Hi all! MNW is in the throes of dissertation writing, LPW is busy promising to write articles that he never writes, and everyone else is... stuck at a caucus in Iowa? I don’t know. At any rate, I’ve become the de facto basketball person this week, which is really too bad, because I’m not that deeply into basketball.

Them’s the breaks.

Speaking of breaks, did you see how Purdue didn’t miss a single* three pointer all game on Wednesday night? It was really something!

*Slightly exaggerated, but not much

Anyway, shootyhoops. Purdue won by a lot, MSU had a bad sports day, Rutgers the Great is no longer ranked, and Nebraska didn’t play which gave them the best week they’ve had in awhile.

Tuesday, February 4

Ohio State Buckeyes def. Michigan Wolverines, 61-58

No one gave us any previews for this game, nor any recaps. OSU went to Michigan. A game occurred. No one much cared. So it goes, eh?

Maryland Terrapins (#9) def Rutgers Scarlet Knights (The Great and Mighty), 56-51

I know?!?!! I was shocked too. But the mighty Scarlet Knights of Piscataway seem to be piscatawaying their momentum with a second straight loss. It be like that sometimes, I guess.

BrianB2: The first half of the Maryland Rutgers game was enough to make the eyes melt out of a sane person’s skull. Thankfully, Rutgers and Maryland fans alike lost their sanity years ago. Rutgers defense lived up to the billing, thankfully their offense did too. Jalen Smith is a good hoops-ball player, and Anthony Cowan continues to silence his haters. The road gets a bit tougher ahead, but Turgeon is known for how well he closes out regular season stretches, so no worries.

Most Dedicated Rugster Fan, Thumpasaurus: well, the rugster’s on a two game losing streak, but this was a much better performance than they put on against michigan. may not seem like it if you just look at the box score, but they played rugsterball against the terps. see that? that’s a good 10 minutes of game time that went exactly how Coach Pycelle wants to win games: get out to an early lead and then nobody scores the rest of the game. jalen smith proved to be a match for kylometers jackson, pulling down 15 boards. the problem there is that though tusgerr played their type of game, maryland, like illinois before them, beat them at it. Set Rrug’s three point shooting is becoming a serious liability. on to northwetsern and back to the comforts of the CAR (Centre Athletique des Reutjers) in hoboken. the best rebounding team needs to do some rebounding in a more metaphorical sense.

Rutgers may not have the wins coming anymore, but they’ve still got Thump, and that’s something.

Penn State Nittany Lions (#22) def. Michigan State Spartans (#16), 75-70

This was a pretty exciting game to the unaffiliated, but in the end, PSU, as they say, apparently wanted it more. This is likely just MSU’s regularly scheduled mid-season swoon, so things will likely be back in order soon... but if they’re not, they can blame Mark Dantonio, I guess.

Aaron Yorke: Penn State is now a contender for the Big Ten title after beating Michigan State in East Lansing for its fifth straight conference win. Cassius Winston had a terrific game, but Penn State’s defense held all other Spartan scorers under 10 points and used some uncharacteristic MSU turnovers to fuel transition offense. The Lions got great games from both Lamar Stevens and Myreon Jones, with the latter scoring 20 points with six three-point makes and five assists. It’s going to be fun to watch how high this team can rise now that the offense is clicking.

Wednesday, February 5

Purdue Boilermakers def. Iowa Hawkeyes (#17), 104-68

You may have heard a little something about this one already, and it was certainly a sight to behold. Iowa was utterly powerless to slow Purdue, and numerous players and possibly even a few coaches rained three-pointers on Iowa all game long. Purdue ended with 19/34 three pointers (55.9%) and shot 63.1% from the field.

DJ: Iowa lost so bad it dropped MD two spots in Kenpom.

Boilerman31: If you hadn’t noticed, Purdue’s pretty damn good in Mackey Arena. Not that I’m saying shooting 63% from the field and hitting 19 of 34 from downtown is completely sustainable, but hey, it makes for a fun night. The amazing thing about this win is how balanced the box score looks. Evan Boudreaux led the way with 18, followed by three guys with 15 points each. It seemed like everyone was getting theirs against Iowa. Even Tommy Luce. The Boilermakers’ loveable Senior walk-on had two three-pointers in garbage time to keep Mackey rocking to the final buzzer. Matt Painter needed to keep this team moving forward and he certainly got the effort the Boiler faithful were looking for.

StewMonkey: Woof, where the hell did that come from? I mean, I know Iowa’s defense is far from good, but that was ri-goddamn-diculous. The offense wasn’t even doing that poorly while they were still trying. I’m not sure if Purdue could even repeat that performance against air. It was Iowa’s 4th game in 10 days and Mackey is a nightmare, so I wasn’t exactly expecting a win, but I also wasn’t expecting gestures vaguely that. Is this the start of another swoon? Who knows. Might now more after Saturday’s home game against UNL, but since that’s the finish of a stretch of 5 games in 13 days, even then it could just be this grueling stretch. Oh well.

Creighton: I spent the entire game telling myself that Purdue couldn’t keep hitting 60% of their shots, but alas. The Boilers also hit an incredible 19 three-pointers. I don’t know what to say, other than all too often trying to win a game in Mackey is like trying to divide by zero. It sucks, but I’m moving on.

I’m not sure “It sucks, but I’m moving on” worked on too many third-grade math tests, but props to Creighton for trying.

Minnesota def. Wisconsin, 70-52

As rumors swirl around Kobe King’s departure and the internet handles it about like you’d expect it to, Wisconsin welcomed back Brad Davison to no great effect. The Badgers looked listless all night, shooting a paltry 28.4% from the field. Oof.

Beez: Woof. That tweet and “woof” are my game recap.

WhiteSpeedReciever: Tonight’s halftime entertainment is a chainsaw artist making a Goldy Gopher head out of a block of wood:

They’re a tough half of the Quadrangle to keep focused, what can I say.

Aside from Purdue’s offensive circus, it was a pretty tame mid-week. But lots of games are happening this weekend, and we’ll have previews! Sometime...