Big Ten Tournament, Day 1: Tuesday Shame Games!

#17 Maryland Terps v #16 Oregon Ducks

5:00 ET, 4:00 GTZ. Peacock.

Kind of...: Hard to be 100% sure, but feels like Maryland isn't playing today if they had Pharrel Payne all year. Then again, if any team can counter re: injury luck, it's Oregon. And Oregon does have Nate Bittle now.

Both teams have shown the (very) occasional feistiness as the Terps beat Iowa and Oregon beat Wisconsin. So, the winner could give Iowa a bad day if Stirtz or his supporting cast comes out flat. But, really, come on. This is a game worth watching on its own terms. The BTT is starting! With the two worth uniform games in the league!!

MaximumSam: Buzz Williams really embraced the first season, where coaches can just do anything without getting fired. People expected nothing and he rose to the occasion to meet those expectations.

Not sure where Oregon is going. Them being Utter Ass was a bit surprising. I haven't heard of Dana Altman being on the hot seat, but he is 67 (heyo!) and might decide traveling to Iowa in the winter isn't in the cards for him anymore. In any event, we at least get one last look at Nate Bittle's Glorious Coif.

HoustonBoiler: @MaximumSam - I might suggest that Buzz Williams sank to the occasion. I will point out that Kevin Willard has his new team in the tourney though that may be due to the Big East being trasch. With respect to this game, I agree that's a game of "what could have been" due to the injuries both teams had to deal with. However, Nate Bittle is back and I think that gives Oregon the edge.

#18 Penn State Nittany Lions v #15 Northwestern Wildcats

7:30 ET, 6:30 GTZ. Peacock.

Perpetually Aggrieved Wildcat: Northwestern is, my esteemed friend Kind of... pointed out yesterday, 3-2 in their last five, dropping only close tilts to Purdue and Minnesota.

The problem with that statistic is that they have also played close games in those three wins, edging out a collection of also-rans in Maryland, Oregon, and Indiana.

In these two teams' only meeting, Penn State fell victim to Northwestern's one (1) efficient game of the Big Ten season – two-time Big Ten scoring champion Nick Martinelli dropped 34, including a 4/7 night from three (lol), Jake West dished out 13 assists (sweet) Tre Singleton had a 17 pt, 18 reb double-double (lolwut), and Angelo Ciaravino had 20 on 9/12 shooting.

I know, me neither.

Since then, though, we have watched the Big Ten season grind away at the Wildcats' freshmen in particular as the one they call Nicky Meatballs and/or The Detective has shouldered even more of the load. The problem is it turns into the 'Cats trying to run effectively a two-post system, with teams keying on Martinelli, none of Northwestern's guards–save maybe Jordan Clayton–able to shoot the 'Cats out of it. That's what happened against Minnesota's transparently-sandbagging 2-3 zone on Saturday night, and the young Northwestern lineup often appeared to be thinking their way through it a little too heavily.

This is 200 words on Penn State-Northwestern, a game you don't care about and a fictional Commonwealth Campus that a PSU Board of Trustees member just actively thought about trying to close due to budget constraints. Let's all go home and think about what we just did.

Kind of...: Nothing PAW said above is wrong...but, well, Northwestern is playing Penn State today. They should win. Even the Olde-Tymey Nittany Lion seems to realize it, given that it looks like a hobo ready to hitch its way out of town.

Plus, despite the accuracy of PAW's breakdown, the Wildcats still seem likelier to given Indiana trouble than PSU, right?

MaximumSam: We should formally award Penn State with the Used Culver's Cup. Inside you will find a wrapper that formally contained a ButterBurger but now contains a tiny bit of melted cheese that fell off the sandwich and a stray piece of onion.

The Nits finished 140th on Torvik, their worst finish since 2016. Mike Rhoades came from VCU - they finished 52nd. There are 365 teams in Division 1 basketball and the Nits finished 363rd in Effective Field Goal Defense. They were truly terrible and earned their bits of trash and should celebrate them forever. Not sure they earned the piece of onion and cheese, though.

HoustonBoiler: The other shame game features the Detective, who will give us his best Ace Ventura impersonation while investigating the murder of a few lions. @PAW, @Kind of..., and @MaximumSam have already written more words than this game is worth. Northwestern is the better team and should move on barring a rare game of competency from Penn State - you know, like that one time they almost beat Michigan.