Ah, what a wonderful weekend in the Dominican Republic. Too bad I was away from a television or much internet and instead had to imbibe dozens (and dozens!) of cocktails while sitting on the beach. You know, the locals didn’t even know what I meant saying I wonder if the committee will take Tyler Wahl’s injury into account for Wisconsin’s tourney bid. Not sure how anyone would want to live like that.

Anyways, I’m back, and I can only assume things have gone well for the Buckeyes in my absence. Please, no questions or comments about them at this time.

Monday, January 16th

Purdue Boilermakers 64, Michigan State Spartans 63

MaximumSam: How do you defend Zach Edey? Most teams look to double him or work hard to keep the ball out of his hands. Of course, Sparty chose to let him just be the Purdue offense. Edey took half his team’s shots and scored half their points, and neither he nor the team was very efficient. Michigan State almost had enough behind Tyson Walker’s 30 points, but in the end Purdue still had Edey and no one else did.

Also, I didn’t see this game (happy thoughts in the Caribbean, remember?), but Ken Pomeroy tweeted that the last minute lasted 21 minutes. I swear there is a conspiracy by the basketball leadership to get people to actively hate basketball.

Illinois fighting Illini 78, Minnesota Gophers 60

MaximumSam: The Illini get four guys in double figures in route to a blowout win over the Gophers. I assume everyone has beaten the Gophers lately.

Tuesday, January 17th

#32 Penn State Nittany Lions (12-5, 3-3) at #74 Wisconsin Badgers (11-5, 3-3), 7:30 pm, BTN

MaximumSam: Two teams in the mushy middle of the Big Ten both could use a win. Penn state’s statistical profile is pretty interesting. The FancyStat people credit Dean Oliver with coming up with the Four Factors of basketball success, which are (1) effective field goal rate, (2) turnover percentage, (3) offensive rebounding, and (4) free throw rate.

The Nittany Lions are among the country’s leaders in field goal percentage and turnover rate, and are nearly dead last in offensive rebounding and free throw rate. They get half the success right, which makes them half good, I guess. Torvik goes Badgers by a hair, 63-62.