The Big Ten went a perfect 13-0 on Monday and then everyone’s favorite college basketball team extended the conference’s undefeated streak on Tuesday with a win over Milwaukee.

Monday, November 7th Recaps

Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons 56, Michigan 75

Dale Young-USA TODAY Sports

Never made the tournament Fort Wayne made a spirited attempt early, but some pretty paltry shooting numbers (29.6% overall, 23.7% from 3) meant that Michigan was able to pull away. Dickinson and Jett Howard looked good for the Wolverines, but there wasn’t a lot of production from anyone else.

RMB: Did not see the game but apparently twice when Michigan sat Dickenson, Michigan scored 0 points for a while. Can a big, clumsy 7-footer play 48 minutes every night?

BoilerUp89: Math is hard.

MaximumSam: A good looking win for Michigan over a game PFW squad. They showed a lot more energy than they did last year, plus Jett Howard looked like a star with 21 points and going 5-10 from three in his debut. On the downside, no one else besides Jett and Hunter Dickinson showed much, outside of perhaps Joey Baker, who hit some threes.

Morehead State Eagles 53, Indiana 88

Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

I know we were all rooting for Morehead, but Indiana turned this one into a bit of a rout. Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 15 points, but Malik Reneau came off the bench to match him in scoring and did so much more efficiently. Concerns for Indiana are that 3 point shooting was just 4 of 11 and the FT line was a 12 of 21 hiccup.

BuffKomodo: I do not have BTN+ and I was coaching at the time so I did not watch. Have read nothing that’s alarming yet. Things seem to be okay in Bloomington at the time of writing.

MaximumSam: Interesting to see freshman Hood-Schifino lead the team in minutes. He didn’t have much impact in the box score. Fellow frosh Malik Reneau did - 15 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks in just 17 minutes.

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 55, Michigan State 73

MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

About halfway thru the first half, Sparty pulled ahead by about 10 points and kept the game between 10 and 15 points for most of the rest of the game. Malik Hall continues to be uninterested in becoming an all-conference type player as he attempted just 4 field goals in 34 minutes.

MaximumSam: Joey Hauser led Sparty with a double double, and Pierre Brooks came off the bench to get 14 points, including four threes. Other facts to report - Carson Cooper played a few minutes, suggesting he won’t redshirt this season.

BoilerUp89: It doesn’t just suggest it - it mean’s he can’t redshirt unless it’s of the medical variety.

Columbia Lions 35, Rutgers 75

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

In what was just a 25-21 game late in the 1st half, Rutgers would close on a 50-14 run to end the game in the last 21+ minutes of play. A rough first half with long scoring droughts for the Scarlet Knights still say them with a ten point advantage at halftime that they would build upon and never look back.

All five starters were in double figures with former Loyola-Maryland transfer Cam Spencer leading the way with 17 points. Aundre Hyatt racked in a double-double, while Cliff Omoruyi was a rebound short of doing so as well.

The Lions shot an abysmal 4.8% from three point range. FOUR POINT EIGHT (or 1 of 21).

Winthrop Eagles 68, Penn State 93

Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Winthrop honestly shot pretty well in this game, but Penn State got off 11 more shot attempts as they were able to win the rebounding battle and create 17 turnovers. Pickett and Funk were outstanding. Myles Dread provided some instant offense from behind the three point line off the bench.

MaximumSam: Penn State had an unexpected starting lineup, with Andrew Funk, Cam Wynter, and Caleb Dorsey joining Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy. They were great from three, going 18/38 and hitting an effective field goal percentage of 70%.

misdreavus79: When you set a record for 3-point makes, you end up with the highest scoring output in regulation in years. The Nittany Lions got plenty out of incoming transfer Andrew Funk, whose six three-pointers were the most on the team (followed by Myles Dread with four). If Funk can perform at a similar level throughout the season, the Lions should be able to relieve the burden on Kebba Njie, who seems to be the big man to take most of the minutes at the five.

The aforementioned Funk, Cam Wynter, and Caleb Dorsey were the starters in this one, which is unexpected, but Shrewsberry has said in the past that he’s lookin

Robert Morris Colonials 53, Ohio State 91

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

I’ll let MaxSam take this one.

