Saturday, February 25th

Indiana Hoosiers 79, Purdue Boilermakers 71

BoilerUp89: Embarrassing night for Purdue and Indiana gets the season sweep. It was an open question entering the season whether Purdue had enough shooting this season to obtain their goals and they certainly didn’t have enough to beat Indiana in either of their games. Although I will give Indiana’s defense credit for limiting Edey, the rest of the Boilermakers missed a lot of wide open shots. It was painful to watch as a fan.

Jalen Hood-Schifino had a monster night, single handedly keeping Indiana within striking distance in the first half until the rest of the Hoosier shooters could get going in the second half to gain the lead. JHS then stretched that lead and maintained it until the end.

MaximumSam: Hood-Schifino has really turned into a Dude for the Hoosiers. His emergence makes me upgrade Indiana’s chances in the tourney - swarming TJD is no longer a viable defensive strategy. On the other hand, he’s a still a freshman and is probably going to get stuffed into a trash can by Yale.

Iowa Hawkeyes 112, Michigan State Spartans 106 (OT)

BoilerUp89: Michigan State led big very late in the game before Iowa pulled off the last minute comeback to tie the game by chucking up threes and somehow making them.

MaximumSam: A comeback that broke the algorithm.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 78, Minnesota Gophers 67

BoilerUp89: Year 5 of the Fred Hoiberg experiment in Lincoln will continue as Nebraska beat Minnesota to reach 8 conference wins and double up Hoiberg’s previous best. Progress is being made in Lincoln and the fans are appreciative of it.

Sunday, February 26th

#33 Northwestern Wildcats (20-8, 11-6) at #30 Maryland Terrapins (19-9, 10-7), 11 am, BTN

BoilerUp89: Northwestern’s Big Ten championship hopes stay alive with a Purdue loss. Now they must go on the road to Maryland where Maryland has not lost in Big Ten play.

MaximumSam: The Cats still have a shot. This is their toughest game remaining and Maryland hasn’t lost at home since being horse whipped by UCLA back in December. Northwestern better aim for the basket in this one. Torvik goes Maryland, 67-63.

#41 Illinois Fighting Illini (19-9, 10-7) at #78 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-17, 3-14), 11 am, CBS

BoilerUp89: Ohio State hasn’t looked terribly interesting of late. Illinois is coming off a big rivalry win. Potential let down game?

MaximumSam: Ohio State is the opposite of interesting. A more interesting question: how will they look next year? They have six freshmen on the squad this year. I expect Brice Sensabaugh to go pro. If the other five return, they will have nine (or ten if Bronny James joins) freshmen and sophomores on the team. Zed Key likely returns, though he is apparently having shoulder surgery. Other possibilities to return are Eugene Brown and Tanner Holden. Buckeye fans expecting a grand team next year are probably going to be vocally disappointed again. Holding everything together is job number one for Chris Holtmann.

#65 Wisconsin Badgers (16-11, 8-9) at #47 Michigan Wolverines (16-12, 10-7), 1 pm, CBS

BoilerUp89: Loser will be on the wrong side of the bubble with a week to go in the regular season.

MaximumSam: By the FancyStats, the best team in the Big Ten in February has been the *gag* Michigan Wolverines. They have two NBA prospects in Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard, as well as a Great College Guy in Hunter Dickinson. Lately, Tarris Reed has emerged as an option at power forward, and Dug McDaniel isn’t bad anymore. They have a good team, but they really need wins just to get onto the bubble.

Wisconsin is one of the last four in on Bracketology. They also need a win. A nude wrestling match between Greg Gard and Juwan Howard is the only way to settle this.

#29 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (17-11, 9-8) at #51 Penn State Nittany Lions (17-11, 8-9), 5:30 pm, BTN

BoilerUp89: Easiest remaining game for Penn State who needs 2 of their remaining three. Interesting statistical note on PSU’s offense. Their eFG% ranks 5th in D1. Their turnover rate is the lowest in D1. Offensive rebounding rate and free throw attempts/field goal attempt rate? Dead last. Penn State knows who they are and play to their strengths.

Non-B1G games: Drake and Bradley face off with the Missouri Valley regular season title on the line. Go Bradley.