Alternate Big Ten recaps here:

Otherwise here goes.

Big Ten Recaps

Monday, March 1

Nebraska Cornhuskers 72, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 51

RU in VA: Not great, Bob.

Just pointing out, my prediction was extremely close. I said that NE would lead by 30 for 75% of the game - and I was real close. They just led by 30 for 100% of the game.

I think this is an outlier based on what I watched. Reminder - RU schwacked and embarrassed MSU by 30 earlier this year and Izzo didn’t sound the alarm.

What I saw that concerns me was coaching. For all the praise Pike gets, some of his coaching decisions are madd weird. Rutgers has athletic talent. That’s why they win. So running an offense that consists of 5 dribble hand offs and an ISO drive/crappy 3 point attempt sounds dumb, right? You got 40 minutes of that last night. Defense was even worse with a game plan of “let’s just hope they miss when they shoot the orange ball at the hoop thing.”

BigRedTwice: This has been the most fun Nebrasketball game I can remember in awhile.

Jesse Collins: So like, I get that Nebraska isn’t good but this talk of them being the worst P5 school (saw that on twitter) is plain wrong. We are ONE of the worst but there are definitely schools that we are better then. Like Iowa state.

Anyhow, I’m with BRT. That’s was fun. We won rebounding, we passed the ball, we defended, we shot the ball well... All in all a great game.

Green Akers: Iowa State, Boston College, Vanderbilt, possibly Cal

DJ: Wake Forest

Jesse: Yeah. Not sure what to make of the bottom of the PAC 12. I think we are better than the bottom feeders but they have better records.

Tuesday, March 2

#4 Illinois Fighting Illini 73, #2 Michigan Wolverines 57

RockyMtnBlue: About a million years ago, Jonathan Ross made the mistake of seeing Battlefield Earth and penned the greatest movie review of all time for The Mirror in London.

This is a laser-accurate description of how I feel about the game Illinois played and Michigan attended on Tuesday. Illinois did pretty much whatever they wanted and took everything away that Michigan wanted. It was an skull-thumping for the ages. Michigan shot 27 mid-range jump shots in that game. You wanna know how to get your ass thoroughly handed to you at home? Shoot 27 mid-range jump shots.

<more stuff goes here>

#23 Purdue Boilermakers 73, #25 Wisconsin 69 (nice)

Kind Of: UW has dropped their last five games that don’t involve NU’s. See if you can spot the trend:

Cockburn 23 and 14; UW 4-24 from 3

Dickinson 11 and 15; UW 6-19 from 3

Garza 30 and 8; UW 13-34 from 3 (not bad...but Iowa D)

Cockburn 19 and 7; UW (prior to Trice going berserker red) 6-27 from 3

Edey 21 and 7; UW 7-29 from 3

It will be over soon, but not before Garza gets his licks in one last time this weekend. Congrats on MD and/or Rutgers dicktripping this week and still gaining on UW in the standings.

BoilerBettor: Anytime you can get a W, you take it. So my pick-your-own-adventure wasn’t quite right this time around. Eric Hunter Jr. finished with a whopping 2 points and Trevion Williams hefty amounts of the game on the bench in foul trouble. The good thing about that is someone apparently pissed Zach Edey and Aaron Wheeler off. If you saw that coming, you’re smoking something.

Post game, Edey talked about gaining some of his steely nature from being a pitcher. Could you imagine having to face a 7-footer on the mound? I sure as fuck don’t want to.

What I do want to do is sit back and enjoy this team. Damn, you don’t know who’s stepping up next.

Wednesday, March 3

Penn State Nittany Lions 84, Minnesota 65

Northwestern 60, Maryland 55

larry31: B1G basketball is stoopid. And people who care about it are stoopider. AARRRGGGGGGGGGG! Yep. I am one of them. I hate myself.

NW played a smart, disciplined game. Good defense. Very patient and intelligent on offense. And this is who MD is. If 2 of their top 3 scorers go AWOL, then they are going to lose. Ayala and Scott were off tonight. Wiggins looked great. Darryl Morsell, not known as on offensive wunderkind, did his best to take up some slack, but it wasn’t enough. MD didn’t score a field goal the last 4 minutes, but they executed their offensive sets, played good defense, but, just didn’t make their shots. None of the shots the last 4 minutes were bad. None went in.

Perspective: MD’s pre-season rank on KenPom was 57th. I thought they’d be lucky just to make the NCAA tournament. I can’t complain. Things could be worse. Am I right, MNW?

MNW: YOU’RE SURE RIGHT, DUM-DUM

Honestly, why are teams so stupid and bad at shooting?

Maryland could not, somehow, win a game on a night in which Miller Kopp distinguished himself with an OH-FOR-ELEVEN performance from the field. That’s the guy, in case you were wondering, who’s supposed to be one of Northwestern’s primary scorers.

You oafs.

It is always fun to watch Northwestern win. There are no draft picks, no incentive for teams to lose, even if you’re a mouthbreather at InsideNU who should be banned because you are jus tcreating an account under a new name and the same dumbass IP.

It’s college sports, so win whenever you can. Northwestern did that. I’m pleased.

Thursday, March 4

#2 Michigan Wolverines 69, Michigan State Spartans, 50

RockyMtnBlue: What could be better than a blowout win against a rival? A blowout win against a rival on senior day to clinch a conference title, our first in seven years.

It was kind of an ugly game as the teams combined for just 16 assists against 26 turnovers. It didn’t seem so much like good defense as both teams just being exhausted. I wish they’d cancel Sunday’s game and give both teams a full week of rest before the BTT. Of course, for that to happen the Big Ten would have to give a shit about its players.

On a side note I lost a Benny on MSU. So. Completely. Worth it.

Green Akers: This would be why I didn’t believe any Michigan fans pretending to fret about this game. MSU’s offense has been mostly horrendous all season, and this was no exception.

Izzo also fired a few rounds into the team’s foot by not letting Aaron Henry play through first half foul trouble. It went from a 4-point game when Henry was whistled for his second with about 6 minutes left to an 11-point halftime deficit. From halftime, it took MSU 15:56 to score enough points to eclipse Michigan’s halftime score. In case that’s unclear, Michigan could have dribbled out every possession, not even attempt a shot, for almost 80% of the second half before MSU erased their lead.

#5 Iowa Hawkeyes 102, Nebraska Cornhuskers 64

Stew: Iowa is good, UNL, less so. Jordan Bohannon had himself a game. 26 points in 25 minutes, 8/12 from deep. It was really nice to have a completely relaxing romp over a conference opponent. 13 players scored, going deep into the bench with more than 10 minutes left in the game. No starters played more than 25 minutes. It was nice.

---

Big Ten Tournament Projected Bracket

MNW will be along to talk about bracketology later today. Or so he says.