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 B10 Bloggers Basketball Power Poll: Week 4 |
 Wednesday, January 23, 2008 |
Another week, and another Penn State loss, this time to the Purdue Boilermakers and Iowa Hawkeyes:
Officials: Ted Hillary, JD Collins, Lamar Simpson
Technical fouls: Purdue-None. Penn State-None.
Attendance: 6287
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Purdue........................ 39 25 - 64
Penn State.................... 18 24 - 42
And the worse part? The losses no longer phase me. You could have easily said the Penn State's fencing team lost their match to the Boilermakers and that would have raised a couple more eyebrows. But thats not all, with football done for a while and only basketball available, this is becoming a tough stretch for a Penn State blogger.
But it could be worse, yet ANOTHER USC violation, this time with OJ Mayo and the basketball program. Is the NCAA in recess or something this time of year? First, Reggie Bush CLEARLY violated NCAA regulations and he can be solely attributed to several USC victories during their championship season, then now OJ Mayo?
But before we move on to the ranting, its time for week 4's Big Ten Basketball Power Poll.
| Team | Record (Conference) | Alpha (last week) | Explanation | | 1 | Michigan State | 18-2 (6-1) | NC (1) | Michigan State remains in the poll position over undefeated Indiana only because they have managed not to lose even to their rival Michigan even if the Wolverines would struggle beating a high school squad right now. | | 2 | Indiana | 17-2 (6-0) | NC (2) | The top 3 remains unchanged. But Indiana's home loss to a not so great Big East team at home as well puts them at #2. | | 3 | Wisconsin | 16-3 (6-1) | NC (3) | Their loss to the Boilermakers are nothing to get all worked up about. The Boilermakers are good, they're young, but good. To have to struggle against the Wolverines however, may cause a few sweat beads down Badger fans' foreheads, but if Bo Ryan can continue to grind out wins, they will be dancing come March. | | 4 | Purdue | 15-5 (6-1) | NC (4) | Purdue has done it again with an "not-so-upset" win over the Badgers. Almost everyone called that upset, so is it really an upset? Sort of like everyone knew LSU would trounce the Buckeyes, but because they are ranked #2, was it really an upset? | | 5 | Ohio State | 13-6 (5-2) | NC (5) | Ohio State picked up 2 key wins this week against Illinois and Minnesota. In this league, a win means absolutely everything when upsets happen like its their business. Considering the Big Ten may be a 4 bid team this year for the Big Dance, Ohio State might be fighting Purdue for the last spot on the gravy train. | | 6 | Iowa | 9-10 (2-4) | +3 (9) | The biggest mover was Iowa in Week 4. Though they really only beat Penn State (#8) which is not that great a feat any longer, they just seem to be between decent and horribly bad which are the only two all Big Ten teams fall into this season. | | 7 | Minnesota | 12-6 (2-4) | -1 (6) | The Gophers drop below Iowa not because of their 16 point loss at Ohio State, but because Iowa managed to actually win a game while the Gophers only played once this week. They will have ample time to move back up the Power Poll. | | 8 | Penn State | 10-9 (2-5) | -1 (7) | Last week I fumed at the people leaping off the Penn State bandwagon and this week I have sore ribs from doing the exact same thing. This team is clearly not a a decent team or even a competitor with the loss of Claxton. They have not lost by single digits since the loss of their senior leader and things can get only worse from here with Ohio State headed to the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State is offering a 'Target 10' campaign. If they can get 10,000 students for the Ohio State ESPN game, they will donate all the ticket earnings from the Michigan State game to THON. Its a worthy cause, but I fear with the way the Nitts are playing, they will have trouble getting 10,000 people to watch the game. | | 9 | Illinois | 10-11 (2-6) | -1 (8) | The Illini managed to pick up a win this week. The bad news is, its against Northwestern so it means absolutely nothing. | | 10 | Michigan | 5-15 (1-7) | NC (10) | Losses against Wisconsin and Michigan State is nothing to be ashamed of in the Big Ten. Problem is, they have wins against nobody so yes, the Wolverines are ashamed. | | 11 | Northwestern | 6-11 (0-7) | NC (11) | Once again, horribly pathetic. But I fear the Nittany Lions are about to compete for this very spot. | |
posted by Nittany White Out @ 6:32 PM  |
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