Didn’t want to post another article that would ruin all BoilerUp89’s hard work—so I’m hiding this in the layout! Go read his excellent work, not this drivel!

Here are the early-week Big Ten basketball games, in roughly chronological order:

Monday, December 20

Big Ten Basketball

{WBB} #9 Maryland Terrapins AT Coppin State Eagles

10am | Eleven Sports/Fubo (Fios 597, U-Verse 1665, DirecTV 623)

No idea why Maryland’s on the road for this, but I assume there’s some connection either on the in-state or at the coaching level.

{WBB} Michigan State Spartans vs. Florida Gulf Coast Eagles

10am | FloSports ($) | West Palm Beach Invitational

A game you probably won’t be able to watch—but a good chance for MSU to pick up a quality win come Tournament time, as will be tomorrow’s matchup with West Virginia. FOTP SpartyOnHuskers has been keeping you apprised of all the MSU WBB goings-on over at The Only Colors.

{MBB} Northwestern Wildcats vs. Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars

6pm | BTN+ | an actual game

UIS was very cordial to correct me that the Prairie Stars (an A-plus nickname) are D-II, not D-III, so some of the luster is off complaining my about this game happening in the first place. The Prairie Stars have a little height, a host of interesting JUCO transfers, and an Evanston native on their roster, so maybe they make this a game if Northwestern sleepwalks—I just hope everyone has a good time and no one gets hurt.

{MBB} #3 Purdue Boilermakers vs. Incarnate Word Cardinals

7pm | BTN | Purdue -38!!! | O/U 144.5

I assume if BoilerUp didn’t want to preview this, it’s not worth previewing. The Cardinals are the fifth-worst team in college basketball, per Kenpom.

BoilerUp89: This game is being played for two reasons. 1) The head coach of Incarnate Word is Dr. Carson Cunningham and he played at Purdue back in the day. He did well coaching in the NAIA, but even though Incarnate Word has made some progress since year 1 he’s having trouble getting them off the ground in year 4. 2) If you are going to have buy games against really bad teams, you should really play them around the holidays when the players/fans have other things on their minds - not early in non-conference play when you could be going out and actually preparing yourself for the season.

Other Basketball of Note on Monday

This might be the worst basketball day of the year so far. Here are your options for some exceptionally-bad hoops:

Hendrix College at Central Arkansas Bears

12pm | UCA feed

COOL MUSIC. (Hendrix College is actually in Conway, AR.)

South Carolina State Bulldogs at The Citadel Bulldogs

4pm | ESPN+ | Citadel -13.5 | O/U 152.5

BULLDOG BATTLE.

The Citadel’s hosting some kind of local jamboree gig—Manhattan and Charleston Southern follow them at 6pm on ESPN+, too. (Jaspers -9, O/U 141.5.) None of this will be good basketball.

Summit League play starts!

Kansas City Roos at South Dakota State Jackrabbits (-13, O/U 145.5) [7pm, ESPN+]
Oral Bob’s House of Learning (-3, O/U 143) at South Dakota Coyotes [7pm, ESPN+]
St. Thomas Tommies (-1.5, O/U 149) at Omaha Mavericks [7pm, Omaha feed]
Western Illinois Leathernecks (-8.5, O/U 140.5 at Denver Pioneers [8pm, Denver feed]

Of those, I’d peg Oral Bob’s-South Dakota to be the most competitive, UST-Omaha to be the ugliest—neither team plays a lick of defense—and KC-SDSU to feature the best team (the Jacks).

Tuesday, December 21

We’ll look at bringing you previews here or in a new piece when I can find the rest of the OTE writers. Pray for me.

Here are the NET rankings for women’s and men’s hoops.

{WBB} Michigan State vs. West Virginia

10am | FloSports ($) | West Palm Beach Invitational

{WBB} Purdue vs. North Alabama Lions

10am | BTN+

{WBB} #14 Iowa vs. IUPUI Jaguars

2pm | BTN+

{WBB} #24 Ohio State at San Diego State Aztecs

3pm | Mountain West Network

{WBB} Wright State Raiders at #10 Indiana Hoosiers

6pm | BTN+

{MBB} Fort Wayne Mastodons at Michigan Wolverines

6pm | BTN | line, total TBD

{MBB} #12 Michigan State Spartans at Oakland Golden Grizzlies

6:30pm | ESPN+ | line, total TBD
LIttle Caesar’s Arena, Detroit, MI

{MBB} SE Louisiana Lions at Iowa Hawkeyes

7pm | BTN+ | line, total TBD

{WBB} Oregon Ducks at Northwestern Wildcats

8pm | BTN

Super-excited to see the ‘Cats (NET 66) on regular BTN, and in a fun P5 matchup. Oregon (NET 15) just got phenom transfer G Endiya Rogers back from injury and boasts a 6’7” C in Sedona Prince, both things that match up poorly with Northwestern, even though the Ducks just lost a tough one to Kansas State.

The ‘Cats struggled to deal with a full-court press in last week’s mid-week win over Milwaukee and saw their shooting woes continue in a 68-58 win over Temple. It’s not the prettiest right now in Evanston, but it’s winning...against Oregon that luck runs out unless Veronica Burton finds her shooting stroke again.

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Thread for the Monday-Tuesday hoops action. There’s NFL on, and we’ll have bowl game stuff later today. Enjoy.