Big Ten Basketball January 4 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

Yesterday's Games

Minnesota Golden Gophers 84, Northwestern Wildcats 78

MaximumSam: That's an ouchie loss for the Cats. They were leading almost the whole way, but the game got away in the last five minutes. That's drops them to 0-3 in the conference with home losses to Minny and OSU. Not the way they drew it up in the academy.

HoustonBoiler: Very nice road win for Minnesota.

Kind of...: Northwestern has a thin margin of error and getting killed on the boards and letting the Gophers make 67% of their 2's pretty much erased it and more.

Iowa Hawkeyes 74, UCLA Bruins 61

MaximumSam: Iowa jumped all over the Bruins early, and were up 24 in the first half. UCLA cut it to 4 in the second, but that's as close as they got. Xavier Booker Watch: he played 12 minutes, had 4 points, 1 rebound, and 3 fouls.

Kind of...: Feel like I called Iowa being good right away at the beginning of the year, and called this result yesterday. My honest assessment is that Iowa is a better team than Nebraska, good enough for #5 in the conference.

Illinois Fighting Illini 73, Penn State Nittany Lions 65

MaximumSam: The most boring game, where the Illinois maintained a more or less ten point lead for more or less the entire game.

Kind of...: Everybody should go to the Palestra at least once. But hopefully yesterday wasn't the day you decided to go.

Purdue Boilermakers 89, Wisconsin Badgers 73

BoilerUp89: Wisconsin came out and punched Purdue in the face for the first 12 minutes or so. The Badgers game plan was to play physical, get their guards the ball, and give them room to get into the paint (usually by driving once Fletcher Loyer was guarding them). Despite that Purdue was hanging in there thanks to some Wisconsin turnovers. Purdue went on a run late in the first half and really up'ed their defensive efforts in the 2nd half to build up a 25 point lead.

Then Braden Smith set the Big Ten assist record, Purdue went into celebration mode a bit too early and the Badgers cut into the lead to almost make this a game again. The Badgers 16% from three hurt them.

HoustonBoiler: Purdue did not out rebound Wisconsin, but it was close (37 to 39). Wisconsin is a good rebounding team so this is a reasonable result. Purdue also limited their turnovers (7) while Wisconsin turned the ball over 11 times. Combine these with the Badgers poor 3-point shooting, in particular John Blackwell (0-5) and Austin Rapp (1-6), and you have Purdue building a large second half lead and coasting in for the win.

Also congratulations to Braden Smith for passing Cassius Winston to lead the B1G in career assists.

Kind of...: "[P]unched Purdue in the face for the first 12 minutes or so" seems a bit strong because 1) I watched the Purdue/Iowa State game, and 2) Wisconsin's biggest lead was 2 minutes into the game. Wisconsin was never winning this game. The lead got as high as 25, and the only thing that stopped the final margin from approaching, even exceeding, BYU/UW (28) or Neb/UW (30) levels was Purdue's inattention.

Three guarantees: 1) Purdue is getting a double/triple bye at BTT (i.e., top 4); 2) Wisconsin will be playing Wednesday (i.e., will not finish in top 8); 3) Wisconsin won't be playing on Friday (i.e., will not make the QFs).

Today's Games

#53 Washington Huskies (9-4, 1-1) at #19 Indiana Hoosiers (10-3, 1-1)

8 ET, BTN

MaximumSam: The undersized Hoosiers will attempt to contain German freshman sensation Hannes Steinbach. Feels like the Huskies should be better than they've shown, given how good Steinbach has been and the trio of guards they have.

Kind of...: Yeah, interesting game. On paper, seems like a bad matchup for Indiana, but the Huskies seems like less than the sum of the parts so far. At the same time, Indiana's best win is...Kansas State. In theory, the Hoosiers might be no better than Wisconsin. I think they are, but they have yet to beat an NCAA tournament quality team.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#44 Creighton Bluejays (9-5) at #43 Seton Hall Pirates (12-2), Noon ET, Peacock
#296 Manhattan Jaspers (7-5) at #257 Merrimack Warriors (8-7), Noon ET, ESPN+
#106 Florida Atlantic Owls (9-5) at #209 Tulane Green Wave (10-4), 1 ET, ESPN2
#108 UAB Blazers (9-5) at #68 South Florida Bulls (8-5), 1 ET, ESPNU
#171 Robert Morris Colonials (11-5) at #145 Oakland Golden Grizzlies (7-8) , 3 ET, ESPN+
#59 Tulsa Golden Hurricane (13-1) at #168 North Texas Mean Green (9-5), 4 ET, ESPN+
#125 Bradley Braves (10-5) at #98 Murray State Racers (12-3), 5 ET, ESPN2
#101 Seattle Redhawks (12-4) at #26 St. Mary's Gaels (14-2), 8 ET, ESPN+
#129 Loyola Marymount Lions (10-6) at #7 Gonzaga Bulldogs (15-1), 9 ET, ESPN+

BoilerUp89: WCC play, the top of the MVC, MAAC, and Horizon battle it out.

Kind of...: Not quite an elimination game in the Big East, but it seems unlikely both Creighton and Seton Hall go dancing. Bradley is playing better, but Murray State still seems a half-level better. If you're bored at 1:00, given South Florida and their #21 tempo a look.