Big Ten Basketball Mid-Week Recaps, Friday Open Thread

Deep breath.

NO AND NOT JUST SO YOU CAN SCREAM “REFFFFFFFFFFFFFS”

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Anyway, recaps opened up with this gem:

Beez: Hot take the conference is actually not good.

DJ: Conference is very good. Conference probs doesn’t have a top tier contender for the tournament.

[I asked Beez to expound on his spicy take.]

Beez: Do you know what a hot take is? Because expounding makes them fall apart. I will just be surprised to see 3 in the [Sweet Sixteen].

DJ: Only 9 teams make it, rutger gets left out.

[I honestly don’t know if he was talking about the Sweet Sixteen or just the NCAA Tournament; irregardless, I am here for it.]

#24 Michigan State Spartans 78, #18 Iowa Hawkeyes 70

Iowa lost a frustrating game against Sparty. Sun rise, sun set.

But that Iowa was even competitive against MSU at Breslin, is a sign of optimism. It’s damn near March and Iowa hasn’t really faded, and is still competitive with the best of the conference on the road. Hell fucking yeah!

Also Luka Garza is the best player in the conference, but having an elite PG like Cassius Winston is still a probably more important winning games down the stretch. Dude is still a monster.

#16 Penn State Nittany Lions 65, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 64

The Lions blew an 18-point halftime lead and 10-point lead with under 6 minutes to go, as an Akwasi Yeboah three followed by a pair of Geo Baker layups actually put the Knights up two with under a minute to go as a Lamar Stevens missed jumper and turnover, followed by a Jacob Young steal on Jamari Wheeler and a Stevens missed free throw.

Enter Myles Dread.

ZuzuRU: Fucking Penn State beat Rutgers on an illegal screen and other help from the refs.

Well, OK then. Surely that’s at least the worst choke-job/almost-loss of the night...

#9 Maryland Terrapins 74, Minnesota Golden Gophers 73

I don’t recall anything happening in this game. Must’ve just been a good, clean, old-fashioned comeba—

Stew: I’d also like to say a few words about Maryland vs Minny. Because holy fuck that game.

Maryland went down big on the road in the first half. It happens. But there’s no goddamn conspiracy to keep you down. Those were fouls. Shut up. And you know what? All the complaining may have worked, because in the 2nd half your team got away with murder without getting called for it. Shut the fuck up.

Minnesota what the holy fuck was that meltdown? Lolololol I think you missed 3 front ends. Just amazing. Lil Ricky gonna be missed.

Andrew K: Minnesota should not fire Ricky. (I enjoy the high probability of winning every time regardless of the star players he’s able to find.)

MNW: ^^^the Tom Izzo approach to firings: “It’s a damn shame that [coach I went 14-2 against] was fired. I thought he should’ve gotten more time, was doing great things there.”

Andrew K: Lifetime contract for Chris Collins plz.

WhiteSpeedReceiver could not be reached for comment, presumably because he is checking the Pairwise or beating people into submission until they turn in expense forms.

DJ Carver: Stew seems to think a ref with his back to the play that calls a T is an actual ref using his eyes. I disagree. These refs clearly came in with an agenda, as referenced by the quick T on Turgeon with less than 4 into the game for what would be considered a light discourse at most for Izzo or Fran. Ditto for Cowan who said nothing and slapped the floor with less force than MSU floor slapping on defense.

Anyways, I’m not gonna lie, I turned it off when they gave Jalen his 3rd foul. The first half was such bullshit that I couldn’t watch. Aaron Wiggins and Darryl Morsell proved me wrong and Jalen Smith dropped a double double in the second half to lead Maryland to an improbable comeback.

Andrew K: Dwell on the occasional floor slap all you want—Duke’s never calling you back.

Wisconsin Badgers 81, #19 Michigan Wolverines 74

I honestly don’t get how this wisconsin team sticks around, and I’m not going to waste any more time dwelling on it. Congrats to the badgers, I suppose. Fuck Michigan.

MC ClapYoHandz: Wisconsin somehow got better after losing Kobe King. Ball movement is great, D’Mitrik Trice has full command of the offense, and it always helps when a live or die by the 3 team is doing the former. Wisconsin let Zavier Simpson do what he wanted and took away everything else and it worked out.

I feel badly for whoever draws Michigan in the tournament. You can methodically build up a nice lead on them over time if you’re good, but once they figure it out they liquidate it like it’s nothing.

Purdue Boilermakers 57, Indiana Hoosiers 49

Boilerman31:

Indiana in the first half: Jack up wild shots, get offensive rebounds miss multiple opportunities.
Purdue in the first half: Feed Trevion Williams and make this game as fugly as possible.

Indiana in the second half: Be more aggressive on defense, scare the Boilers, falter late.
Purdue in the second half: Jump to a big lead, coast while keeping things fugly, hit FTs, continue in-state dominance.

Candystripes: If Indiana makes the tournament, it will be an indictment of just how terrible the rest of the country is at basketball.

A large portion of this game looked like the combined final score wouldn’t break 100, and somehow only one team broke 50. All the hype in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t make a single shot for large stretches of the game, and Indiana had TWO of those stretches tonight.

HOW? FUCKING HOW, ARCHIE?

Illinois Fighting Illini 74, Northwestern Wildcats 66

This game was never as close as the score might imply—the Illini’s Alan Griffin came off screens, moved without the ball, and just generally torched a Northwestern defense that was not only, as InsideNU’s Daniel Olinger has detailed, slow to rotate, but looked at times disinterested in closing out with their hands up or boxing out.

There were good things from Pete Nance, there were bad things from Pete Nance. Miller Kopp looks lost and burnt out, Boo Buie is pressing and jacking awful shit up, Ryan Young was never going to be able to handle Kofi Cockburn inside. And Griffin (along with Ayo Dosunmu) was, as mentioned, just hyper-effective against the ‘Cats mix of zone and man. It was an Illinois W from the start.

Last thing: If you are one of the 25 Illini students who came up and did some dramatic “reveal” in the second deck as if you’d somehow “taken over” an arena that is consistently 60% visiting fans, look in the mirror, reconsider your life decisions, and remember that you’re a self-important prick.

Also, hope Lovie picked up some pointers on how to beat the worst Northwestern team in a decade as he watched from the stands. Fuck you, Illinois.

#23 Ohio State Buckeyes 75, Nebraska Cornhuskers 54

I’ll be honest: Sent this to press before Jesse or BRT could get back to me, and I doubt they watched or gave a shit, either.

Nebraska hosts Northwestern on Saturday! Either the Huskers put themselves permanently out of the basement with a third conference win, or the ‘Cats complete the season sweep of their fellow cellar-dweller.

Bracketology coming down the pike! Hold tight.

And, as always, to reiterate: There is no conspiracy against your basketball team. Shut the fuck up and watch hoops. You might even learn something about your offensive or defensive schemes instead of critiquing the referees all game.

Thanks.