Comments on: 2009-2010 schedule: Five toughest opponents

By: GFDave

GFDave — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:57:30 +0000

If you're talking about opponents, then yes, Alex has put up a pretty good list. But most posters seem to be thinking about the difficulty of the game, which brings location into play as well as the quality of the opposition. The home games with Maryland, Kentucky and MSU are winnable because of our great crowd support. Maryland is not overly talented, Kentucky will be young and inexperienced and we traditionally give MSU a tough time at home.

So I think the toughest games we will play this year are all on the road and include the Pitt game as well as B10 road contests at Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin. I also include the Michigan and OSU road games as a tie in difficulty, given that their home crowds are about equally lame (UM folks don't care that much about bball and the OSU group seems to be more about wine and cheese than hoops.)

By: Diesel

Diesel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:51:30 +0000

I don't care who we are playing, how highly ranked the opponent might be and how low our ranking might be, if we are playing at home it is a winnable game. It's Assembly Hall. It's Indiana.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:10:46 +0000

Good point. I'll make the fix.

By: dylanb02

dylanb02 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:09:16 +0000

It's Crisler Arena!

By: tomcreansdietcoke

tomcreansdietcoke — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:27:50 +0000

hahaha! i love it, kelin.

I agree with everyone that this game is very winnable, especially with UK relying on so much freshman talent. Yes, Patterson will be our biggest problem, but certainly one of our 6 players at 6'8'' or taller can match up with him. I'd like to see Elston guard this kid..

Also, I just don't see a team with so many young, highly-ranked NBA hopefuls doing great b/c all of them will want to stand out. I don't know these kids, so I'm not sure.. but my guess is there will be a lack of team oriented basketball at UK

By: GFDave

GFDave — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:57:30 +0000

By: Diesel

Diesel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:51:30 +0000

I don't care who we are playing, how highly ranked the opponent might be and how low our ranking might be, if we are playing at home it is a winnable game. It's Assembly Hall. It's Indiana.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:10:46 +0000

Good point. I'll make the fix.

By: dylanb02

dylanb02 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:09:16 +0000

It's Crisler Arena!

By: tomcreansdietcoke

tomcreansdietcoke — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:27:50 +0000

By: MemphisHoosier

MemphisHoosier — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:03:02 +0000

I agree with you totally here Kelin. Except I think we'll give Mich State a little more than they want. Not saying we'll win but Izzo will have to sweat a little before getting that W. we gave them all they wanted last year at the Hall.
Also i do think we can beat Kentucky. I think that team will take a while to become a team. Too many guys used to scoring 25-30 a game. I think we'll be a more solid team early in the season and since we get them pretty early I think we can steal this one and if we end up around the 18 win mark it might push us into the NCAA (thats an optimistic outlook I know but hey who cares)

By: Kelin Blab

Kelin Blab — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:25:44 +0000

But we have Tijan Jobe……

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:51:07 +0000

I'm not sure I buy into the hype that Kentucky is a Final Four team, but given that both squads are going to be leaving heavily on underclassmen, you have to give the edge to UK, simply because they have Patrick Patterson.

By: StuHoo

StuHoo — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:58:40 +0000

Good for you Kelin; you are absolutely right. We may or may not beat Ky, but it is an absolutely 'winnable' game. Guys like Elston, Capo, Watford, etc. routinely competed effectively against Orton, Cousins in AAU. OSU on the road is easily just as tough a a game…and by the way, I don't care if they aren't highly ranked next year; at Wisconsin is an 'L' darn near guaranteed.

By: Kelin Blab

Kelin Blab — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:44:40 +0000

Out of these 5....I think we can....

Beat Maryland at home: Home court game, kids will have something to prove, Vasquez will do something to piss off the IU faithful, and we do have some guys who could match up with him.

Be in the game against Michigan, we always play them tough no matter where and had them beat with less talent last year.

Mich St. will show us why they are always good and take control of the game late.

Purdue late in the season usually plays well and I don' think we are there yet, we will play them tough but they will pull away at the end...or sooner. Mackey is a tough arena....

We WILL BEAT KY at HOME! Did I miss something here as to why KY is ranked so high? They are still freshmen you know along with booger. KY is NOT going to come into bloomington and win with a bunch of Frosh. I think the deciding factor is, this team will have something to prove on a nationally televised game and this game 'atmosphere' could rival that of Duke IU a few years ago....This isn't a 'heart' prediction but early in the season freshmen are freshmen, AH is AH, and there is NOT a massive talent gap as it was last year with these two teams.

which is why I am saving to get scalpers tickets.........

By: dale11

dale11 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:33:19 +0000

I like the optimism.

By: DMJ

DMJ — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:36:36 +0000

Pitt at the Garden will be tougher than when we get Maryland at home. It's debatable as to who is the better team, but NYC and MSG has been a second home to Pitt in the last decade, whereas we'll have a home court advantage on the Terps.

In the long run it really doesn't matter though — both will crush us into the ground.