MaximumSam: The great news is that Justice Sueing actually played, and looked good! Or at least looked good on the box score because I didn’t fool around with BTN+. Bruce Thornton got the start at point, but appeared to struggle quite a bit. Zed Key shoots threes now. Zed Three, right? Ice Likelele ended up leading the team in minutes, rebounds, assists, and steals, and feels like he is already a big leader of the team. Plus he dunked on the mop man.

Niagara Purple Eagles 49, Maryland 71

Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images

This one was close up until 16 minutes to go in the 2nd half as Maryland held just a four point lead. But a Niagara scoring drought of nearly 7 minutes made this a double digit lead for the Terrapins and they were able to widen that gap late. Niagara made zero three pointers, but only attempted six of them. Donta Scott lead the Terrapins with 18 points.

Bethune-Cookman Wildcats 58, Iowa 89

Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

Bethune Cookman plays Indiana next so that will give us an early comparison point between two of the I teams. Iowa shared the ball well as all five starters were in double figures despite none of them playing 25 minutes.

stewmonkey13: Iowa won. Reggie Theus coaches Bethune Cookman?!? Tony Perkins looks really good, but he’s still not a PG and that could be an issue at some point. Kris is about as smooth as his brother. Big Josh Ogundele euro-stepped, and that was awesome.

MaximumSam: A pretty balanced effort out of the Hawkeyes. They only hit a third of their threes, or else it could have been a much wider score. The Kris Murray watch saw him getting 14 and 6 but but also had 4 turnovers and went 1-4 from three.

Chicago State Cougars 54, Northwestern 85

Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

MNWildcat wrote a thesis about the game below, so I’ll let him sum it up.

MNW: It went just fine after a slow start, and the ‘Cats did exactly what they should’ve done to Chicago State. The Cougars were horrific, shooting under 30% and committing 28 fouls, meaning Northwestern padded a whole lotta stats at the foul line.And, uh...we got a depth problem. Holy shit. Things of note:

• G Ty Berry stepped up and played more of a role in the offense last night. Streaky shooter with generally better court awareness. But can he get his shots off against B1G competition? Ball movement key to making that happen.
• Guards Boo Buie and Chase Audige were themselves, though Audige’s 9 assists were great. His 2/7 shooting remains bad..
• Robbie Beran’s 20 included 10 FTs, so not holding my breath there.
• Sixth man Brooks Barnhizer was pretty pedestrian, which is a problem because this team has NO depth. Julian Roper was out with illness, so hopefully he’s back soon, but this was a 7-man roster that inspired little confidence.
• C Matt Nicholson has added some heft to his frame — that’s the one thing I’m REALLY encouraged about. Anyone should be able to push around Chicago State, but Nicholson ran the floor a bit and moved adequately to give me hope he can be a cromulent big.

MaximumSam: I didn’t watch the game. Was there a reason Northwestern played four starters over thirty minutes in a blowout win? I guess they will be sticking to a pretty strict seven man rotation. Chicago State was brick city, going 7-29 from two and 9-34 from three.

Maine Black Bears 66, Nebraska 79

Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn’t an overly comfortable win over one of the worst Division 1 teams, but Nebraska was able to put together a run with about 13 minutes to go in the game to stretch this one out. Sam Grisel had 22 points, Juwan Gary had a double-double, and Keisei Tominaga had 19 off the bench. Shoutout to Maine’s Gedi Juozapaitis - the transfer from Georgia Southern - on his 6 of 7 shooting night from 3 point range.

Jesse: I don’t have BTN+ and so I couldn’t see Nebraska beat the great Black Bears of Maine but a win is a win! Transfers Sam Greisel and Juwan Gary seemingly anchored all the stats that Swaggy K didn’t get and uh our assist to turnover ratio was negative so all in all a very Nebrasketball start. I look forward to trying to find a replay of this soon.

South Dakota Coyotes 59, Wisconsin 85

Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images

In a change from the past few seasons, the Coyotes were terrible from 3 point range as they went just 2 of 15. South Dakota’s Kruz Perrott-Hunt scored 21 but all from inside the arc. The Badgers had 4 starters score in double figures. This game wasn’t in doubt for the entirety of the second half.

