Hi, happy Tuesday. Here are some basketball recaps. Go nuts!

Friday, February 7

Maryland Terrapins (#9) def. Illinois Fighting Illini (#20), 75-66

Thumpasaurus: It sucks that we pissed away a shot at a Big Ten title, but that feeling is dwarfed by being thrilled we had a shot to piss away. That being said, for the second time in Big Ten play, we shot ourselves out of a game in the second half. Hopefully nobody figures out that we’re not consistently good enough at perimeter shooting to avoid getting shut down by a zone.Whoever it was that convinced Underwood to abandon his pressure defense needs to get in his ear about benching guys with two fouls. Illinois was running the Terps out of the building for part of the first half, and while the broadcast team discussed Turgeon switching to a zone defense as a reason they got right back in the game, they glossed over how much more effective a zone is when your opponent is missing their best perimeter shooter (Frazier) and best rebounder (Cockburn). Kofi I sort of understand; he’s prone to fouling out. I’m not sure if Trent or Ayo have ever fouled out. Now, maybe it wouldn’t have made that big a difference in light of the second half shooting, but damn, Trent rode the bench for the last TWELVE MINUTES of the first half. It’s basically the same as fouling out!I think the Giorgi-is-a-forward experiment can be over now. He needs to be our backup center. Whatever it is he’s trying to do isn’t working.

It’s very worrying that Mark Turgeon routinely coaches circles around Brad Underwood.

Saturday, February 8

Michigan Wolverines def. Michigan State Spartans (#16), 77-68

Brian G: Yo, I wrote a whole article on this game.

Andrew Krapwelostski: No comment.

Purdue Boilermakers def. Indiana Hoosiers, 74-62

Boilerman31: It was glorious. It was beautiful. It was everything I could hope for. Of course, I’m not talking about Former Coach Bob Knight returning to Dis-Assembly Hall for the first time in 20 years. I’m talking about Purdue going 8/16 from behind the arc. Answering Indiana’s runs with bigger runs. Finishing the half on a 12-0 streak. There was irony in watching Coach Knight trying to start a Defense change at the half since defense has largely been missing from Indiana since he was fired.For IU fans who want to start to the 5-0 stuff, I respond, what’s that? The number of coaches each program will have fired when Archie is let go since 2000?

Iowa Hawkeyes (#17) def. Nebraska Cornhuskers, 96-72

BRT: Nebraska’s game went exactly as predicted. A recently humiliated Iowa worked out its frustration on the Huskers. Really, this was over in just a few minutes—the Huskers were down 21-5 before the 15 minute mark in the first, which is, as they say, not ideal. As this team often does, they did manage to claw back into it, closing the gap to only four points a little before halftime, but another scoring burst by Iowa after the start of the second half eliminated any suspense the rest of the way.Surprisingly, not everything was terrible for Nebraska. They shot 42% from the floor (not awful for them) to Iowa’s 48%. The 3-point disparity was gruesome though—5/25 for the Huskers, and 11/28 for Iowa. Most surprisingly though, Nebraska shot almost 79% from the free throw line, which I don’t think has happened ever.I dunno. Watching the Huskers is hard this year. They have a chance in almost none of the games they play, so you just have to identify various bright spots.

StewMonkey: Alright, so that was kinda fun. I know UNL isn’t good, but it’s still nice to know that this team can bounce back from an ass whooping and dole one out themselves. My fears of a February swoon were at least premature. Luka Garza is neigh unstoppable, (Ed. Note: I know Garza has a distinctive face, but going with “neigh” here instead of “nigh” is a little cruel, Stew.) Joe Wieskamp is a lot of fun, and Connor McCaffery has really made being a tweener position work, and even finding a 3 pt shot in the process. I’m still hesitant about gloating too much as this is still a fairly thin team, and a swoon could still happen. However, I am enjoying the hell out of each game until it does.

Penn State Nittany Lions (#22) def. Minnesota Golden Gophers, 83-77

WhiteSpeedReciever: I still haven’t watched the game yet, but it sounds like we played like crap (outside of Daniel Oturu) for a large stretch and then Marcus Carr decided to make it a game. Sigh.

BRT: I watched a bit of this one, and can I just say how surreal it was to watch a PSU home game that was actually loud? Every other game I’ve watched there since 2011 has been like watching a game weirdly played in a mausoleum.

Sunday, February 9

Wisconsin Badgers def. Ohio State Buckeyes, 70-57

Beez: Basketball is good again.

Ed. Note: Both Beez and MC watched this game, and this is literally all they gave me for the recap thread. I know, I know... this is the kind of scintillating commentary you come here for! Basketball is good again.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights (unranked, but still Great) def. Northwestern Wildcats, 77-73

Now THIS is the game that captured all of our imaginations! It was a doozy of a choke job for Northwestern, but also yet another proof of Rugsters’ greatness.

MNW: I still can’t believe it, and yet it makes perfect sense.

Zuzu, back in action: WOW. What a game. I cannot believe Rutgers Basketball of all teams is the type of team to be down an insane amount and not be counted out, and actually come back to WIN. And when I say Rutgers I mean Geo Baker, earth shaker, soul taker, money maker, undertaker, game breaker, bed maker, leaf raker.

StewMonkey: With 9 minutes left it was something like 57-43. And I think to myself, all jNW has to do is get to 70 points. No fuckin’ way roogster can score 27 points in 9 minutes. And here we are.

Oh this is way worse loss for jNW than the Purdue game.

Andrew Krapwelostski: I can’t bear to watch Northwestern do this and so I’m now watching the Westminster agility competition and I suggest you all do the same.

Liliann the Aussie Shepherd, fucking elite.

Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

There you have it! A weekend of meh in Big Ten basketball, and a picture of a silly-looking dog.