Wisconsin Badgers 2020-2021

[Hockeybuckeye]

It's a great day for hockey! Time to fry some greasy grimey gopher guts. A little flour, then egg, then Panko, fry them to a crisp and then down the garbage disposal with them. I mean, hey, even the garbage disposal has to eat, right?

No offense but the OSU fans are hoping you guys split!

 

[HockeyGuy362]

No offense but the OSU fans are hoping you guys split!

I would think you would want Wisco to sweep, then you sweep the Gophs, would give them 8 loses, and probably but them into 4th place in the league. Which would mean the semifinal games would be Wisco/Minn and OSU/UMD

 

[robertearle]

I would think you would want Wisco to sweep, then you sweep the Gophs, would give them 8 loses, and probably but them into 4th place in the league. Which would mean the semifinal games would be Wisco/Minn and OSU/UMD

(If I did the math right) four losses by Minn is overkill to get them to 4th place, as long as Ohio State wins three of their last four. Gophers go 3-3, OSU goes 3-1, and Duluth no worse than 4-2 gets you WCHA tourney match-ups you want.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I just think there's a lot of parity in the upper half of the conference this season but I'm wondering if Wisconsin's recent acquisition will give them a boost down the stretch?
I don't make the rules but I don't think it's fair a player can come in mid season and play right away, just my two cents.

 

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

You're paying to watch so you may as well enjoy it! LOL!!!

I do enjoyed watching streams from everybody else besides OSU. Watching OSU's attempt at a video feed with all the technology that is available these days is just sad.

 

[ARM]

... I don't think it's fair a player can come in mid season and play right away, just my two cents.

There have been players who joined a team for second semester in the past, but normally, players would be hesitant to do so because a half of a season would cost them a full year of eligibility. The difference in this case is 20-21 is a bonus year, where players either play or they don't, with no impact on future eligibility either way.

 

[Timothy A]

I just think there's a lot of parity in the upper half of the conference this season but I'm wondering if Wisconsin's recent acquisition will give them a boost down the stretch?
I don't make the rules but I don't think it's fair a player can come in mid season and play right away, just my two cents.

There is a great article in the Madison.com archives and a MJ interview in the archives where it talks about the uniqueness of Lacy's situation. Any team could have brought her in. It's not UW's fault MN and OSU were bad choices for her. LOL.

Let's go RED!

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I do enjoyed watching streams from everybody else besides OSU. Watching OSU's attempt at a video feed with all the technology that is available these days is just sad.

It was how we tortured our rivals! Wasn't a problem for us when we could attend the games, now we feel the pain too!

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

There is a great article in the Madison.com archives and a MJ interview in the archives where it talks about the uniqueness of Lacy's situation. Any team could have brought her in. It's not UW's fault MN and OSU were bad choices for her. LOL.

Let's go RED!

I understand the uniqueness to the situation but I feel such a pickup can be unfair to other teams. If a 5 star football player could hop on board mid season the howling about how wrong it is and the controversy would never cease. But as I said, it's just my opinion, take it or leave it makes no difference, I won't be offended by different points of view.

 

[Offsides Guy]

Which would mean the semifinal games would be Wisco/Minn and OSU/UMD

Along those lines, it’s total BS that all 7 WCHA teams are not participating in this tournament. There’s zero reason the WCHA can’t do what the Big Ten is doing where they’re inviting all 7 Big Ten men’s teams to their tournament for a single elimination format. Sure there is separation between the top four teams in the conference and the rest but all the programs deserve a shot.

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

Along those lines, it’s total BS that all 7 WCHA teams are not participating in this tournament. There’s zero reason the WCHA can’t do what the Big Ten is doing where they’re inviting all 7 Big Ten men’s teams to their tournament for a single elimination format. Sure there is separation between the top four teams in the conference and the rest but all the programs deserve a shot.

Agreed!

 

[Timothy A]

UW survives another slow start off a bye week to pull off a crazy comeback win on the back of Watts. The first half of the game was painful to watch, nothing connecting in transition, just chasing in the D zone. Once they woke up they were able to overcome it. Wow an extra attacker goal and then the OT winner. I don't think Blair got her eyes on 2 of the goals, hard to tell with the replays not being shown not so many times. With the lads winning it's a totally juiced up house right now. I may not sleep all night. LETS GO RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[robertearle]

(If I did the math right) four losses by Minn is overkill to get them to 4th place, as long as Ohio State wins three of their last four. Gophers go 3-3, OSU goes 3-1, and Duluth no worse than 4-2 gets you WCHA tourney match-ups you want.

Here's a fun little tidbit that hadn't occurred to me until last night: if Duluth goes 6-0 to end the season - four games against Mankato, and two game sweep of Wisconsin - they would win the conference title, .777 to .750 (or worse) for Wisconsin and .754 (at best) for the Gophers.

 

[Timothy A]

Here's a fun little tidbit that hadn't occurred to me until last night: if Duluth goes 6-0 to end the season - four games against Mankato, and two game sweep of Wisconsin - they would win the conference title, .777 to .750 (or worse) for Wisconsin and .754 (at best) for the Gophers.

