Big Ten's slow ball
From Pat Forde's regular column at ESPN, an amazing set of stats on Big Ten basketball...
When Penn State beat Illinois by the crime-against-basketball score of 38-33 last week, it underscored the creeping nature of the Big Ten...
Check Ken Pomeroy's stats for proof. His adjusted pace figures show that every one of America's other 30 conferences has at least one team ranked higher than the Big Ten's fastest team.
That would be Purdue, which ranks 128th nationally in pace. The Boilermakers broke the speed barrier Saturday by scoring 81 points against Indiana, the first time in February that a Big Ten team scored 80 in regulation.
It also marked just the third time anyone has scored 80 in regulation in a league game this season. The other two both came in the same game: Ohio State 93, Indiana 81 on Jan. 31.
Big Ten ball comes in three speeds:
Walk it up: Purdue, Michigan State (140th pace ranking-- out of 347 teams), Indiana (142nd) and Minnesota (187th).
Crawl it up: Ohio State (265th), Michigan (267th), Penn State (288th) and Illinois (299th).
Give up: Northwestern (318th), Wisconsin (333rd) and Iowa (343rd).
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 11:04 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
That's what we get from the "cult of the coach" in college basketball, which is why I prefer the non-hypocrisy of the professional game. There, the performers are paid.
Preach it, brother!
The professionals have something close to a competitive labor market-- and are thus generally compensated in a manner consistent with their productivity. (There are many interesting and notable exceptions to this rule.)
The amateurs are in a government-sanctioned "monopsony"-- input demanders who have formed a cartel called the NCAA, which can compensate its players far less than what they produce.
Of course, there are other questions about whether to compensate student/athletes moreso. But it is undeniable that the NCAA and the govt benefit financially at the expense of many athletes.
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