Does...dear God, does Indiana still have a prayer?

Is Minnesota still on the right side of the cut line?

Almost the moment the Gophers finished their demolition of what might be the worst Northwestern team since 1-17, ESPN cut to Joe Lunardi in his bracketology bunker. And, Lunardi proudly announced, the Gophers had, somehow, played themselves off the 12-line and into an 11-seed, safe from the Last Four In or First Four Out marker in the NCAA Tournament.

I don’t have any idea how it works, either, but I know ESPN definitely isn’t in the market of employing idiots to just shout shit and hope people believe it.

So let’s look at the week and, with our bracketology roundup from yesterday in mind, take a look at the conference.

Three ranked teams fell on the road, and there are surely consequences...right?

Recaps and Bracketology

Ohio State Buckeyes 90, #22 Iowa Hawkeyes 70

Just an absolute dismantling by Ohio State, who got the less-talented Ahrens brother to go off for 29 points, most of them gunning from deep. Oh, and Fran McCaffery made a complete ass out of himself after the game and earned a 2-game suspension from noted fucking moron Gary Barta. So things are fine in Iowa City.

But did any Big Dance fortunes change? We’ll be using Lunardi’s updated projections, because I didn’t have time to run through Jerry Palm’s and SBNation’s as well:

Ohio State

Before: 10 seed, South, vs. Villanova
After: 9 seed, West, vs. Florida

Iowa

Before: 7 seed, West, vs. Oklahoma
After: 7 seed, Midwest, vs. VCU

Indiana Hoosiers 75, #19 wisconsin badgers 73 (2OT)

God, this game was so bad.

Indiana

Still on the outside looking in.

wisconsin

Before: 4 seed, West, vs. Old Dominion
After: 4 seed, South, vs. Lipscomb

Penn State Nittany Lions 78, #17 Maryland Terrapins 61

DJ Carver: Random stats the MD 247 board keeps track of: Turgeon is now -531 in turnover margin over 8 years. Also, I turned this game off to watch Guys Grocery Games. This is what watching Turgeon does to me when it goes bad.

Penn State

Nah.

Maryland

Before: 4 seed, South, vs. Murray State
After: 5 seed, East, vs. New Mexico State

#14 Purdue Boilermakers 73, Illinois Fighting Illini 56

Boilerman31: I’m calling this Purdue’s “Get Right” win. They were challenged by Illinois’ pressure defense and answered the bell. The Boilers shot 55% from the field. Matt Haarms and his hair were perfect from the field, going 8/8 including a three-ball for 21.

Perhaps the best thing about this win though is Carsen Edwards started to find his stroke. He ended up with 24, but unlike many other games where he got his through volume, this was efficient. Edwards ended up 8/14 from the field. Credit Illinois for trying to contain him but with Haarms catching fire, it allowed Carsen to get better looks.

Onward Matt Painter’s crew goes into Senior Day.

Thumpasaurus: Lmao are you saying that Illinois cured what ailed you? Oh my heavens, when has that ever happened.

We fixed up your football team.

Now we fixed up your basketball team.

Illinois

Nah.

Purdue

Before: 3 seed, South, vs. Texas State
After: 3 seed, East, vs. Vermont (in Des Moines!)

#9 Michigan Wolverines 82, Nebraska Cornhuskers 53

An ass-kicking, through and through.

Michigan

Before: 2 seed, East, vs. Loyola-Chicago
After: 2 seed, West, vs. Montana

Nebraska

Before: 5 seed, NIT, vs. Oregon State
After: 5 seed, NIT, vs. Oregon State

Minnesota Golden Gophers 62, Northwestern Wildcats 50

Amir Coffey had, like, a billion points. Dererk Pardon continues to be completely wasted by Northwestern’s complete lack of an offense.

Stewmonkey13: This is something I’m a bit interested in. Is lil Ricky definitely out? Is it making the tourney or bust? If it’s first four, but he’s retained, are you upset?

WhiteSpeedReceiver: Honestly? Nobody knows what Coyle thinks or how he works. He’s very personable and funny in one-to-ones and small groups, but hates being in front of the cameras. Everybody thought [Don] Lucia would be the hockey coach for at least one more year, then BOOM gone right after last year. He’s said he doesn’t just think season-to-season, but in terms of the overall health of the program.

And when you look at the overall health of the basketball program, you get a bunch of shrugmojis.

His roster building is so damn weird. He’s always missing one thing. And development is haphazard as hell. Dupree McBrayer did lose his Mom early in the season, but he seems to have reverted as a senior. Amir Coffey is among the best players in the conference when he’s on and damn near unplayable when he’s off.

There’s a very real chance he’s fired if he misses the tourney, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he went to a different conference and had much more success somewhere that greco-roman basketball isn’t as prevalent.

Minnesota

Before: First team out/12-seed, according to Lunardi in his weird postgame interview
After: 11 seed, Midwest, vs. Kansas State (last team with a bye)

Northwestern

LOLNOPE

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Big Ten Tournament Update

DJ and Stew stopped by to take you through the myriad scenarios for seeding at the United Center...but how have things changed?

Here’s the bracket as it stands now, along with teams’ seeding and their run-in:

[1] Michigan State (14-3)

at Indiana, vs. Nebraska, vs. Michigan
Projected Finish: 17-3 (1st)

[2] Purdue (14-3)

vs. Ohio State, at Minnesota, at Northwestern
Projected Finish: 17-3 (2nd)

[3] Michigan (14-4)

at Maryland, at Michigan State
Projected Finish: 15-5 (3rd)

[4] Maryland (12-6)

vs. Michigan, vs. Minnesota
Projected Finish: 13-7 (5th)

[5] wisconsin (11-6)

vs. Penn State, vs. Iowa, at Ohio State
Projected Finish: 14-6 (4th)

[6] Iowa (10-7)

vs. Rutgers, at wisconsin, at Nebraska
Projected Finish: 12-8 (6th)

[7] Ohio State (8-9)

at Purdue, at Northwestern, vs. wisconsin
Projected Finish: 9-11 (7th)

[8] Minnesota (8-10)

vs. Purdue, at Maryland
Projected Finish: 8-12 (9th)

[9] Illinois (6-11)

vs. Northwestern, vs. Indiana, at Penn State
Projected Finish: 8-12 (8th, winning tiebreaker on win over MSU)

[10] Rutgers (6-11)

at Iowa, vs. Penn State, at Indiana
Projected Finish: 7-13 (10th)

[11] Indiana (5-12)

vs. Michigan State, at Illinois, vs. Rutgers
Projected Finish: 6-14 (11th, 1-0 vs. Penn State)

[12] Penn State (5-12)

at wisconsin, at Rutgers, vs. Illinois
Projected Finish: 6-14 (12th, 0-1 vs. Indiana)

[13] Nebraska (5-13)

at Michigan State, vs. Iowa
Projected Finish: 5-15 (13th)

[14] Northwestern (3-14)

at Illinois, vs. Ohio State, vs. Purdue
Projected Finish: 3-17 (dead fucking last)

So, from this, the only real change: Maryland tumbles to 5th, with wisconsin grabbing the final double-bye on the last day with a road win at Ohio State. Illinois and Minnesota open up in the 8-9 game unless Indiana can beat Illinois in Champaign, in which case you can do your own math to figure out who wins a three-way Rutgers-Indiana-Illinois tie at 7-11. Ick.

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Got any bracketology thoughts? Big Ten seeding errata I made? Let us know in the comments.