Big Ten Basketball: November 4 Recaps, Previews, and Open Thread

The Big Ten went a perfect 13-0 on night one. Tonight three more B1G teams are in action including the nation's preseason #1 team Purdue. Not only is the B1G slate much reduced from night one, the non-B1G slate is pretty barren as well.

All fancystats via Torvik. All rankings AP. All predictions not financial advice.

Last Night's Games

Ohio State Buckeyes 118, IU Indianapolis Jaguars 102

Kind of...: Fine, I'll be that guy. Ohio State hoops gave up 102 last night. Ohio State football has given up 55...in eight games. Whatever, the fans certainly enjoyed the 118-102 show, it's a long season, and coaches want things to work on. Moving along...

BoilerUp89: IU-I made more field goals than OSU. Of course, they also committed 36 fouls and sent OSU to the charity strips 53 times.

MaximumSam: I should have done some more research on Ben Howlett. He runs The System, which is characterized by running a full court press the whole game and offensive possessions lasting around 5 to 12 seconds. Safe to say, IU Indy will have some pretty high tempo stats. That said, I was worried about the Buckeye defense coming into the season and nothing I heard on the radio changed that.

Maryland Terrapins 83, Coppin State Eagles 61

Kind of...: Welcome back to B1G hoops Pharrel Payne.

BoilerUp89: Maryland led by 30 before letting off the gas

Michigan State Spartans 80, Colgate Raiders 69

Kind of...: Kohler goes 16/15, and Fears goes 15/10 (ast)/5 (steal). Probably not replicable against better competition, but add in Carr, and Sparty appears to have the "need three guys" formula handled.

BoilerUp89: This was a game for 30 minutes. Winning by 11 isn't too concerning, but winning by only 11 when you have 19 offensive rebounds is a little concerning. Sparty still can't shoot threes.

Penn State Nittany Lions 76, Fairfield Stags 68

misdreavus79: Yeah they suck.

BoilerUp89: Too expand on misdreavus79's comment, Fairfield led 68-65 with 2:17 remaining. The Stags were outrebounded by just 1 and shot only 18% from three. Hopefully this was just a young team dealing with the nerves of a first game of the season. Otherwise, it's gonna be a long season.

24 Wisconsin Badgers 96, Campbell Fighting Camels 64

Kind of...: It was 67-62 with less than 9:00 to play so don't be fooled by the final score. Campbell was the highest-rated opponent for any B1G game last night, so no reason to panic, but, um, there is no bench to speak of at this point, especially inside. That said, Blackwell and Boyd looked every bit the part of the maybe (probably not, but work with me) the best guard tandem in the conference. And Nolan Winter will be an excellent 3rd scorer many nights.

AlmaOtter: Didn't expect the Camels to keep it this close, but Wiscy dropped a 11-2 run or somesuch and that was that.

Minnesota Golden Gophers 87, Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs 60

Kind of...: Let the record reflect that the Niko Medved era began on a 23-1 run. How do you top that?

BoilerUp89: Gardner-Webb isn't good, but Minnesota basketball did what they are supposed to. It's been awhile since they've done that. Round of applause. Cade Tyson scored 30 points for the Gophers.

Nebraska Cornhuskers 86, West Georgia Wolves 53

BoilerUp89: It was Hoiberg's 200th career coaching victory. Nebraska let West Georgia hang around in the first half but doubled them up in the second 56-28.

Kind of...: Rienk Mast had a kind of quiet double-double, but great to see him playing again.

Northwestern Wildcats 70, Mercyhurst Lakers 47

Kind of...: Detective Martinelli successfully deduced that Erie, PA is not similar to Los Angeles and then proceeded to pick apart the lesser Lakers. Arrinten Page appears to have some upside.

BoilerUp89: Not the greatest shooting night for the cats, but can't argue with holding an opponent to 5% shooting from three.

7 Michigan Wolverines 121, Oakland Golden Grizzlies 78

BoilerUp89: Michigan set a program record with 69 first half points. Michigan's front court is terrifying.

Kind of...: Yep, in a league with a tremendous collection of PGs, Dusty May is doing the zig where others zag thing, and it is terrifying indeed. Aday Mara had 12 boards and 5 swats in 20 minutes. Morez Johnson had 24 points in 20 minutes. Look out.

AlmaOtter: I'm saddened by Morez transferring to UM of all places.

17 Illinois Fighting Illini 113, Jackson State Tigers 55

BoilerUp89: The Illini tripled Jackson State's rebounding total 61-19. The Tigers were completely outmatched.

