Big Ten Basketball January 23 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

Last Night's Game

Wisconsin Badgers 98, Penn State Nittany Lions 71

Kind of...: Not only is Penn State pretty bad at basketball, they also had a bad night last night. Over a good chunk of the first half, Wisconsin went on a 30-4 run. The Badgers had 25 assists. Basically, it was like a whole team of Braden Smiths playing the Jim Mora-era Saints:

Tonight's Games

#26 Indiana Hoosiers (12-7, 3-5) at #156 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-10, 2-6)

6 ET, FS1

Kind of...: In Iowa's last two games they beat Indiana on the road by 17 and Rutgers at home by 6. Indiana has lost four in a row. This is a game Indiana absolutely must win and/but a loss would be far from surprising. Basically either Indiana plays like a desperate team tonight or they will be a desperate team tomorrow.

HoustonBoiler: Agreed. If Indiana wants to play in the NCAA tournament, they really need to win this game.

#38 The Ohio State Buckeyes (13-5, 5-3) at #1 Michigan Wolverines (17-1, 7-1)

8 ET, FOX

BoilerUp89: "We hate Michigan, so we’re coming out for blood, we’re going up there to win, and we’re going to have fun doing it,” - The Ohio State forward Colin White

White is averaging 0.8 points/game and 1.1 rebounds/game this season.

Kind of...: Mr. White made a poor choice saying that anywhere in the vicinity of somebody with a microphone and/or notebook. That said, that's probably the attitude you have to have heading on the road against one of the best teams in America. And, frankly, Michigan has looked more like a second weekend team the last five games than like the remorseless killing machine they appeared to be in Nov/Dec.

Fun style matchup. Can OSU's guards dictate the game, or will Michigan's bigs grind the Buckeyes into dust? We all know what Michigan can do, but I feel like the Buckeyes will at least make them work for it.

MaximumSam: Feels like dust is a distinct possibility.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#100 High Point Panthers (17-4, 5-1) at #259 Radford Highlanders (11-10, 4-2), 7 ET, ESPN+
#58 Akron Zips (15-4, 6-1) at #227 Ohio Bobcats (11-9, 5-3), 8 ET, ESPNU
#32 Utah State Aggies (15-3, 6-2) at #97 Colorado State Rams (12-7, 3-5), 10 ET, FS1

Kind of...: Utah State has dropped their last two, including at home to UNLV (?!?!). The at-large case is still quite solid right now, but if you're a "worst timeline" type, Colorado State is certainly good enough to get the home win. In which case a one-bid MWC, while still unlikely, becomes imaginable.

This article will probably not drop in time for this factoid to be of informational use, so I'll phrase it this way: Did you notice that 7 of the 24 games today tipped in the afternoon? None of them are standouts or anything, but, still worth noting. Who knows? If this storm is bad enough, maybe we'll get some random mid-major games being played at odd times next week, too.

Stay safe out there. And/or, if you live somewhere used to winter weather, enjoy the schadenfreude.