Big Ten Basketball December 11 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

A Tale of Two Halves - A Story of West Lafayette & Lincoln

Off Tackle Republic

11 Dec 2025 — 2 min read

When your stocking looks awfully full

Last Night's Games

Purdue Boilermakers 85, Minnesota Gophers 57

MaximumSam: This game was 35-32 at halftime; apparently Minny was satisfied to just skip the second half.

Kind of...: Purdue decided to be sporting for a bit, but the result was the one we all expected.

BoilerUp89: I was fairly disappointed in the first half for Purdue. They lacked focus, didnt take advantage of their size advantage, and allowed the Gophers to hang around. Nobody besides Braden Smith was having a good game.

Then Purdue started the second half on a 21-0 run to take a commanding lead. Nice to know the defense can show up when they need to. Braden Smith was all over the place: 15 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocks.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 90, Wisconsin Badgers 60

MaximumSam: It's like Nebraska turned on some Michigan tape and tried the "just beat the crap out of other teams" strategy.

Kind of...: Worst loss of the Greg Gard era. Worst loss for Wisconsin since Bo Ryan's first year. And that was to the eventual national champions! I'm sure everything is fine.

As for the Huskers, NATION'S LONGEST WINNING STREAK!!! (Enjoy while you can, because you're headed to Champaign.)

BoilerUp89: Nebraska actually started to pull away with 3 minutes remaining in the first half. That won't cause me to change my headline. Never let facts get in the way. Hot shooting and balanced offense saw them tear the Badgers defense apart. This ties Nebraska's best start to a season in school history at 10-0.

Today's Big Ten Games

#24 Iowa Hawkeyes (8-1) at #5 Iowa State Cyclones (9-0)

8 ET, FS1

BoilerUp89: All I've got to say to Iowa is this: good luck.

AlmaOtter: El Assico on the hardwood!

Kind of...: During the Iowa State beatdown of Purdue, the broadcast came back from commercial and noted that in 1987, Iowa State upset then-#2 Purdue in Mackey.

That same season ('87-'88), Iowa State beat #7 Iowa in Ames. It is one of the greatest non-conference rivalry games ever, but also largely forgotten, so I make an effort to bring it up each year. Iowa State had Jeff Grayer, who would go on to make the 1988 Olympic team and have a solid NBA career. But the night belonged to Lafester Rhodes, who scored 54 points in Iowa State's 102-100 OT victory.