Big Ten Weekend Basketball Recaps

Games happened.

Maryland Terrapins 100, Wingate Bulldogs 58

DJ: Maryland played Wyngate [sic] to replace Nebraska. It was 100-58. Things happened of zero consequence.

Oh, of importance though! Turgeon got caught dropping the F bomb telling the team “PASS THE FUCKING BALL, GO DO IT NOW!” In a timeout. I didn’t know that fit into his Midwestern nice mentality and am sure it was a moment of weakness from him

#10 Wisconsin Badgers 60, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 54

Stewmonkey13: Kick both wisconsin and rutger out of the sport.

#17 Minnesota Golden Gophers 75, #7 Michigan Wolverines 57

WSR: Minnesota has petitioned the B1G and the NCAA to have the rest of the Gophers season and the entire tournament played at Williams Arena.

It finally happened—Michigan had a player, any player (it was Eli Brooks) out with an injury, Hunter Dickinson struggled against Liam Robbins, and Mike Smith scored 0 points.

#15 Ohio State Buckeyes 87, #22 Illinois Fighting Illini 81

Happened as well.

#4 Iowa Hawkeyes 96, Northwestern Wildcats 73

Stew: Well, that was a bit of a romp, wasn’t it? And Luka Garza didn’t even have to do all that much work. He logged 17 points (all first half) in just 24 minutes. This was really a whole team beat down with 5 players in double digits, 14 players getting minutes.

And since everyone knows about Garza, Jordan Bohannon, and Joe Wieskamp, let me highlight the favorite for 6th man of the year in the conference, true freshman Keegan Murray. Son of Hawkeye great Kenyon Murray, Keegan is stuffing the stats in most games, and against jNW he had 8 points (on 4/4 shooting), 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steel, and 2 blocks in 16 minutes. He’s a lot of fun to watch.

MNW: Boo Buie’s back, but literally everything else came off the rails. Northwestern—which, yes, is in a stretch of seven ranked teams in a row and beat only one, OSU, while losing to Iowa twice—looks lost. Pete Nance is good but doesn’t have it night-in, night-out. Chase Audige is a chucker who can take over games and then shoot four misguided long twos, commit two fouls, and check out for 15 minutes. Miller Kopp struggles to create his own shot.

I dunno. Maybe it’s over, maybe it’s not. Hard to tell in a stacked Big Ten when the ‘Cats have not played anyone besides Michigan State who, well, sucks.

But it doesn’t look like Chris Collins or the Wildcats have the answer, either.

Purdue Boilermakers 80, Penn State Nittany Lions 72

BoilerBettor: This game was a grind start to finish as is tradition between these teams. In the first half, Purdue would jump to a lead and then Penn State would scrap back. Both teams couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from 3 going a combined 3-for-246 or something like that in the opening stanza. The second half saw some better flow to it with Purdue opening up with a 10-0 run and then kept the Nittany Lions at arms length down the stretch.

After reeling off three straight, it appears Matt Painter has this young crew headed in the right direction. That said, it’s going to continue to be up and down with these guys. Sasha is frustratingly streaky from the arc, Zach Edey and Trevion Williams still foul at a high clip (Williams only played 19 minutes due to foul trouble), and this team is hella turnover prone. However, the future is trending upward. Jaden Ivey is fearless, Brandon Newman’s defense is beginning to ratchet up (4 blocks!), and the team is really starting to gel. Now comes a quick turnaround trip to Ohio State.

Who knows when we’ll see Fred Hoiberg and the Huskers again—the lead man in Lincoln has COVID. We wish him and any other players affected a safe recovery. Feels, as Green Akers noted in the Slack, like a lifetime ago we were positive Hoiberg had it when they canceled the Big Ten Tournament.

There are games already happening. If you want to talk about them, here you go.