Kind of...: Not much to add. We all knew the Illini looked like an explosive offense. Imagine what would've happened if they'd played IU Indianapolis? 150?

Southern Cal Trojans 94, Cal Poly Mustangs 64

BoilerUp89: A six point game at the half, USC put Cal Poly in the rearview mirror after the break. Despite the win, USC's non-conference strength of schedule took a nose dive with Boise State losing to D2 Hawai'i Pacific and Wazzu falling to Idaho.

Kind of...: THAT is a quality observation, my BoilerBot friend. No idea what a complete USC team looks like. The pieces don't look like they're supposed to fit. But there are some quality athletes in the starting lineup. Will be interesting to watch how the less-than-challenging non-conference unfolds.

12 UCLA Bruins 80, Eastern Washington Eagles 74

BoilerUp89: EWU kept fighting all game, but UCLA held them at arm's length away. Dent was as good as advertised (21 points, 9 assists) and Xavier Booker looked much improved on a new team (14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, zero turnovers).

Kind of...: Maybe not the best of signs that only one guy off the bench for UCLA played 10+ minutes? Admittedly, Dailey didn't play, so that would be a seven-man rotation. Dent/Booker/Bilodeau will win you plenty of games, though. Skyy Clark might be the x-factor.

MaximumSam: Eastern Washington was 17-19 at the rim. I wonder what would have happened if UCLA had a 7'3'' shot blocker down there. Oh well, I guess we'll never know.

Washington Huskies 94, Arkansas Pine Bluff Golden Lions 50

BoilerUp89: Washington blew out Pine Bluff early. Take nothing away from this game.

Kind of...: No Claude last night. Frosh Hannes Steinbach put up 21/7/6. A long time ago, the Huskies had a couple of great players out of Germany: Detlef Schrempf and Christian Welp (still their all-time scoring leader, I think). That has nothing to do with Steinbach, but keep an eye on this guy. Might be most productive frosh in the conference this year.

Tonight's Big Ten Games

#224 Evansville Purple Aces at #5 Purdue Boilermakers (1)

6:30 ET, BTN, SPREAD Pur -32.5, O/U 147.5

HoustonBoiler: Basketball season is finally here for Purdue fans tired of watching their football team lose. It will be great for the Boilers to focus on quickly rounding into mid-season form as a date with Alabama in Tuscaloosa is coming very soon.

BoilerUp89: Evansville has a 1 game winning streak in the series, so Purdue looks to fix that. The Purple Aces have upset a #1 team in recent memory and it's an in-state game so there's things to keep an eye on.

Kind of...: Jerry Sloan played at Evansville. Scott Haffner dropped 60-plus in a game in the 80's. And they used to wear jerseys with sleeves.

AlmaOtter: I know precisely nothing about the Purple Aces except that they have one of the more unique nicknames in the biz. Apparently based off of a 1920s newspaper, I choose to believe it reflects Evansville's history as riverboat casino locale.

#219 Robert Morris Colonials at #38 Iowa Hawkeyes

8:30 ET, BTN, SPREAD Iowa -22.5, O/U 142.5

Kind of...: As somebody who was at the MVC tournament last year (true story), I am quite interested to see how Drake-in-disguise (still workshopping this) looks. Can't remember the last time Iowa City interested me to this extent. Plus, Alvaro Folgueiras, who I have as a breakout candidate, was the Horizon League POY last year for the Colonials, so Iowa is there to really drive home what the portal wrought.

#110 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors at #27 Oregon Ducks

10:30 ET, BTN, SPREAD Ore -12.5, O/U 146.5

BoilerUp89: They are no Hawai'i Pacific, but the Rainbow Warriors will try to take down their mainland opponent too.

MaximumSam: Tanner Cuff transferred from Evansville to Hawai'i, but unfortunately he hurt his knee so we won't see him for either team tonight.

Non-Big Ten Games of Interest

Dick Vitale Invitational

Texas Longhorns at 6 Duke Blue Devils, 8:45 ET, ESPN

Kind of...: Gross. Takes a lot to get me to cheer for Duke, but Sean Miller might do it.

AlmaOtter: Ew.

Other

Georgia Southern Eagles at East Carolina Pirates, 7 ET, ESPN+
UNC Asheville Bulldogs at Wichita State Shockers, 7:30 ET, ESPN+
Portland State Vikings at Stanford Cardinal, 10 ET, ACCN