Big Ten Basketball: February 15

Yesterday's Games

Michigan Wolverines 86, UCLA Bruins 56

BoilerUp89: Michigan played with their food before breaking the Bruins spirit in the second half. The Wolverines look unbeatable at the moment and will enter next week with a well deserved AP #1 ranking.

Kind of...: Gotta admit, it's pretty impressive to to have the #1 defense while playing such a fast tempo (#12). Michigan has played 25 games. We can't pretend we don't know if they're good or not. They are. Very good. Still, their next four games include Purdue and Illinois on the road and Duke on a neutral court. If they lose all three, they'd still be, at worst, tied for the the B1G lead and, at worst, a 2-seed. Basically, we're trying to figure out how to contextualize them historically.

HoustonBoiler: I saw that this was a two point game (40-38) at the half. When I checked again after an hour or so, I saw it was a 30 point game. Purdue will have their hands very, very full on Tuesday.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 68, Northwestern Wildcats 49

MaximumSam: This has not been the ideal retirement party for the Detective.

Kind of...: Nebraska is back to flying under the radar a bit. The 40-22 second half wasn't as awe-inspiring as what Michigan did to Northwestern earlier this week, but did show a team that can drop the hammer. If Nebraska can win in Iowa City Tuesday, the rest of the schedule sets up tolerably. A #2 seed at BTT would be a distinct possibility.

Oregon Ducks 83, Penn State Nittany Lions 73

BoilerUp89: Oregon's long losing streak is over.

Kind of...: Call me crazy, but I could see Oregon winning multiple games at the BTT. They could play one of the other dregs in the opening round, then get, say, OSU or USC. Totally winnable. Somebody like UCLA or Iowa in a 15 vs. 7 game? Not the wildest of upsets! But that would be about it. Not beating one of the top four. Nobody's winning six straight games on six straight days, but if you wanted to create the sort of situation where a team could come close, it would be something like Oregon. Good preseason expectations. Ravaged by injuries. Get healthy (and hot) at the right time. If Jackson Shelstad were coming back, I might tout this possibility more. But he's not, at least not this year. Thanks for reading, though.

Purdue Boilermakers 78, Iowa Hawkeyes 57

BoilerUp89: Impressive defensive outing by the Boilers who didn't give up many easy looks to Iowa. 12 more assists for Braden Smith, a double-double for TKR, and Matt Painter now has 250 Big Ten victories.

Kind of...: Iowa is good enough to beat fairly talented teams that aren't cohesive, but they Hawkeyes aren't all that talented themselves, so beating one of the top 4 would require some strange things happening. Purdue got out early and was able to Coast, the perfect recipe to allow their fans to start fretting about Michigan earlier than expected.

HoustonBoiler: Purdue came out with a lot of energy and focus that allowed them to control this game from the start. Since I mentioned my usual things yesterday, I will point out that Purdue outrebounded Iowa 38-30 and only turned the ball over 5 times. While Purdue made him work for it, Bennett Stirtz finished with 19 points for Iowa, just like he had in the earlier meeting. Unlike that game in Mackey, no one else from Iowa really stepped up to make shots as the Hawkeyes made only 20 of 53 shots (38%) and went 6 of 22 (27%) on 3-point shots.

Washington Huskies 69, Minnesota Golden Gophers 57

MaximumSam: The Huskies get back in the win column. By the way, how much rope is Danny Sprinkle getting out there? They have spent some money and thus far have nothing to show for it.

Kind of...: I'm not saying Washington is competing for the B1G title if Desmond Claude doesn't get hut. He's always been a volume over efficiency guy. But, well, it hasn't helped. Each of the 4Pac has had some bad injury luck. Washington was predicted to be a bubble team and they aren't that far off. Underwhelming season, but the Huskies have made the NCAA tournament ONCE in the last 15 years. I would hope they're patient with Sprinkle.

Virginia Cavaliers 70, The Ohio State Buckeyes 66

MaximumSam: The Buckeyes were perilously close to beating a team with a pulse. Luckily, they scored just seven points in the last ten minutes of the game to keep their perfect record intact.

