Big Ten Basketball Weekend Thread: #3 Purdue heads to #4 Michigan State! Finally, good basketball!

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Friday

Minnesota Golden Gophers (14-12, 3-10 B1G) at Indiana Hoosiers (13-12, 6-7)

6:30pm | FS1 | IU -6.5 | O/U 145

It’s been amazing to see just how far the Gophers’ defense (AdjD 148) has fallen off without Eric Curry, sometimes Amir Coffey, and a noted shitbag who shan’t be named. Minnesota’s response, though, has been to just kind of run up and down the court and hope things work out.

[Narrator: It didn’t.]

That’s a strategy that shouldn’t beat Indiana, who could still scrape together an NIT season (unless they’re still too good for it) in Archie Miller’s first run by getting to .500 in the Big Ten, but could definitely run with most of the Summit League or Southland or MIAC. Coming off a brutal four-game skid and an ugly win at rutger, Indiana should take care of Minnesota.

My Pick: Hoosiers romp, 75-64.

Saturday

Northwestern Wildcats (15-10, 6-6) at Maryland Terrapins (16-10, 5-8)

11am | ESPN2

Northwestern’s quest to be a boring, generic Patriot League squad that lucks into an NIT bid continues, as they will head to some mediocre Big Ten arena to face a scuffling Maryland squad.

The Terrapins, unfortunately, do a number of things well that the ‘Cats have been able to avoid in past games—they get to the line and shoot free throws at excellent clips (4th-most FTA and 3rd FT% in the conference) and can gun from deep (38.2% in the B1G, 4th). If Kevin Huerter has a day against the Northwestern matchup zone—which, spoiler, he will, because it’s Northwestern—the Terps should ease past the ‘Cats.

On defense, though...what are you doing, Maryland? Allowing a 41% three-point clip? Teams to distribute the basketball and shoot almost 47% from the field? That’s...that’s bad. Add to that what DJ tells me is an aggravating tendency of Mark Turgeon to make no halftime adjustments, and...if the ‘Cats keep it close at the half, I like their odds. Let’s see if Dererk Pardon can have a decent shooting day inside, too.

My Pick: Maryland, 68-65.

#3 Purdue Boilermakers (23-3, 12-1, 2nd place B1G) at #4 Michigan State Spartans (23-3, 11-2)

3pm | ESPN

Well holy shit, here’s something worth tuning in to, right?

In, disappointingly, the only meeting between the best two teams in the Big Ten, the aggressive Boilermaker defense could well rattle the youth of the Spartans but will need to contain the scoring of Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson. It’ll be the usual Purdue formula—beat the ball inside to Isaac Haas and Matt Haarms, get Nick Ward in foul trouble if you can, and hope that Vincent Edwards and Carsen Edwards can continue to pour it in from all over.

In the one chance that the Big Ten has remaining (outside of the Big Ten Tournament) to really make an impression—no more meetings between any of Purdue, OSU, and MSU, and I don’t believe in #20 Michigan—an up-and-down, down-to-the-wire barn-burner would be great here for a conference hoping to get at least one team off the bubble.

Sparty will have home court, but since I proclaimed Michigan State the best in the Big Ten, I’m sure this entire year will be me eating crow.

My Pick: Purdue wins it late, 81-78.

rutger Scarlet Knights (12-14, 2-11) at Nebraska Cornhuskers (18-8, 9-4)

3pm | BTN

This is where it ends. Don’t ask me why and don’t ask me how, but I watched Northwestern out-rebound Nebraska by like 50 to 30 earlier in the year. I’m pretty sure rebounding and being gritty is virtually all rutger actually knows how to do, and Corey Sanders showed against Nebrasketball the last time that he can score.

The Knights will need to pack it in and keep Isaac Copeland from reprising his 23-point outing the last time the two teams met. More importantly,though, they have to keep James Palmer, Jr. from hamblasting them the way the Miami transfer has been positively laying waste to the rest of the conference—he’s scored double-digits in his last seven outings, averaging 24.3 ppg, shooting at least 10 free throws in four of those outings, and hitting multiple threes in five of those. Palmer’s shooting has cooled off in the last couple games, but if he gets in the paint, rutger is in trouble.

My Pick: I’m sticking with the upset—hope sinks in Lincoln. Knights, 65-62.

Iowa Hawkeyes (12-14, 3-10) at #14 Ohio State Buckeyes (23-3, 12-1)

5pm | BTN

I’m gonna be honest: As I wrote up the Nebraska-rutger preview, the cat came, sat on my lap, and went to sleep. He’s now occupying the bottom left corner of my laptop and has hit the control key with his paw several times, causing me to almost print this article to PDF when I was writing about James Palmer.

It does merit noting that Iowa’s defense is rated 249th in Kenpom’s metric. Holy shit. 249th. That’s surrounded by UMKC (go Kangaroos!) and North Carolina A&T. Keita Bates-Diop is going to eat them alive, and no amount of Tyler Cook dunking or whatever will stop that.

My Pick: Ohio State going away, 85-71.

Sunday

#20 Michigan Wolverines (19-7, 8-5) at wisconsin badgers (11-15, 4-9)

12pm | CBS

I did not want to preview this game. Lucky for me, we have wisconsin writers now, and one of them even has an occasional thoug—

MC ClapYoHandz: Wisconsin/whoever they play preview: Is it Illinois? Oh. Moving on.

My Pick: Michigan, 59-54.

Penn State Nittany Lions (17-9, 7-6) at Illinois Fighting Illini (12-13, 2-10)

6pm | BTN

Moe’s looking at me with those adorable little eyes and purring. I’m out. Go ‘Cats.

My Pick: Penn State probably? Illinois sucks. Let’s say 70-63.

LPW is very adamant: You guys know the rules: No porn, discussion of pirated streams, and don’t be a jerk. Have fun!