Big Ten Basketball January 26 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

Yesterday's Games

USC Trojans 73, Wisconsin Badgers 71

BoilerUp89: Rough home loss for the Badgers as their five game winning streak snaps with a home loss to a 4Pac team. The Badgers were colder than the temperatures outside, making just 34% of their shots and only 9 of 37 three point attempts. Nick Boyd and Chad Baker-Mazara both had 29 points to cancel each other out.

Kind of...: I've been shoveling for the better part of three hours today and am pretty salty, so...Wisconsin always has (at least) one game like this each year: Fritter away a double-digit lead in the second half at home because they stop moving the ball and/or moving on offense, see an opponent get hot, and prove unable to get a stop when needed.

Wisconsin is what it is: a team that can give anybody a game when the shots are falling. And a team that can go cold at a moment's notice.

Washington Huskies 72, Oregon Ducks 57

BoilerUp89: What happens when you take a team with two stars plus question marks everywhere else and remove the two stars? You get this Oregon team (or Rutgers minus their two lottery picks).

The good news for the Ducks is that they are still technically able to win a national championship in men's basketball this year. That bad news is that I wouldn't put them very high in the list of 360 teams that can still win a national championship in men's basketball this year. For those that migrated from the old place (I'm pretty sure that's almost all of you), you may remember me counting down from 364 to 1 last year. I won't be doing 364 to 1 this year because there are 365 Division 1 teams this season. If my math is correct, I don't think anybody can be eliminated in the next week so (spoilers!) next Monday's post will likely be an introduction to the series and a discussion of the five teams that are already out due to non-results based things.

Kind of...: It appears that Shelstad is likely out for the year, so any notion of Oregon getting hot in time to be a nuisance at the BTT is remote. Just a lost season in Eugene.

Tonight's Game

#138 Penn State Nittany Lions (9-10, 0-8) at #38 The Ohio State Buckeyes (13-6, 5-4)

7 ET, FS1

BoilerUp89: I really can't figure out whether OSU deserves to be in the tournament or not. I lean towards not, but a loss here would tip me over the edge. It would also contaminate the rest of the league with Penn State's metrics so... I guess I'm rooting for the game to be cancelled?

MaximumSam: I shoveled like three times yesterday. And I look out this morning to see it snowed some more. Great. There is going to be like 12 people at this game.

Kind of...: Ohio State needs a quality win. In the meantime, they definitely need to avoid a terrible loss.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#15 Louisville Cardinals (14-5, 4-3) at #8 Duke Blue Devils (18-1, 7-0), 7 ET, ESPN
#2 Arizona Wildcats (20-0, 7-0) at #23 BYU Cougars (17-2, 5-1), 9 ET, ESPN

Kind of...: Slim pickings in mid-major land. I doubt it's even on TV, but Jackson State host Florida A&M to see who keeps pace with Bethune Cookman in the SWAC race.

You would have to pay me to watch L'ville/Duke, but I will eagerly see what goes down in Provo tonight.