The "conference" title this year really isn't one anyway due to the unfairly unbalanced schedule. That being said, IF UMD wins it, it is a complete joke since they had the most snowball powderpuff schedule of all time. And as you stated over in that other thread, it's a very real possibility.

Too made the rodentettes got a lucky goal/ late Christmas gift from the refs. Even those fans thought it should have been overturned. But what to we expect from Ludwig?

I have not watched the game, I will today since there is no other good sporting events to watch other than the replay of the men's 8-1 garbage disposal treatment of the rodents.

 

[robertearle]

If the WCHA wants it to be fair with their lopsided schedule, it would have to be "points percentage for each of the six opponents, summed." That way, if you played SCSU and won a dozen times, you could still only count 1.000 for your percentage versus the Huskies. If the Gophers go 0-fer against UW, then it would be 1.000 + 0.000 for those two. As it is, if they play "extra" games against SCSU, then that series is weighted unfairly.

This morning a did the numbers for Arlen's "percentage per team" standings, so far.

Keep in mind that there are team pairs which haven't been played, giving them zero so far - eg. Wisconsin vs Bemidji, or Minnesota vs Bemidji - so there are opportunities for teams to add significantly to their totals.

As of now:
Minnesota is at 3.75
Ohio State is at 3.417
Wisconsin is at 3.333
Duluth is at 3.0
Mankato is at 1.389
St Cloud is at 1.125
Bemidji is at 0.986

If the team wins all their remaining games (not possible overall obviously, because head-to-heads in these numbers have wins for both teams):
Wisconsin can reach 5.333
Minnesota can reach 5.0
Ohio State can reach 4.667
Duluth can reach 4.0

Without putting in any "St Cloud beats Ohio State" or " Mankato beats Duluth" upsets, if you assume Minn and OSU split, and Duluth and Wisconsin split:
Wisconsin would be at 4.833
Minnesota would be at 4.75
Ohio State would be at 4.417
Duluth would be at 3.5

(I hope I did it all correctly!)

 

[robertearle]

The "conference" title this year really isn't one anyway due to the unfairly unbalanced schedule. That being said, IF UMD wins it, it is a complete joke since they had the most snowball powderpuff schedule of all time. And as you stated over in that other thread, it's a very real possibility.

I looked a little harder at the possibilities of the standings outcomes (in addition to the 'percent per team' stuff in the other post), and I *thinK* this is the state of things, again assuming no upsets by the 'bottom three' teams:

- If Duluth sweeps their six games, they win the conference.
- If Wisconsin gets at least two standings points vs Duluth, Wisconsin wins the conference.
- I don't think either Minnesota or Ohio State can win the conference, without 'bottom three' upsets. (For instance, Mankato beats Duluth once, and then Duluth sweeps Wisconsin, while Minn sweeps Ohio State, then Minnesota wins the conference.)

 

[Hockeybuckeye]

I still think it's asinine that the conference is doing percentage points instead of regular awarded points.

 

[ARM]

I still think it's asinine that the conference is doing percentage points instead of regular awarded points.

I wouldn't go so far as to call any decision made this year asinine. Minnesota will wind up playing 19 games, if their remaining four contests happen as scheduled. Over half of that schedule will be OSU and UW. OSU will play 18 games, and again, over half will be against UW and UM. UW will play 16, and exactly half of those will be versus OSU and UM.

My conclusion is that programs are trying to give their athletes as much of a season as is feasible, but they are prioritizing preparedness for a possible postseason over competitive advantages for the conference season. With the unbalanced schedules, it would have been possible to pick a standings method with greater fairness than what they chose, but a simple "total points" would not be a move in that direction.

 

[Offsides Guy]

I wouldn't go so far as to call any decision made this year asinine. Minnesota will wind up playing 19 games, if their remaining four contests happen as scheduled. Over half of that schedule will be OSU and UW. OSU will play 18 games, and again, over half will be against UW and UM. UW will play 16, and exactly half of those will be versus OSU and UM.

My conclusion is that programs are trying to give their athletes as much of a season as is feasible, but they are prioritizing preparedness for a possible postseason over competitive advantages for the conference season. With the unbalanced schedules, it would have been possible to pick a standings method with greater fairness than what they chose, but a simple "total points" would not be a move in that direction.

The very unbalanced schedule was driven by nothing more than COVID testing capabilities. The Big 10 teams needed to limit their exposure to the other teams which weren’t going to be able to match the testing protocols the Big 10 requires of its teams.

 

[robertearle]

The very unbalanced schedule was driven by nothing more than COVID testing capabilities. The Big 10 teams needed to limit their exposure to the other teams which weren’t going to be able to match the testing protocols the Big 10 requires of its teams.

It was testing protocols and positive test procedures at the beginning. Then, at least for Ohio State and Wisconsin, it became as much a consequence of actual COVID positive results within the programs, leading to cancelled games; some were able to be made up, others were not.