Big Ten Basketball, February 18th: Bottom Feeders Unite!

Yesterday

Michigan Wolverines 91, Purdue Boilermakers 80

HoustonBoiler: Michigan jumped on Purdue early, taking a 20 point lead in the first half. Michigan shot the ball very well, making 8 of 16 (50%) 3-pointers in the first half to help establish a large lead, and somehow shot even better, making 5 of 7 (71%) 3-pointers, in the second half to keep Purdue at arms length. Michigan's size also showed up, even more than merely outrebounding Purdue 39 - 31. Purdue didn't help themselves by only making 8 of 26 3-point shots and missing many layups, even uncontested ones. After the game Matt Painter said, "These dudes [Michigan] ain’t losing four games. We got four losses. They ain’t losing four games. That’s just that."

BoilerUp89: Look you can't start slow against Michigan and have a chance. Purdue started slow. Missing open layups, not locking down defensive rebounds, and generally getting bullied. The effort was better in the 2nd half but the game was already out of reach. Even if Purdue played a complete game, they lose this one. Nobody is beating Michigan when they shoot 56% from three. They are too good in too many other areas.

Kind of...: I mean, Wisconsin started slow against Michigan and won, so we'll probably have to amend @BoilerUp89's statement to "You can't start slow against Michigan and have a chance...unless you have some rando Lithuanian pull 5 three pointers (out of 16 on the entire season) out of his ass and generally play out of your mind for much of the game."

But I think the point remains.

Iowa Hawkeyes 57, Nebraska Cornhuskers 52

Kind of...: Fred Hoiberg grew up in Ames, attended Iowa State, and went 3-1 against Iowa as a player and 4-1 as the Cyclones's head coach. At Nebraska he is now 3-8 vs. the Hawkeyes. Gotta be frustrating. And there's no excuse for this. Nebraska is working on a special season and their coach just provided reason to think they may not be able to weather late season challenges. Get you shit together, Huskers!

Michigan State Spartans 82, UCLA Bruins 59

Kind of...: I'm not a UCLA fan, but I suspect more than a few are wishing Mick would eject himself.

Ohio State Buckeyes 86, Wisconsin Badgers 69

MaximumSam: What is this? The Buckeyes beat down a team with a pulse? Can't be. Sorry Wisconsin, you have officially flatlined.

HoustonBoiler: Back into the crab bucket, Badgers.

Kind of...: I called this. I am not surprised. It's done and over with. For all that it matters, Wisconsin really doesn't have another meaningful game until the NCAA tournament. Seems 95% likely that they'll be seeded somewhere in the 7, 8, 9, 10 range. If they win, everybody will mention their potential giant-slaying ability. And then Houston or Iowa State will get them in their jaws, drag them into the water, and that will be that.

AlmaOtter: Who could have predicted this except for all of us yesterday?! I'll reiterate my point from there: the popcornskunks continue to confuse me.

Minnesota Golden Gophers 61, Oregon Ducks 44

Kind of...: I tried to talk Oregon putting it together and being sneakily dangerous into existence. But it seems obvious the scare they gave Purdue was a dead cat bounce and more a reflection of Purdue being in a funk than Oregon putting it together. Fetch isn't going to happen. It's a lose year for the Ducks. Hey, Gophers! Road win. Don't ask questions.

Today

#145 Rutgers Scarlet Knights at #120 Penn State Nittany Lions

6 pm. BTN

MaximumSam: Big night for teams on the bottom.

Kind of...: As I noted yesterday, of Oregon, Rutgers, PSU, Maryland, and Northwestern, one of them won't have to play on Tuesday at the BTT. Who will it be? Can we pretend this is exciting? Probably not.

But, right now Rutgers and Maryland (the two road teams tonight) have three wins, and PSU, NW, and Oregon all have two...

AlmaOtter: Per the Big Ten bylaws, one team does in fact have to win the game. But I think we can make an exception for this thing.

#126 Maryland Terrapins at #62 Northwestern Wildcats

8 pm, BTN

Kind of...: ...so, I say, cheer for PSU and Northwestern tonight so we have two teams at 3-12 and two teams at 3-13 after tonight!

#6 Illinois Fighting Illini at #47 USC Trojans

10 pm, BTN

MaximumSam: Sneaky late game for the Illini, who are trending towards health. Kylan Boswell finally returned against Indiana. Andrej Stojakovic is a gametime decision. The Eastern Bloc is may finally be fully operational.

Kind of...: The Eastern Bloc was NEVER fully operational.

Also [pushes glasses up on nose], the former Yugoslavia was not part of the Eastern Bloc.

AlmaOtter: 10:00 pm? What the hell, man? But while we're on the Non-Aligned Movement and Tito, a rec for one of my favorite books: Eastern Approaches, by Fitzroy MacLean.