Big Ten Basketball, February 26: But Have You Seen Braden Smith's Car?

Last Night's Games

Nebraska Cornhuskers 74, Maryland Terrapins 61

MaximumSam: The Terps were actually pretty spicy and were in this game until late. Braden Frager was instrumental for the Huskers with 21 and 8 rebounds.

Kind of...: Frager quite the x-factor. Really nice player who can do a lot of things. Nebraska isn't pummeling teams, but they're taking care of business. Pretty cool that they can have the best year in school history and still be under the radar as March beckons.

Iowa Hawkeyes 74, The Ohio State Buckeyes 57

BoilerUp89: First two game losing streak for OSU of the season. Let's make it a three game losing streak this weekend.

MaximumSam: The Buckeyes were kind enough to make this a laugher midway through the first half, so I got my beauty sleep.

Kind of...: No saying Ohio State is undisciplined, or incapable of game-planning. But they got picked apart last night.

Oregon Ducks 85, Wisconsin Badgers 71

MaximumSam: The Badgers were ahead until halfway through the second half. Then Greg Gard said "screw the Pacific" and tucked himself into bed. Does the NET include losses at 1 am?

HoustonBoiler: Just another rando performance for this season's chaos team.

Kind of...: Honestly, until last night, Wisconsin's worst loss of the year was at home to USC, so maybe not team chaos so much as team variance. Live by the three; die by the three.

BoilerUp89: Wisconsin set a program record for three point attempts with 45. Their previous record was 41. Get to the rim once in awhile.

Tonight's Game

#16 Michigan State Spartans (22-5, 12-4) at #7 Purdue Boilermakers (22-5, 12-4)

8 ET, Peacock

BoilerUp89: Pretty easily the game of the night as this is the only game featuring 1 top 25 team, let alone two. Purdue and Michigan State bring identical records into Mackey Arena which has been a house of horrors for the Spartans in recent years. For fans of point guard play, this game showcases the top two point guards in the conference. Despite Smith's questionable car choices and Fears' propensity for trying to hurt opponents, these two can manipulate defenses better than anyone else in the country.

HoustonBoiler: Toughness. It's the one thing I am absolutely sure a Tom Izzo coached Michigan State team will bring. It often shows up in rebounding and defense. If you look at the stats, you'll see that the Spartans are near the top of the B1G in both categories (2nd in overall rebounding and 3rd in points allowed). Purdue will have to bring energy, toughness, and discipline to the game tonight. Oh, yeah, and bring the cups because Jeremy Fears, Jr. Keys for Purdue are, per usual, rebounding, limiting their turnovers, and containing the dribble.

Kind of...: Can MSU create a street fight to make up for the fact that they can't shoot near as well as Purdue can? Don't know, but I like the home team. Whoever loses likely doesn't get a triple bye. Should be a fun game.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#342 New Hampshire Wildcats (8-18, 4-9) at #359 Binghamton (6-23, 2-12), 6 ET, ESPN+
#113 North Dakota State Bison (23-6, 13-1) at #120 St. Thomas Tommies (21-8, 10-4), 9 ET, Summit League Network
#145 Portland State Pilots (18-8, 12-3) at #143 Montana State Bobcats (15-13, 9-6), 9 ET, ESPN+
#254 Long Beach State Beach (8-20, 4-12) at #223 Cal Poly Mustangs (12-16, 8-8), 10 ET, ESPN+
#114 UC Irvine Anteaters (18-10, 11-5) at #137 Cal State Northridge Matadors (18-10, 11-5), 10 ET, ESPN+

BoilerUp89: Binghamton and Long Beach State face win or go home games (Binghamton also needs Bryant to lose tonight). We've also got games at the top of the Big Sky, Summit, and Big West.

HoustonBoiler: Wow! There's some fairly evenly matched, at least according to Bart Torvik, games tonight. Great stuff! Too bad most of it has been relegated to le coq or ESPN+.

Kind of...: Not listed, and Akron/Kent State (8:00 ESPNU) doesn't really "matter." Neither is getting an at-large and they're very likely to be the 2- and 3- seed at the MAC tournament. But it could just be a really good game (that totally overlaps with MSU/Purdue...)