Down goes Michigan State! Big Ten Basketball Weekend Recaps

Basically this is just 600 words on Northwestern-Nebraska and lots of “pithy” and “witty” remarks thereafter. But Michigan State lost and you are here to laugh about that, and we will all enjoy this together.

Friday, January 10

Iowa Hawkeyes 67, #12 Maryland Terrapins 49

Stewmonkey13: So I said Maryland should sag off everyone except Wieskamp and double Garza. And if they didn’t, they’re idiots. Well. Idiots they be.

Also holy hell that is some truly horrific offense they’ve got.

DJ Carver: That’s generous of you insinuating we have something that resembles an offense.

Stew: Maryland should be able to shoot over a zone. But even if not, use a goddamn high post with shooters on the wings and smith in the short corner. Not sure I ever saw Maryland run a high post

DJ: He would have you believe that part of the offense isn’t installed so far. Too many games, couldn’t do it in practice. Then gets 10 day break and tells people he didn’t practice 6 days in a row.

Creighton M: I’m willing to admit it was incredibly stupid of me to say that Maryland might score 55 in one half. Turgeon is hard to watch sometimes. Lots of talent, but in game decision making is as bad as you’ll find anywhere.

Saturday, January 11

Indiana Hoosiers 66, #11 Ohio State Buckeyes 54

Candystripes: Indiana men’s basketball and beating ranked teams at home: name a more inexplicable matched duo.

BigRedTwice: Jerry and Gail Gergich.

Wisconsin Badgers 58, #20 Penn State Nittany Lions 49

pkloa: Is it co-ed fencing season yet?

Aaron Yorke: This is the year that Penn State wasn’t supposed to lose the winnable home game to a mediocre Wisconsin team. Especially not when the Nittany Lions were coming off a game against Rutgers that they also would have won if this was a special team.

Instead, we got the same scoring lapses and letdowns that have characterized the Pat Chambers era. Mike Watkins did almost nothing, Curtis Jones and Myles Dread dropped brick after brick from beyond the arc, and the defense allowed Micah Potter to come off the bench and look like Frank Kaminsky in his fifth year of eligibility.

These are the same old problems we’ve seen in the past, and if this team doesn’t start winning games soon, it’s going to be headed to the NIT again. The road ahead doesn’t get easier, with a trip to The Barn -- where the Gophers have been unstoppable lately -- up next followed by a home game against what should be a desperate Ohio State team.

Illinois Fighting Illini 54, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 51

Thumpasaurus: Thank god we get some time off after surviving a brutalizing brick fight with rugster that turned into a basketball game in the last four minutes.

Giorgi Bezhanishvili in particular seems very confused about what sport he’s playing these days. Please reference his rather ponderous possession I linked above. Kofi Cockburn, though, continues to live up to the hype and cause all kinds of problems in the offensive post. Ayo Dosunmu is always there with 15 points and some late game heroics, while Alan Griffin continues to see oddly limited minutes considering he’s our best deep shooter.

You could potentially convince me that the Big Ten is ass-ish enough that this is a top five team.

Northwestern Wildcats 62, Nebraska Cornhuskers 57

Jesse Collins: Know what Nebrasketball does whenever it wins a game it probably shouldn’t? Immediately lose a game it probably should win. I applaud the fight in the second half and Burke 1000% got fouled on that 3 but like, we were never hitting three free throws and also maybe don’t get in a 15 point first half deficit.

BRT: If we’d hoped Nebraska had turned a corner or figured out something against Iowa, this game put those hopes back on the shelf. The Huskers put forth a haphazard effort, shooting poorly (as per usual) from the line, hardly trying to rebound, and taking random long shots with little apparent design.

Meanwhile, Northwestern couldn’t miss from three, and the huge hole the Huskers soon found themselves in only exacerbated their tendency to take bad shots from deep. The second half was better, with the Huskers finding a renewed commitment to defense, and made things very exciting at the end, somehow putting themselves in position to tie in the waning seconds.

MNW: That’s what it can look like when Northwestern puts together a performance with 4-5 contributors instead of 2 guys scoring 20. Not a great night for Ryan Young (as I’d predicted, but you already knew I’m a fraud), but Robbie Beran finally came into his own, particularly off a couple drives and catch-and-releases, from what I saw in the highlights. Would be huge to have a scorer who doesn’t need to be on the block or spotted up from three.

Ultimately a win is a win, and that near-choke job aside, happy the kids got it done. You hope NU and UNL can spend more time this year playing spoiler to others, rather than each other.

Sunday, January 12

Purdue Boilermakers 71, #8 Michigan State Spartans 42

Andrew K: Someone here mentioned MSU goes through a dead span in the middle of conference season every year. Looks like we hit it. Don’t think I’ll bother catching this one on the ol’ DVR.

Boilerman31:

Minnesota Golden Gophers 75, #19 Michigan Wolverines 67

WhiteSpeedReceiver: The Gophers at home have 2 wins over top 25 teams. The Gophers on the road will find a way to lose to Northwestern and wisconsin.

Also, Daniel Oturu is still horribly underrated [ed. note: he had 30 and 7, if you’re curious; Marcus Carr had 21 points and 12 assists]. Hopefully Gopher fans enjoy the last 2+ months of his collegiate career.