by Carl James • @jovian34 • April 26
Only four weekends left in the 2019 regular season. It’s a real race at the top of the B1G standings. Who will stand out this week? The top 8 teams in the B1G are playing each other so a lot will be revealed. Here is a list of five series Hoosier fans should be paying attention to this week. Three from the B1G and two others featuring teams Indiana has played four times.
Illinois 26-13 (6-6 B1G) at Nebraska 22-14 (11-4 B1G)
Preferred Hoosier outcome: Illinois 2-1 series win
Carl’s Predicted Outcome: 2-1 Nebraska
The Illini are roaring back. Nebraska has more B1G wins than even the first place Hoosiers. This is a premiere match-up and is hard to predict. Should be interesting.
RUTGERS (17-21, 7-5 B1G) at Michigan (28-11, 8-3 B1G)
Preferred Hoosier outcome: RUTGERS 2-1 series win
Carl’s Predicted Outcome: 2-1 Michigan
This one is tough to predict. Michigan steam rolls lesser teams pretty consisently. The question is how much of a lesser team is RUTGERS. The Scarlet Knights are playing well in the B1G so far, but most of that has been in Piscataway.
Iowa (22-15, 9-6 B1G) at Ohio State (23-18, 6-6 B1G)
Preferred Hoosier outcome: Iowa 2-1 series win
Carl’s Predicted Outcome: 2-1 Iowa
Iowa has been hot. Ohio State stands in their way. These are two good teams fighting for B1G Tourney seeding. Should be fun.
Canisius (19-19, 12-3 MAAC) at Fairfield (25-15, 11-4 MAAC)
Preferred Hoosier outcome: Canisius Sweep
Carl’s Predicted Outcome: 2-1 Fairfield
For RPI purposes the more Canisius wins the better and this series is likely to decided the regular season MAAC champion.
Evansville (19-18, 6-3 MVC) at Valparaiso (8-27, 1-8 MVC)
Preferred Hoosier outcome: Evansville sweep
Carl’s Predicted Outcome: Evansville sweep
Just playing this series is going to kill Evansville’s RPI. The Hoosiers need as many Aces’ wins as possible. Probably only a fantasy to hope they finish in the RPI top-50, but more wins helps the RPI strength of schedule calculations.
