Midweek Big Ten Basketball Recap:

Monday, January 22

#6 Michigan State Spartans 87, Illinois Fighting Illini 74

Andrew: I vaguely recall the basketball team keeping me up watching their turnover-riddled nonsense before the school had the worst off-field week in its history. Will be interesting to see how the broadcast tonight maneuvers around Nassar.

Thump: To hell with this I’m done, I’m sure I’ll have plenty more opportunities to watch a totally fucking overmatched Illinois team extend its losing streak. I hope getting all those turnovers is worth giving up 80% shooting because that’s what fucking happens. We still have more wins that John Groce’s fucking Akron team so there.

Stew: TV Teddy tossed a fan from the game for asking him how much Izzo was paying him.

#13 Ohio State Buckeyes 64, Nebraska Cornhuskers 59

DJ: Ohio State seems to be struggling this week, winning this game but dropping one last night to Penn State. Poor 3 point shooting was bound to happen at some point (woulda been nice a few weeks ago!) but the Buckeyes can afford to drop a few games and stay in decent shape the way they have been playing. Chris Holtmann will have OSU ready coming off of this loss as he continues to show that he was a grandslam hire for the Buckeyes.

BRT: After soundly punking Michigan last week, the Huskers came a bit more back down to earth against OSU. This was a frustrating game, as Nebraska had chances to win it and were in the game throughout, but just couldn’t find enough offense to get it done. It wasn’t for lack of trying on James Palmer’s part though—he kicked in a dazzling 34 points.

Indiana Hoosiers 71, Maryland Terrapins 68

DJ: This game was really fun in the first half, leading to a 42-39 lead for Indiana heading into the break. Then Big Ten refs did what they do best: completely change the way the game has been called that led to a grueling foul fest in the second half that neither teams’ fans were happy to watch. In the end, Mark Turgeon’s team collapsed and wasn’t able to execute anything that resembled a play drawn up in the huddle other than hero ball. Typical Mark Turgeon. Even better is Terp fans are stuck with him for at least two more years as most discretionary funding in the AD is tied up renovating Cole Field House.

Tuesday, January 23

Iowa Hawkeyes 85, wisconsin badgers 67

DJ: We all continue to LOL at wisconsin after their long run has finally come to an end. I don’t think anyone would have predicted they would have fell this far but finishing above .500 or more than 3 games the rest of the year seems like an impossibility for them right now.

Stew: WOO!!!! Fuck wisconsin! Iowa’s guards weren’t completely outmatched, because wisconsin has even worse guards. Ian Happ got his offensively, but he absolutely cannot play any defense, and was abused, time-after-time, by true freshman, Luka Garza, and dunk machine, Tyler Cook. Winning is great. wisconins losing is also great. Put them together and it’s peanut butter and chocolate magic.

Time to turn it over to our esteemed wisconsin writer, WhiteSpeedReceiver.

WSR: It is just a horrific shame that Greg Gard is facing such a pile of injuries this year, as we aren’t able to see his magnificent coaching ability in it’s true form. In fact, I think we are being so deprived that we should consider cancelling the rest of the season and the entire NCAA tournament, because you just can’t have one without wisconsin. Please ignore the 46 years in a row that they missed prior to the start of wisconsin basketball when they must have shut it down like they did their baseball program.

Northwestern Wildcats 77, Minnesota Golden Gophers 69 (nice)

MNW: Minnesota is very very bad. Northwestern is, somehow, not as bad as a team that has indefinitely (permanently) lost its leading player.

That isn’t something I’d have to be saying this season, but here we are. Folks over at InsideNU are emboldened enough by this rousing triumph over the hapless Gophers to ask if the ‘Cats can put together a 10- or 11-win Big Ten campaign.

It’s 11am and I haven’t yet had that much to drink. Mostly because I’d be dead.

DJ: Minnesota is absolute garbage this year without Coffey and Lynch. Injuries and suspensions have happened but they may be the furthest off from pre-season expectations for all big ten teams this year.

WSR: Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Yuck. Is it hock...nope wres...hell no...baseball season yet?

Wednesday, January 24

Nebraska Cornhuskers 60, rutger Scarlet Knights 54

BRT: This game went exactly like you’d expect a game entitled “Nebraska vs. Rutgers basketball” to go. It was very unpretty, as neither team really wanted to take control. The Huskers though, found a way, in the middle of a tough stretch of games and on the road, and that’s what’s important.

Illinois Fighting Illini 73, Indiana Hoosiers 71

Stew: The fan who got tossed by TV Teddy came back.

DJ: Is this Illinois only conference of the year? Maybe. Probably. Illinois has a hell of a rebuild to do but luckily the way basketball works, they could do that quickly if they get a few key recruits in.

Thump: SWEET JESUS THEY WRAPPED THE GAME UP AND SIGNED OFF AND WE STILL HAVE MORE POINTS THAN ANOTHER BIG TEN TEAM. WE WINNED. WE REALLY DIDN’T DESERVE TO. BUT WE WINNED.

Seriously though, the last 11 minutes of the UI-IU game were awful. there were two field goals in the last 11 minutes between both teams.

Candy: Of course this would be the game that I actually had the time to watch. Fucking hell, this season can’t end soon enough.

Thursday, January 25

#3 Purdue Boilermakers 92, #25 Michigan Wolverines 88

This was a fantastic game and Boilerman wrote a more in depth article about it.

Graham: Michigan was a bit overwelmed against Purdue, thanks to Isaac Drago, but played their hearts out. This isn’t a bad loss but would have been a monster win for Michigan. Still looking at a 7-10 seed depending on how the rest of the year goes.

DJ: Michigan had a chance to tie this one down the stretch but Matthews decided he’d try to be the hero with a 3 on 1 fast break at hand. The play went from an And 1 opportunity in the paint to out of bounds off of Purdue and an eventual turnover that allowed Purdue to make this a clean two possession game with a minute to go that Michigan never made it back from.

Penn State Nittany Lions 82, #13 Ohio State Buckeyes 79

Jimmy outlined this game here and why this loss absolutely doesn’t matter.