Hi everybody, and welcome to the Skull Session.
I'm a bit new around these parts. There's no way anyone could fill Elika's shoes in this position as Friday Skull Session writer; she's one of those people who can only be imitated, never duplicated. If I can do this a tenth as well as her, it'll be a job well done.
In this year's Big Ten, there's been an odd combination of skilled, exciting basketball and stereotypical boredomfests. Michigan State/Wisconsin promised to be an ugly game and it indeed disappointed. In a game less competitive than the 58-43 final score, Michigan State forced 14 turnovers and held Wisconsin to an ice cold 29% shooting.
With the Michigan State win, there are now four teams in contention for the Big Ten title, including Ohio State. If Michigan can beat Indiana and everyone else wins out it'll be a four-way tie, and if Michigan loses then Indiana wins the conference title outright.
As for Big Ten tournament seeding, there are many possibilities. Ohio State can end up anywhere from 2nd to 5th, but here's the simplifier: beat Illinois and Ohio State is locked into the 2 seed.
For the NCAA tournament OSU is getting a bit more respect since beating Indiana, rating as a 4 seed at CBS and at ESPN. Compare that to the best predictive ratings, though: 9th on KenPom, 9th on LRMC, and 5th in Sagarin. This team may be a bit underseeded for March Madness; the next 10 days can change that.
MORE PATRIOTIC THAN THE PATRIOT LEAGUE. The conference formerly known as the Big East will now be known as America 12, on account of not wanting to deal with all the baggage of the Big East and more importantly, selling off the rights to the name to the Catholic 7.
America 12 probably would have been better served by calling itself the Metro Conference, considering some of its members' history with that conference (Memphis, Cincinnati, South Florida, Tulane) and the name recognition of the Metro Conference.
Nevertheless, congratulations on finding a conference name even more abstract than Leaders or Legends. By becoming a Noun Number conference, America 12 is in good company with Pepsi One, Maroon Five, and Forever 21. Perhaps America 12 will evolve into a mall chain store someday?
BOWL ALLIANCE REPEAT. Meanwhile, in conferences that actually make money, a suggested ACC/Big 12/Big Ten/SEC alliance has been in the works for football:
League officials have discussed a multisite, rotational bowl partnership of the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and ACC to maximize matchups over six years, according to two sources with knowledge of those discussions.
The Music City Bowl in Nashville, Belk Bowl in Charlotte and Alamo Bowl in San Antonio are among the sites being mentioned. Under the plan, one conference would appear annually and at least two other conferences would play in a rotation. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 would be logical annual hosts for those three respective bowls. The Big Ten's direct involvement is still uncertain, but one source said they've been mentioned as a potential fourth tie-in.
If there's a fourth bowl game in play for this rotation from which the Big Ten currently plays, the Gator Bowl would be a good choice. Jim Delany has indicated that the Big Ten has too many Florida bowl games and wants that to change, and under this system it can go to other teams while Big Ten teams play elsewhere. Alternatively, the Pinstripe Bowl is an intriguing startup. Getting other conferences to agree to send good teams there may be easier said than done, though.
The odd thing about this is the exclusion of the Pac-12, an indisputable power conference. Jim Delany, having expressed dissatisfaction with having redundant Florida bowl games in spite of their lucrative payouts, could offer the Gator Bowl in exchange for the Holiday Bowl. Trading a bowl tie with the Pac-12 through this agreement would be one way to improve on that with more certainty, but with no Pac-12 in this multilateral agreement there's no way to do that.
Opposing fans: Booooooo FOOTBAWWW. Football is evergreen in Ohio, and with the new spring football media guide plenty of evergreens are going to get shredded. Of a plethora of notes from the spring football notebook, the linebacker corps seems to have gotten the most attention.
Camren Williams is up to 232 pounds, Josh Perry is still figuring out the playbook, Ryan Shazier is Ryan Shazier, and Curtis Grant is showing lots of progress after a couple years under the radar. Especially encouraging is his attitude toward football. After going home to Virginia following the Michigan game, Grant reached a decision about what he wanted to do in football:
You man up or get out,” Grant said. “I manned up.”
A confidence-building quote, for sure.
HATING AARON CRAFT. Aaron Craft is near and dear to many people's hearts (#swoon), but believe it or not there are some people who don't adore him.
Some think Craft's defense has been highly overrated; some think he's dirty, or even the dirtiest player in the Big Ten; a select few hint at him being overpraised for being a "rosey-cheeked white guy."
In this week's ESPN The Magazine, Wayne Drehs writes an article on why opposing fans hate Aaron Craft so much, and comes to a different conclusion: that some fans have antipathy toward Craft because of some kind of racial bias. He identifies a few other former "glue guys" like Bobby Hurley and Chris Kramer and Dane Fife who inspired the same kind of antipathy and were immensely successful in their college careers. In the words of these former players, what makes those guys so frustrating, hated, targeted on the road in arenas?
"The easiest one to hate on," says Kramer, the former Boilermaker, describing this rare species. "You're not scoring points. You're not grabbing rebounds or getting many assists. You're the target. You're easy to pick on."
"We're boxy figures," adds Fife, who set the Hoosiers career steals record in 2002. "We don't walk athletic. We don't look athletic. And then the game starts and we are in your face, taking the ball from you. We're doing whatever we can to beat you. And for some fans and players, they don't know how to handle it."
It's probable that there are multiple aspects of this kind of revulsion: backlash against players seen as overhyped for scrappiness, ignorance to the valuable things players do on the court that don't stand out visually, bias, or other kinds of subconscious perceptions. In Craft's case, maybe playing for Ohio State is the tipping point. I'd like to think other fans are mad because he's beating them and because he's super good.
Be advised that this is a topic to treat with sensitivity.
LOS LINKS. The new college football rules... SimCity's release is a disaster... Dickie V isn't much of a Duke homer?... Kirk Ferentz and potential nepotism... Bigggggg Mike arrested in Iowa... Processed meat is worth the health risks to me... Breaking Bad, but 7th Heaven-y... You sure did, buddy!... You sure are, buddy!... Weird Al shreds... Dawwww.
