Big Ten Tournament

Saturday Recaps

[5] Iowa Hawkeyes 80, [9] Indiana Hoosiers 77

Stew: Well, that was certainly something!

In the preview I advocated for heavy usage of zone, for a few reasons (tired legs, reduce TJD effectiveness, make Indiana shoot). Well, no one has ever accused Fran of being a defensive mastermind. He came out with a man defense and promptly got eaten alive inside. Filip Rebraca just looked completely spent and outmatched. And this happened every time Iowa went man.

Added to this Iowa came out pretty cold, but went on a run to briefly take the lead towards the middle of the first half. Indiana took the lead and mostly held that through dominance of the interior. Iowa just looked a bit like they didn’t have the juice. Down 9 with under 5 to play Keegan Murray and Jordan Bohannon took over. The pair combined for 16 of Iowa’s 19 points the team scored in the final 5 minutes.

You wanna call the banked in 3 lucky? Fine. It’s true!

Guess what? Don’t really care. It still went in.

[3] Purdue Boilermakers 75, [7] Michigan State Spartans 70

BoilerUp89: Purdue played their best half of defense of the year and held Sparty to just 20 points in the 1st half. Unfortunately they only scored 28 that half, and then allowed team Izzo to score 50 points in the 2nd half. Yes, I did predict this in the OTE Discord.

What I didn’t predict was that Purdue would score 47 points in the 2nd half and hold on to their narrow lead. But their huge rebounding advantage and overall physical advantage inside led to a bunch of second chance points, foul trouble for Sparty’s big men, and lots of free throw attempts. All that added up to Purdue sneaking past Michigan State for a matchup with an in-state rival Indiana Iowa with the Big Ten Tournament title on the line.

BTT Championship

[5] Iowa vs. [3] Purdue

2:30pm CT | CBS | Purdue -1.5 | O/U 148

Stew: Iowa is gonna get smoked. It’s the 4th game in 4 days to Purdue’s 3. Iowa relies more on shooting whereas Purdue plays inside out, and Iowa just has no answer on the interior to Purdue.

BoilerUp89: From the first stirrings of life beneath water... to man taking his first steps on the moon, Boilermakers have come far. They have been opposed by their mortal enemy every inch along the long winding path of progress and that enemy is the Hawkeyes. Our most hated rival once again stands between Purdue and greatness.

Will Purdue overcome the challenges that the three families (the McCafferys, the Murrays, and Bohannon) of Iowa basketball bring? Or will Franimal win his first championship hardware in his 12 year career at Iowa?

Stars Jaden Ivey and K. Murray, 27th year senior Jordan Bohannon, and the supporting casts of Edey, K. Murray, Williams, P. McCaffery, Hunter, and C. McCaffery make this a can’t miss game!

As for the game, I’ll stick with my pre-BTT prediction: Iowa 21035, Purdue 21034 as Iowa banks in a half court shot with time expiring. Defense doesn’t live here.