Big Ten Basketball January 22 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

Last Night's Games

Illinois Fighting Illini 89, Maryland Terribles 70

MaximumSam: This was a game for about 12 minutes. Then it was no longer a game, and no one had to think about Maryland basketball for two more days. Illinois had their first game missing Kylan Boswell, who is out with a hand injury. Looks like Jake Davis and thump's favorite Ben Humrichous will split his minutes.

Kind of...: Surprising only one person, the sort of person who will chastise you for not seeing Indiana football coming while still maintaining that the old gods of immutable fate are in such control of athletic competitions involving his team that a Maryland road win was likely, Illinois did what Illinois was supposed to do. Or, perhaps Maryland didn't do what all (again, almost all) of us knew that Maryland couldn't do. I'm sure some will argue that things could be different with a healthy Pharrel Payne. As for me, I think it's better he's being spared all of this.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 76, Washington Huskies 66

MaximumSam: The Huskers built a lead and had a comfortable victory. Cut and paste. Per Torvik they are underdogs in two remaining games: at Michigan on Tuesday and at Iowa on February 17th.

Kind of...: NATION'S LONGEST WINNING STREAK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KenPom's aggregate guess is 27-4/16-4 and tied for the B1G regular season title. Torvik has the same for Nebraska, but sees Michigan going 17-3. Maybe your model says something slightly different. Let's not lose sight of the big picture. We're about 2/3 of the way through the regular season and pretty much everybody agrees that Nebraska, who has never won an NCAA tournament game, SHOULD probably make the Sweet 16.

Northwestern Wildkittens 74, USC Trojans 68

MaximumSam: The Detective solved California.

Kind of...: There's this movie, one of DeNiro's earliest roles, also starred Lenny Briscoe from Law & Order...nevermind.

Trojans are up against it now. Down to 51 in KenPom; 48 in NET. Projected to go 8-12 in conference play. Only win of note so far this year is Seton Hall.

I'm demoting USC. They're no longer in the mushy middle. Welcome to life with Minnesota and Washington. You don't suck, but you're not top half, either. (And Indiana, you're on notice, too.)

BoilerUp89: USC's tournament hopes have taken a major hit in the past 60 minutes of gameplay. The Trojans had Purdue on the ropes but couldn't close. Then came out and gave Northwestern their first B1G win. Two major missed opportunities.

Tonight's Game

#37 Wisconsin Badgers (13-5, 5-2) at #125 Penn State Nittany Lions (9-9, 0-7)

7 ET, FS1

BoilerUp89: The Nits have the opportunity to do the funniest thing here.

Kind of...: Humor is relative. I'm terrified. KenPom only has the Badgers by 6 (70% probability of winning.) Ugh.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

BoilerUp89: There's games but they aren't that interesting.

Kind of...: Unless you have a relative playing for a Colonial League team, he's right. Bleak.

BoilerUp89: The Colonial rebranded as the Coastal Athletic a few years ago. Still the CAA though.