Kind of...: So go ahead and do a resume comparison between Ohio State and Miami (OH). Forget trying to be completely objective. Just look at each's profile. You can talk yourself into whatever argument you want to make. It's fine. But, if we stipulate that Ohio State has a pretty unimpressive resume, we are tacitly damning Miami, no? Pitt is the only bad loss OSU has. Every other loss is to a team better than anybody Miami has played. And beating UCLA and USC (and even West Virginia) are clearly better than any win Miami has. (Akron would be on par with, say, Northwestern).

The argument for Miami is the argument for compiling wins. And, yeah, give them an at large bid if they go perfect in the regular season. And the argument against Ohio State is the argument that they've already had a lot of chances. But there's literally nothing in the numbers to suggest that Miami would be an above .500 team in the B1G this year. So, let's just acknowledge that part of the mid-major argument is "give these types of teams a chance, even in marginal cases." It's okay. I was all about Indiana State in '24. Let me tell you about my hatred of Billy Packer for hating on the MVC 20 years ago! It's okay. Really. Just admit that that's a part of it. There are different ways to "deserve" something. Just don't confuse them.

Today's Games

#122 Maryland Terrapins (10-14, 3-10) at #151 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-15, 2-11)

Noon ET, FS1

BoilerUp89: eww

MaximumSam: This could have been a banger in the Race for 15th. I will never forgive the Big Ten for taking that away from us.

Kind of...: Maryland has won their last two. Are they rounding the corner, or was that just an oddity? By the numbers, Rutgers is the worst team in the conference. But their remaining schedule--includes two games each against Penn State and Maryland. We no longer have a Race for 15, but Maryland has 3 conference wins. Northwestern, Oregon, Rutgers, and Penn State all have 2. Four of those teams are playing on Tuesday at the BTT. One isn't. If Rutgers wins together, that race could provide some entertainment.

HoustonBoiler: Maryland certainly has a chance to extend their winning streak and I note the two teams they have beaten are both better than Rutgers. Maryland should win this one, but will they?

#23 Indiana Hoosiers (17-8, 8-6) at #6 Illinois Fighting Illini (20-5, 11-3)

1 ET, CBS

BoilerUp89: I'm going to need Illinois to win this one for the greater good.

Kind of...: A list of Indiana's wins away from home this season: Marquette, Maryland, Rutgers, UCLA (2 OT). Tucker DeVries (6'7") is Indiana's second tallest starter. Connor Enright is on the best 3-game stretch of basketball in his career (19 points, 22 assists, 1 awful charge drawn). A group of try hards that get nervy on the road are hitting the road to take on an angry, surly, mega talented opponent. This could get ugly.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#348 UTSA Roadrunners (4-20, 0-12) at #172 Charlotte 49ers (13-11, 7-4), Noon ET, ESPNU
#333 Manhattan Jaspers (11-16, 7-9) at #344 Canisius Golden Griffins (8-18, 3-12), 1 ET, ESPN+
#149 North Texas Mean Green (14-11, 5-7) at #146 Temple Owls (15-9, 7-4), 2 ET, ESPN+
#357 Rider Broncs (3-21, 2-13) at #298 Sacred Heart Pioneers (11-16, 7-9), 2 ET, ESPN+
#284 Eastern Kentucky Colonials (9-17, 5-8) at #345 North Alabama Lions (7-17, 2-11), 4 ET, ESPN+
#74 Belmont Bruins (23-4, 13-3) at #112 Murray State Racers (19-8, 11-5), 6 ET, ESPN2

BoilerUp89: The only good game here is Belmont at Murray State but Bradley's upset of Belmont earlier this week likely ended the Bruin's at-large hopes.

The rest of these games involve teams fighting for their lives.

Kind of...: Yeah, Belmont is in good shape. And they're probably the best team in the Valley. Keep an eye on Illinois State. They've been uneven all year, but still have home games against both Murray State and Belmont. They might be undervalued. Belmont doesn't have the look of '25 Drake, '24 Drake, '24 Indiana State (never forget!), but they're a pretty damn good team. Their three Valley losses are 1) in OT, 2) by one point, and 3) in OT by one point.