Big Ten Basketball January 18 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

Yesterday's Games

Illinois Fighting Illini 77, Minnesota Golden Gophers 67

Kind of...: Earlier this week I said that Braden Frager was making a run at Hannes Steinbach for "top B1G frosh" honors. Obviously that's idiotic. In my defense, Wagler just looks so polished. Anyway, Minnesota did a solid job of Boswell, but there's Wagler and Ivisic (x2) to beat up on you. The B1G has three of the top 5 offenses in America, and with all respect to Braden Smith's excellence, Illinois' might be the most free-flowing and fun to watch.

The Ohio State Buckeyes 86, UCLA Bruins 74

Kind of...: No Skyy Clark? BIG problem for UCLA. The Bruins were overwhelmed by Ohio State's backcourt as Thornton, Mobley, and Royal combined for 71. Making matters worse, whatever the performance art Cronin has going with Xavier Booker is threatening to become an issue in its own right. Gets the start and plays 2 minutes? Does Booker's NIL have some sort of guaranteed language in it? Honestly, seems like a feasible explanation. Whatever the case, it's a really strange situation.

BoilerUp89: UCLA cant rebound and its becoming a major issue.

Wisconsin Badgers 96, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 87

Kind of...: No, it's not good that Wisconsin let a 25 point lead get cut to 7. But the Badgers were coming off two tense, huge road wins. And they were never in any actual danger of losing this game. Boyd, Blackwell, and Winter is an enviable scoring trio. If anybody else could consistently score, the Badgers might be in the top 10 of KenPom on offense instead of 39. And this isn't bringing up the #63 defense, obviously the biggest limitation on the Badgers' ceiling this year. Still, they're in much better shape than they were 10 days ago, and the upcoming schedule--@PSU, vs. USC, vs. Minnesota, vs. Ohio State --is set up for Wisconsin to stay in the top 8 of the conference.

Iowa Hawkeyes 74, Indiana Hoosiers 57

Kind of...: Tavion Banks and Tayton Conerway were scoring at will for their respective teams. The obvious difference in the game was at PG, where former Drake Bulldog Bennett Stirtz treated former Drake Bulldog Conor Enright the way you might treat a cat if you had a laser pointer.

Right now, the NET goes #37 Ohio State, #38 Indiana, #39 Wisconsin. But OSU and Wisconsin are each 4-5 against Quads 1-2 whereas Indiana is 1-6. The Hoosiers are in trouble.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 77, Northwestern Wildcats 58

HoustonBoiler: The combines rolled into Evanston and harvested the Wildcats.

Kind of...: The theme yesterday was teams that should win winning if not in the most dominant fashion. This game was closer longer than you might have expected before Nebraska ran away with it late. So what? It's a businesslike road win. You take that every time.

Oh yeah: NATION'S LONGEST WINNING STREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(1/4 of the way to UCLA's record!)

Michigan Wolverines 81, Oregon Ducks 71

MaximumSam: Surprisingly competitive game considering Oregon was fielding a team of ball boys and janitors.

Kind of...: Oregon was game, but this felt like basic physics.

Purdue Boilermakers 69, USC Trojans 64

HoustonBoiler: Well, Purdue, more specifically Braden Smith, managed to pull this game out. Hopefully, his knee will be okay. It was close, very close though Purdue found a way to win. USC won the rebounding battle (40-32) and out scored Purdue in the paint (40-28), but Purdue won the turnover battle (8-13). Purdue didn't shoot particularly well, but USC was 3 for 20 on 3-pointers and 5 of 14 on free throws - woof!

Kind of...: Gettable game for USC, but lots of teams say that when they let home upsets slip away. Purdue has a couple of days to prepare for a desperate, but deeply flawed, UCLA team. After that, it's a showdown in West Lafayette with Illinois next Saturday. Strap in: the conference race is going to pick up!

BoilerUp89: The game was very physical as the refs let this one get away from them. TKR is on a major slump for the Boilers.

Today's Games

#111 Penn State Nittany Lions (9-8, 0-6) at #129 Maryland Terrapins (7-10, 0-6)

Noon ET, BTN

BoilerUp89: Someone is getting their first conference win today. Maryland has lost every conference game by 10+. I believe they are one of two programs nationally to accomplish that so far (may be the only one after yesterday as I don't remember who the other team was).

Kind of...: Oh dear.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

Sunday

#79 FAU Owls (12-6, 4-1) at #142 Temple Owls (11-6, 3-1), Noon ET, ESPNU
#133 Oakland Golden Grizzlies (10-9, 6-2) at #182 Green Bay Phoenix (11-8, 5-2), 2 ET, ESPN+
#65 Tulsa Golden Hurricane (14-3, 2-2) at #114 UAB Blazers (12-6, 3-2), 3 ET, ESPN+

Kind of...: I've been monitoring Green Bay and I think we all need to realize that the situation is serious. Yeah, KenPom has the Phoenix #15 in his luck metric, so they're probably not as good as their record. But those breaks are baked into the cake, and they're tied for second in the Horizon (with Oakland), one game behing Wright State.

DON'T watch the game. But do the decent thing and cheer like hell for Kampe's Krew.

Monday

#221 Iona Gaels (12-7, 4-4) at #232 Saint Peter's Peacocks (10-6, 7-1), 2 ET, ESPN+
#228 Merrimack Warriors (11-8, 7-1) at #124 Marist Red Foxes (12-5, 6-2), 2 ET, ESPN+
#184 Penn Quakers (9-7, 2-1) at #193 Harvard Crimson (9-8, 2-1), 2 ET, ESPN+
#80 George Washington Revolutionaries (12-5, 3-2) at #102 George Mason Patriots (17-1, 5-0), 5 ET, CBSSN

BoilerUp89: Go Miami

Kind of...: It's rapidly becoming clear that Saint Louis is the only at-large worthy team in the A-10. Sorry mid-major peeps (I'm one too, don't forget), but it's true (VCU has the second best NET, at 54). SO, the GW/GMU game doesn't matter that much tournament-wise. But there are still worse ways to spend a couple of hours on a federal holiday.

Give the Ivy League action a look. There are currently five teams tied for first at 2-1, and only four of them can make the tournament. Yeah, it's early. But in an 8-team league, to quote Yogi Berra, "It gets late early." Yale seems to be the class of the league. Harvard/Penn winner has inside track to #2. Dartmouth/Princeton loser becomes marginally more likely to be odd team out. Then again, right now KenPom is predicting Columbia (not yet mentioned) to be part of a four-team time for spots 3-6 at 7-7. That would be a helluva tiebreak to unwind. Bottom line: the Ivy, which has produced plenty of first round upsets in the last 10-15 years, might get pretty wild this year.