Big Ten Basketball Mid-Week Previews, Open Thread: Can Boilers snap road woes?

Conference play rolls on, but it’s tough to match a weekend slate that saw Ohio State take Michigan State to the wire, a hobbled Indiana make a game of it at Michigan, and Nebraska and Iowa put up a lot of points and play the occasional shred of defense.

Oh, and whatever Northwestern-Illinois was.

We’ve recapped the weekend and told you which teams are rising and which are falling in the B1G standings, now let’s take a peek at who’s playing this week:

Tuesday, January 8

Maryland Terrapins at Minnesota Golden Gophers

MD: 12-3 (3-1 B1G), Massey 26
MN: 12-2 (2-1 B1G), Massey 41
6pm | BTN | Minn -2 | O/U 140

WhiteSpeedReceiver: I’m worried about Antoine Winfield Jr. getting hurt somehow.

...I think we’ll get by Maryland, since it’s at the Barn. Murphy and Coffey should be enough to deal with Fernando and Cowan, Curry should continue to see his role expand as he plays himself into game shape, and I’d expect to see Isaiah Washington play since it’s not the matchup issue he faced against that team we saw last Thursday.

Purdue Boilermakers at #6 Michigan State Spartans

PU: 9-5 (2-1 B1G), Massey 23
MSU: 13-2 (4-0 B1G), Massey 4
8pm | ESPN2 | MSU -7.5 | O/U 152.5

AK: MSU has been on a decent roll here even with Josh Langford’s injury, which remains shrouded in mystery and an ankle boot. The book on Purdue is not complex: keep Edwards under 30, leave anyone other than Cline to double and MSU should be fine - though any game where Cassius Winston and Foster Loyer’s defense is centrally important makes you wince. I’d assume on some defensive possessions, Izzo probably moves Winston off of Edwards, but we’ll see.

Boilerman31: I really don’t know what to expect from this game. The last time Purdue ventured into the state of Michigan, the game was over before it started. If the Boilers want to keep it close, they’re going to have to go into grind mode and have someone from the bench step up and contribute.

Wednesday, January 9

#16 Ohio State Buckeyes at Rutgers Scarlet Knights

OSU: 12-2 (2-1 B1G), Massey
RU: 7-6 (0-3 B1G), Massey
6pm | BTN

James Snyder: I don’t think it’s breaking news, but C.J. Jackson is the key for the Buckeyes. When he is hot, they can beat just about anyone in the country. When he is not, they are pretty good, but not great.

Iowa Hawkeyes at Northwestern Wildcats

IA: 12-3 (1-3 B1G), Massey 40
NU: 10-5 (1-3 B1G), Massey 56
8pm | BTN

Stewmonkey13: Northwestern is very not good. Iowa has fallen behind by at least 17 in road conference games 11 consecutive times, several of those were against not very good opponents.

Somehow, I still think Iowa should win this game. I am an idiot.

MNW: That road stat is just my favorite. They’re likely to snap that streak against a Northwestern team that...I would bet has only taken double-digit leads against the Binghamtons and Chicago States of the world, but we can dream.

The ‘Cats are starting to get good minutes out of Ryan Greer and Anthony Gaines, which is nice, because they’ll need passers and slashers to break down Iowa’s defense. Dererk Pardon needs to out-battle Luka Garza for NU to get the home win, I think, but if he fights him to a draw it’ll come down to whether Northwestern’s 8th-best 3pt defense (seriously, 8th-best) can clamp down Jordan Bohannon and if Vic Law can drop 20 or so on Tyler Cook.

I’m not optimistic. Give me Iowa, 84-72.

Thursday, January 10

#2 Michigan Wolverines at Illinois Fighting Illini

UM: 15-0 (4-0 B1G), Massey 6
IL: 4-11 (0-4 B1G), Massey 128
7pm | FS1

Nooooooope.

Penn State Nittany Lions at Nebraska Cornhuskers

PSU: 7-8 (0-4 B1G), Massey 70
UNL: 11-4 (1-3 B1G), Massey 21
8pm | ESPN2

Seriously, how does Pat Chambers still have a job? Why is this on ESPN2?! I just...nothing makes sense.

Jesse Collins: Well, Nebraska is probably officially on “got to win a game” territory with a dismal 1-3 start to B1G play. That said, all three losses were on the road—which I’ve heard we were the only B1G team to go on the road three in a row in conference, but I haven’t verified that at all so whatever—and Nebraska is just really good at home with its second longest home winning streak well in tact.

I think you see a pretty good bounceback with some more focus on the defensive end. This team is still pretty good and just need to find a groove here soon.

Here’s your open thread for the week’s hooptyshoots. Behave.