set college basketball back 100 years.

Big 10 basketball, it's fannnntastic!

[jgalt]

when i saw the score on the espn homepage i though that something had happened and the game ended early. That is a pretty remarkable score especially coming from what is supposed to be a top 20 school (ill)

[Coast2CoastHoya]

Ummmm....is it wrong that it makes me feel better about some of our games?

[vcjack]

I saw this title and thought someone was bitching about the USF game and I was going to come in yelling "What Editeding rock have you been living under"

But then I actually read it.


hahahahaha suck it Illanoy

[sleepyjackson21]

There wasn't a double digit scorer in the game until the final 2 seconds. Illinois got hit with an intentional foul and Battle of Penn State got to the line and hit two and thus crossed over into double digits.

[SirSaxa]

Did they suspend the :35 clock or something?

[hifigator]

That game has been the butt of many a joke down here today -- even to the point of removing any and all criticism of the SEC. Until the SEC serves up a worse contest, then any criticisms must go in the direction of the Big 10 ... but then again, what do you expect from a "Big 10" conference that has 11 teams?

[hoyarooter]

Feb 19, 2009 11:45:54 GMT -5 hifigator said:

That game has been the butt of many a joke down here today -- even to the point of removing any and all criticism of the SEC. Until the SEC serves up a worse contest, then any criticisms must go in the direction of the Big 10 ... but then again, what do you expect from a "Big 10" conference that has 11 teams?

I hate to disillusion you, but the SEC is still worse than the Big 10. ;D

[hifigator]

I don't think so Rooter.

Actually, for all of the talk of the weak SEC, the conference resume' is pretty decent.

Tennessee beat Marquette and Georgetown.
Kentucky beat Mich. St.
Florida beat Washington and NC State.
Arkansas beat Texas and Oklahoma
LSU routed Baylor

Those are just off the top of my head. The problem is that the SEC played some really crappy teams, and also have a handful of bad losses. I think Kentucky lost to VMI or something. Arkansas can't beat anyone in the conference. It is just a strange season.

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2009 16:00:55 GMT -5 hifigator said:

I don't think so Rooter.

Actually, for all of the talk of the weak SEC, the conference resume' is pretty decent.

Tennessee beat Marquette and Georgetown.

Too bad Georgetown's lousy.

[TBird41]

Feb 19, 2009 16:00:55 GMT -5 hifigator said:

I don't think so Rooter.

Actually, for all of the talk of the weak SEC, the conference resume' is pretty decent.

Tennessee beat Marquette and Georgetown.
Kentucky beat Mich. St.
Florida beat Washington and NC State.
Arkansas beat Texas and Oklahoma
LSU routed Baylor

Those are just off the top of my head. The problem is that the SEC played some really crappy teams, and also have a handful of bad losses. I think Kentucky lost to VMI or something. Arkansas can't beat anyone in the conference. It is just a strange season.

That's cute. The SEC has 7 wins against possible tournament teams (NC State doesn't count as a good win). They also have no teams in the top 30 in KenPom's rankings. The Big East has 7, the ACC has 5, the Big 12 has 4, the Big 10 has 4, the PAC 10 has 4, the Mountain West has 3 and CUSA, the A10 and WCC all have 1.

kenpom.com/rate.php

The SEC is a joke of a conference this year in a way that no other major conference is.

[hifigator]

Feb 19, 2009 16:31:15 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

Feb 19, 2009 16:00:55 GMT -5 hifigator said:

I don't think so Rooter.

Actually, for all of the talk of the weak SEC, the conference resume' is pretty decent.

Tennessee beat Marquette and Georgetown.
Kentucky beat Mich. St.
Florida beat Washington and NC State.
Arkansas beat Texas and Oklahoma
LSU routed Baylor

Those are just off the top of my head. The problem is that the SEC played some really crappy teams, and also have a handful of bad losses. I think Kentucky lost to VMI or something. Arkansas can't beat anyone in the conference. It is just a strange season.

That's cute. The SEC has 7 wins against possible tournament teams (NC State doesn't count as a good win). They also have no teams in the top 30 in KenPom's rankings. The Big East has 7, the ACC has 5, the Big 12 has 4, the Big 10 has 4, the PAC 10 has 4, the Mountain West has 3 and CUSA, the A10 and WCC all have 1.

kenpom.com/rate.php

The SEC is a joke of a conference this year in a way that no other major conference is.

