Big Ten Basketball, February 5: Of Trap Games and Terp Games

Last Night's Games

Minnesota Golden Gophers 76, Michigan State Tripping Hazards 73

Kind of...: Yes, the Jeremy Fears narrative is reaching its peak. Or, if it's not, that a bad thing for Sparty. Let's not bury the lede: Minnesota played with urgency and led wire-to-wire despite getting the yips late. Really good win for Medved. Goldy is tied with Washington at 4-8, with nobody at either 5-7 or 3-9. They seem locked into a 12/13 game against each other the BTT tournament on Wednesday, and I for one find that a damn fine matchup for that early in the tournament.

As for Sparty, they're limitations are obvious and these team cries out "4 seed who gets swallowed up in Sweet 16 after winning tough 4/5 Izzo-fest opening weekend." What's awkward is that Izzo seems very aware of those limitations. Fears was on the bench long enough in the second half that the announcers were beginning to cannonize the way Izzo gets through to his players. And then, lo and behold, he's on the court late as Sparty begins a comeback. I remember Grayson Allen. I remember how Coach K "handled" Grayson Allen. Coach Izzo: please don't go the Coach K route.

BoilerUp89: Two things are apparent from this game. Medved can coach and Fears has become a menace to society.

HoustonBoiler: Medved can definitely coach and has the Gophers punching above their weight-class. And, has Brad Davison been coaching Jeremy Fears, Jr.?

AlmaOtter: Minnesota nearly had a Nebraska football-esque fuckup there, but held on juuuuust long enough to keep the win. The Barn strikes again.

Illinois Fighting Illini 84, Northwestern Kittens 44

Perpetually Aggrieved Wildcat: Cats forgot to get off the bus.

Kind of...: Collins stuck with his youth movement, starting Kropp and West. Nothing was going to matter too much. We all knew this was a mismatch. And it was.

HoustonBoiler: Good thing I had forgotten about this game and didn't watch, because it really wasn't much of a game.

AlmaOtter: hooooooo boy, that was fun.

Washington Huskies 84, Iowa Hawkeyes 74

Kind of...: A really well-played game. Early on, looked like Washington was going to run away with it shooting well and taking advantage of their size advantage. But Iowa came out blazing in the second half and took advantage of the eight extra possessions they had by virtue of not turning the ball over as much. Iron man Bennett Stirtz played 40 very efficient minutes: 22 pts on 13 FGA, 5:1 A/TO. Hannes Steinbach provided his typical 20/12 double-double, but Zoom Diallo's 12 assist night was marred by 6 turnovers.

Iowa is likely to be 9-4 in conference play this time next week with Purdue and Nebraska coming to Carver-Hawkeye Arena. I think 1-1 is more likely than not. If they get their NCAA seed up to a 6 or so, they are a Sweet 16 threat. Would love to seem them opposite Vandy. That would be a stylistic contrast. Lotta ball left, though.

Tonight's Games

#126 Penn State Nittany Lions (10-12, 1-10) at #1 Michigan Wolverines (20-1, 10-1)

6:30 ET, FS1

Kind of...: Penn State just got their conference win. This was a close game in State College the first time around. This is not in State College. There is no reason to think this will be competitive.

BoilerUp89: Classic trap game and Penn State probably has some confidence after getting the win.

AlmaOtter: This should look similarly to last night's Illini-Wildcats game. Can the Wolverines 2x the Nittany Loins?

#39 The Ohio State Buckeyes (14-7, 6-5) at #131 Maryland Terrapins (8-13, 1-9)

8:30 ET, FS1

Kind of...: The Buckeyes are a game behind Iowa for 8th in the conference standings. Eighth gets you Wednesday off at the BTT. 9th means you're play the 16/17 winner in a pure downside game. The 16/17 winner could easily be Maryland. Though not officially a logical syllogism, I'll leave it to you, the reader, to conclude how you should think of tonight's game for Ohio State.

MaximumSam: Ah, the must win game on the road against a bad team. What could go wrong?

BoilerUp89: The B1G allowed an 18 team tournament just so a bubble OSU team could lose an embarrassing game and miss the cut.

HoustonBoiler: To answer MaximumSam's question: everything - see Michigan State.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#326 North Florida Ospreys (5-18, 3-7) at #323 West Georgia Wolves (10-12, 4-6), 7 ET, ESPN+
#362 Western Illinois Leathernecks (4-19, 0-12) at #339 Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (9-14, 4-8), 8:30 ET, ESPN+
#304 Morehead State Eagles (12-11, 8-4) at #263 SEMO Redhawks (13-10, 8-4), 8:30 ET, ESPN+
#163 UT Arlington Mavericks (14-7, 6-3) at #194 Utah Tech Trailblazers (13-11, 6-4), 9 ET, ESPN+

BoilerUp89: Fairly light night for high major games, games involving bubble teams, or matchups between teams near the top of their conference standings. I've included two games I'm following for countdown purposes which should be fairly obvious based on the combined records of the teams involved. Western Illinois needs a win badly.

We've also got Morehead/SEMO in a battle for 2nd place in the OVC. Both teams are 2 games behind the leader Tennessee Martin. Finally, out west we've got UT Arlington v. Utah Tech in a wild conference race. Arlington is tied for 1st with Utah Valley and Cal Baptist with the Trailblazers are a half game back. This 7 team conference has 18 conference games, so these teams have already played and will play again. Arlington won the first game in the series at home by 4.

Kind of...: I think of Morehead State as the "left behind" team in the OVC after Belmont and Murray State bolted for the MVC. In theory, it could've been their league to run, given the pedigree, but it hasn't worked out that way.

Maybe make tonight a bit of a break. We're about to enter the homestretch of the regular season. No need to cramp up in mile 18.