Kind of...: Wisconsin looked pretty solid. SoDak is a fine mid-major and UW controlled the game. Chucky Hepburn and Tyler Wahl are both going to do their thing and each seems very much aware that their role will be bigger this year. Max Klesmit and Steven Crowl each hit double-figures. If they can reliably split “#3 scorer” duties this year, UW will be fine. Lotta fans are already in love with Connor Essegian, and his shooting stroke is pure. But, yeah, he’s at the beginning of the defensive learning curve. Lotta fans are already annoyed that Jordan Davis isn’t a great shooter and that Carter Gilmore looks awkward fairly often, but each made multiple heady plays last night and very good defense. Kamari McGee and Jahcobi Neath should acceptably cover the remaining rotational minutes at the guard spots. Either Markus Ilver of Chris Hodges will have to provide quality minutes in the post. The Coyotes were small, but that’s one area that really needs to develop over Nov/Dec.

MaximumSam: A good looking win for Wiscy, who controlled the game throughout. The Jordan Davis Watch didn’t remind anyone of his brother, scoring 6 points on 3-8 shooting. The Tyler Wahl Watch yielded much better results, as he went for 19 and 9 and did a bit of everything.

Eastern Illinois Panthers 57, Illinois 87

Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Terrence Shannon Jr. (whose position is listed as “athlete” by ESPN) narrowly edged out Coleman Hawkins to lead all scorers with 24 points. Shannon did so mainly by getting to the free throw line time and time again and then making his shots from the charity stripe as he went 13 of 15 there. Hawkins put together a double-double with 23 points, 12 rebounds. Dain Dainja came off the bench to provide a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds in just 16 minutes.

The Illini won this game because they outrebounded the Panthers 53 to 30 and their defense was stifling - they held the Panthers offense to just 35% shooting. If you are looking for reasons that the Illini are mortal - look at their free throwing shooting. Just 54.5% on 33 attempts. That’s a lot of free points left behind.

He was a HS QB: Guys, Terrence Shannon Jr. is an effing load.

thumpasaurus: DAINJA

This team is going to get focused and be terrifying. There are so many rebounders and so many athletes. Free throw shooting is apparently gonna be an issue, but all in all an auspicious debut for Dainja and Shannon among others

Western Michigan Broncos 60, Minnesota 61

Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

The Gophers were up 8 with 28 seconds to go and the Broncos were still down 4 when they threw in a 3 pointer at the buzzer so this wasn’t quite as close as the final score. That being said, Minnesota had to play Cooper the entire game. He did go for 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 10 assists but still. Be nice to be able to use the bench a little. Garcia chipped in 23 points. Had Minnesota lost they would have only themselves to blame as their FT shooting was awful.

WSR: Good God. Minnesota beat WMU by a single point despite Ta’Lon Cooper and Dawson Garcia doing anything and everything they wanted. The Gophers were up 60-52 with 28 seconds left and thought “Yeah, we’re good” and then the Broncos respectfully disagreed.

Things will be better when Jamison Battle and Braeden Carrington return to the lineup, but going 9-23 from the FT stripe will not do this team any favors.

Will Ramberg played 34 minutes tonight. WILL RAMBERG! This is not sustainable.

MaximumSam: Not ideal to play Ta’lon Cooper 40 minutes on opening night in a game you win by 1 point. But a win is a win.

Tuesday, November 8th Recaps

Milwaukee Panthers 53, Purdue 84

Purdue’s offense got off to a shaky start and in some ways never really got it going. Maybe they were all shaken by the injury to David Jenkins that resulted in him missing the game.

Zach Edey had a double-double with 12 points and 17! rebounds but honestly didn’t play all that well on the offensive end. On the defensive end he had 6 blocks and a number of altered shots as he looks like the rim protector I always hoped he could become. Foster Loyer went 5 of 12 from deep and Brandon Newman had a pretty quiet 16 points off the bench.

The real story of the game though was Purdue’s defense. In addition to Edey’s rim protection, the Boilermakers were active in interrupting passing lanes and making it difficult for Milwaukee in the half court offense. Braden Smith set a Purdue freshman record with seven steals (just one less than the Purdue record).

BoilerUp89: I really liked what I saw from Purdue’s defense in this one. Offensively there are some things to work on (particularly Edey’s finishing around the rim), but they did a good job pushing the ball in transition, getting to the free throw line, and making their free throws. Much faster pace than the past few years despite the giant Purdue has on the block.