You're missing my point. I'm not saying the SEC is great or anything. My point is that all year, but especially at the beginning of the year, everyone questioned the SEC and pointed to the fact that there weren't any quality out of conference wins. Now that the season is playing out, some of the "marquee" wins, like Tennessee over Georgetown doesn't look quite as impressive. But similarly, Tennessee's win over Marquette along with Florida's win over Washington -- originally a mere afterthought to the loss to Syracuse -- look much better. And what the heck about Arkansas? THey beat Texas and Oklahoma with ten days but can't beat anyone IN the SEC. They are friggin 1-9 in conference!

I don't think the SEC is anything that special, but it isn't the pile of crapola that some originally thought. There are just a bunch of mediocre or just above average teams. It's the kind of league where we could have 4 teams in the Sweet 16 or none, but we're highly unlikely to have any beyond that.

In any case, I am NOT impressed whatsoever with the Big 10. Even Michigan St. isn't an impressive team. I still stand by the SEC being better top to bottom than the Big 10 though.

[hoyarooter]

hifi, you're just an SEC apologist. Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota and Illinois (well, perhaps not Illinois after that pile of crapola they dumped on the world last night) are better than any teams in the SEC other than perhaps Tennessee, which on a good day is capable of beating nearly anybody. The SEC is just mired in mediocrity this year. True, the better teams aren't terrible - they just aren't very good. If the SEC gets four teams in the Sweet 16 this year, I'll fly to Florida and kiss your feet.*

*hyperbole

[hifigator]

Feb 19, 2009 21:26:32 GMT -5 hoyarooter said:

hifi, you're just an SEC apologist. Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota and Illinois (well, perhaps not Illinois after that pile of crapola they dumped on the world last night) are better than any teams in the SEC other than perhaps Tennessee, which on a good day is capable of beating nearly anybody. The SEC is just mired in mediocrity this year. True, the better teams aren't terrible - they just aren't very good. If the SEC gets four teams in the Sweet 16 this year, I'll fly to Florida and kiss your feet.*

*hyperbole

Honestly, we're not very far apart on this one. What the SEC doesn't have is an elite team -- one of the UNC/Duke, UCONN/Pitt level for sure. But what they do have is 7 or so teams that are dangerous. In all honesty, I think the Gators are barely on that list. We haven't and generally don't lose at home, but haven't been able to accomplish anything other than moral victories on the road, aside from the win over Washington when no one really paid much attention.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the SEC is a good conference this year. I think that depth is fine and everything, but if you are trying to claim any kind of conference superiority or recognition, you must be competitive at the top, or else the rest doesn't really matter. That being said, the same characteristic that makes the BE so damn tough this year is also a strength of the SEC, just in a different way. In LSU, Miss. St, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida, you have solid, competitive teams that wouldn't totally shock anyone with most any victory. Again, look at Arkansas. They beat Texas and Oklahoma -- the only team to do so this year, I think -- and yet they are 1-9 in conference. There aren't any significant injuries or suspensions that played into that. In scientific terms, I guess it would be an outlier.

Still, the scatter-brained quality that the SEC has shown this year is somewhat intriguing. You just can't tell much from any game, or even group of games. Giving it a little more thought, that is somewhat true Nationally as well. The Marquette team that Tennessee beat early in the year, certainly wasn't the January team. But the February Marquette team wasn't either. The Hoya team that Tennessee beat was a very good team, though not as good as the GU team that won at UCONN. The Kentucky team that lost at home to the likes of Miami and VMI, isn't the same team as the one that beat Mich. St. The Arkansas team .... well, that's explicitly obvious. The Gator team that lost won at Vandy by 25 wasnt't the one that lost at Georgia. And so on.

I know it's true in all conferences, but I don't think I have ever seen it this muddled ... at least in the SEC.

[hifigator]

Sorry, I didn't finish the thought.

Tying it together, I am not trying to be an SEC apologist at all. Like I said, I don't think any conference can or should expect any praise and recognition if it isn't competitive at least a little bit at the very top. But my comments were really directed towards the criticisms that I have heard all year about how down the conference is as a whole. While there aren't any teams among the top 15 or 20 -- since consistency is a must at this point of the season -- there are a lot of teams in the 20 to 60 range. Is that tons different than a season when, to pull an example from thin air ... Kentucky is 13-3 in conference and among the top 8 or so, while an Alabama or LSU is 11-5 and also among the Nation's top 20, but the fifth best team is an Ole Miss team that is 8-8 in conference and maybe around #60 Nationally? I don't know. I guess that is my long answer.