Wednesday, February 1st

Purdue Boilermakers 80, Penn State Nittany Lions 60

BoilerUp89: Penn State threw some interesting defenses at Purdue that were designed to double and triple team Zach Edey. Fortunately for Purdue fans, Mason Gillis picked tonight to set the Purdue record for made three pointers at Mackey Arena with 9. He broke the record previously held by tonight’s commentator Robbie Hummel (among others).

While Penn State did limit Zach Edey to 18 points/13 rebounds, the rest of Purdue’s offense made up for hit and the Boilermakers outrebounded Penn State 38 to 19. Jalen Pickett was held in check with just 12 points on 5 of 11 shooting. Michael Henn was hot early for the Nittany Lions with three early threes, but finished with just 11 points. Mason Gillis led all scorers with 29 points on 9 of 12 from three off the bench for Purdue.

MaximumSam: Poor Nits. You hold Edey to 18, and Loyer to 5, only to give up 29 to the guy who is best known for shoving people into the stands on rebounds.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 90, Minnesota Gophers 55

MaximumSam: Woof.

BoilerUp89: Minnesota has been eliminated from the Big Ten title race.

Thursday, February 2nd

#78 Wisconsin Badgers (12-8, 4-6) at #27 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-10, 3-7), 6 pm, FS1

BoilerUp89: Loser is probably done. Desperation time for both squads.

MaximumSam: Someone must win, probably.

#75 Michigan Wolverines (11-10, 5-5) at #50 Northwestern Wildcats (15-6, 6-4), 6 pm, ESPN2

BoilerUp89: Michigan won the first matchup between these teams 85-78 at the Crisler Center. In that one, Audige had just 8 points on 3 of 14 shooting. He will have to do better this time out.

Of course, if we look at the other two teams Michigan has already played twice we see a trend. The Wolverines turned a 35 point home win against Maryland into a 6 point road loss. Against Penn State, they turned a 10 point home win into an 18 point loss. Based on the math, Michigan is about 34 points better at home than on the road. That makes this a 27 point victory for the Wildcats.