Saturday
#6 Michigan Wolverines 65, #24 Maryland Terrapins 52
Michigan got out to a big lead early, and while Maryland battled back to make it competitive at points in the 2nd half, they just couldn’t get over the hump.
Here are some random thoughts that DJ had while watching the game:
DJ: No one is moving on offense, this is embarrassing.
They’re all playing one on one and Cowan is still broken. His strength is driving to the basket but he seems so passive now.
#12 Purdue Boilermakers 76, Penn State Nittany Lions 64
Boilerman: In what could’ve been considered one of the roughest games of the season, the Boilers found a way to get the W. I thankfully missed the first half thanks to my loving wife deciding I needed to go antiquing with her (One can only say, “Yes, dear, that does look very interesting and very old” so many times before you give up and just hope the mildew on most of this old “stuff” mercifully kills you). Your “Purdue Player Of The Game Not Named Carsen Edwards” was Matt Haarms who go the start with Trevion Williams limited due to illness.
I’m not going to complain about this one. Purdue had 23 turnovers, had a stretch of 6 minutes without a basket and still managed to win by 12. Onward to Bloomington and Some Assembly Required Hall.
#21 Iowa Hawkeyes 71, rutger Scarlet Knights 69
Stew: What an exhilaratingly ugly game. rutger absolutely played their hearts out with Ron Harper Jr. playing the best game of his career, so far. Meanwhile, Iowa had a hard time with the physical play of the Knights inside, and weren’t getting the line as often as they typically do. And Iowa couldn’t put the game away in the final minutes leading to Geo Baker hitting the biggest shot of rutger’s season so far. Good for Iowa, that we have Joe Wieskamp:
@BleacherReport @HoHighlights @BarstoolUIowa @Ballislife @overtime (video by @brownsfan935 ) #thecommittee #Iowa #Hawkeyes #CoreySanders #CurtisBauerTheSecond pic.twitter.com/Q3VHVCEClq
— Committee be (@TheCommittee___) February 17, 2019
Zuzu: That game... I hurt
Minnesota Golden Gophers 84, Indiana Hoosiers 63
WSR: Other than wisconsin, Indiana is the only team where I’m “Lisa, no! (pulls her off Bart) Your hands are too weak! (strangles Bart, who is then kicked by Lisa)” instead of “STOP! STOP! HE’S ALREADY DEAD!” And good God did we keep strangling and kicking them. Jordan Murphy and Amir Coffey absolutely had their way with the Hoosiers on both ends of the court, and good Gabe Kalscheur showed up and was just lights out. This Indiana team has a lot of dog in it, but it’s still always nice to see the Gophers take a dog out back and give it the Ol’ Yeller treatment.
Candy: Welp, Indiana is pretty much done for the year.
Nebraska Cornhuskers 59, Northwestern Wildcats 50
Jesse: This is such a broken team... But, they keep playing hard. I don’t know what it means, but at least they got that.
It was two teams shooting under 35%... That’s about what you can say about this game. I missed a lot of the first half and caught the part where you all almost came back. Then Roby hit a 3 and the announcers pretended his eventual 7/19 for 19 wasn’t awful offensive production. Also, Roby blocked five shots and I swear Northwestern doesn’t understand that you cannot walk with the basketball.
Northwestern legitimately looked like they should have been winning the game for the first 12 or so minutes of the second half, but they had only reduced the lead from five to four. Then they went even colder from the field and that was that. But hey, you hit 50 points on a meaningless end of game 3, so that’s fun. Never wanna finish in the 40s.
That is, this game suuuuuuucked like we all thought it would.
MNW: St. Kate’s hockey got a nice win over Bethel on Senior Night! Better puck movement, crisper breakouts, and harder skating than I’d seen from the Wildcats in a long time.
No idea how the other Wildcats did; I’m sure it wasn’t good.
Sunday
#11 Michigan State Spartans 62, Ohio State Buckeyes 44
Andrew Kowasaki: MSU picked up a very costly season sweep over Ohio State at home, turning a tight back-and-forth affair into a blowout with a late 20-2 run but losing Nick Ward for an indeterminate period of time with a hairline fracture in his shooting hand in the process. MSU’s depth is now perilously thin, and the pressure on Cassius Winston figures to mount even higher. With both matchups against Michigan still to come, this injury couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Monday
#22 wisconsin Badgers 64, Illinois Fighting Illini 58
Beez: I only saw the last 5 or so minutes of the game...and wow, Illinois looks a lot better than a month ago. The gist of the game, from what I saw/heard: Ethan Happ couldn’t do anything, as Illinois held him under 10 points for the second time this season (and I’m pretty sure he’s only been held under 10 those two times). Brad Davison picked up a good amount of Happ’s slack, but Khalil Iverson was the breakout star of the game, including deflecting the inbounds pass on one of Illinois’s late, crucial possessions. Iverson hasn’t really lived up to the hopes or expectations of Wisconsin fans, but it was good to see him play well last night.
Finally, two big things happened: First, without Happ’s 0-3 on FTs, the rest of the team shot 75%, which is absolutely what needs to happen for any hope of March success. Second, Happ sat on the bench the final FOUR MINUTES of what was essentially a 1-2 possession game. I never thought I’d see it, but good on Gard for deciding to sit Happ after he turned the ball over three in quick succession late in the 2nd half. I am encouraged to see Gard finally pushing back on Happ’s turnovers by benching him (of course pulling Happ late to avoid the FT shooting liability isn’t the worst choice...although it does limit the offense), and I am very encouraged to see Wisconsin pull out a win even when Happ couldn’t to anything
Thump: I don’t know why Wisconsin rosters a player (Iverson) solely for the purpose of killing Illinois, but hey it produced two wins this year. Hopefully we only have Wisconsin once next season.
Beez: I believe you mean All-B1G Defense and All-B1G Highlight-level Missed Dunks player (Iverson).