Big Ten Tournament, Day 2: Work Day Basketball!
Worthless Wednesday Teams For You
#17 Maryland Terps v #9 Iowa Hawkeyes
12:00 ET, 11:00 GTZ. Peacock.
MaximumSam: I thought we got rid of the communist GTZ.
HoustonBoiler: Can Maryland win two in a row? Have they won two B1G games in a row this season? I cannot be bother to look it up. If Iowa plays to their mushy-middleness, i.e., if Bennett Stirtz has a good game, they should win this one.
Kind of...: Not only has Maryland won two in a row in conference play, the second of those wins was...OVER IOWA!!! It kicked off Iowa's 2-6 finish. The Hawkeyes are safely because the committee is using metrics now. There is an article to be written about past teams with Iowa's profile (20-11/10-10, #24 KenPom) missing the tournament because of bad metrics (rot in hell, RPI). For example, take 1998...IOWA. They went 19-11//9-7, were #21 in KenPom, and missed the tournament! No NCAA for Ricky Davis in his sole season in Iowa City. But I'll never turn down a chance to mock Iowa, so please click one of the links below and enjoy the story of Ricky Davis embarrassing the game of basketball in an attempt to secure a triple double (and let's now ask too many questions about the latter stages of Bam Adebayo's 83 point game last night).
Footage of Ricky Davis being a moron complete with interspersed middle school documentary content
#13 USC Trojans v #12 Washington Huskies
2:30 ET, 1:30 GTZ. Peacock.
MaximumSam: I think my work has made Hulu unusable. But I'm not sure if they've blocked the Cock. Maybe I can get Hannes Steinbach live in 4K on my second monitor. Achtung, baby.
HoustonBoiler: I see the B1G is hosting Pac12 games during intermissions in the BTT this year.
Kind of...: We did this a week ago and Washington won going away. USC has lost seven straight and a desultory performance today might have the SC athletic department looking at the Mussel Man's buyout given the turmoil over Baker-Mazara's departure.
#15 Northwestern Wildcats v #10 Indiana Hoosiers
6:30 ET, 5:30 GTZ. BTN.
Perpetually Aggrieved Wildcat: I mean...Northwestern beat Penn State. Job done.
Indiana was the best possible second-round matchup for Northwestern: the 'Cats have won six straight against the Hoosiers, have the interior size to deal with Indiana, and can potentially force the Buffalomen into bad shots.
Does that mean Northwestern will win? It's unlikely. The 'Cats will have to close out IU's shooters well, hit their defensive rotations, and avoid a cold shooting night. A lot has to go right. I'm not confident it will, but that doesn't mean it can't.
BoilerUp89: PAW put it best. Northwestern has won 6 straight over the Hoosiers. They are clearly the better program right now.
HoustonBoiler: Indiana really likes to shoot 3s, about 29 of them per game of which they make just under 35%. So the question is how well will Indiana shoot 3s today? On the other hand, as @PAW informed us, Northwestern has won 6 straight over Indiana and I expect the Detective will be investigating the murder of a bison this evening.
Kind of...: Dear Lord, Hoosiers. 6 straight losses to Northwestern? Way to commit to the "we're a football school now" bit. Northwestern winning again would be hilarious to me. So, in a "not allowed to have good things" sort of way, I actually thing Indiana will win. Which would actually be a Quad 2 win.
Look mid-major stans, here's your ethical dilemma: Bracketmatrix has Indiana as the last team in right now. The top two teams out--as of yesterday--are Stanford and Virginia Tech, and they both lost. After that, it goes Auburn, New Mexico, San Diego State. Assume that's the case. Do you cheer for the Hoosiers to solidify their case and make it harder for Auburn? Or do you cheer against the Hoosiers, opening the door for Auburn, but also for, maybe, the winner of a New Mexico/SDSU MWC semi?
#14 Rutgers Scarlet Knights v #11 Minnesota Golden Gophers
9:00 ET, 8:00 GTZ. BTN.
PAW: Christ on a cracker, gross.
HoustonBoiler: Rutgers won all of their games against the bottom four teams this season, but none against other teams. Minnesota was not in the bottom four and thus, is not a team Rutgers can beat.
Kind of...: HoustonBoiler's reasoning is flawless. It IS a syllogism. That said, Minnesota beat UCLA and I would LOVE to see that rematch, so Rutgers will probably pull the upset.
