Republic of Open Threads: January 11th Basketball

Yesterday

Nebraska Cornhuskers 83, Indiana Hoosiers 77

BoilerUp89: Nebraska fell behind by 16 but never panicked. Despite Lamar Wilkerson's 32 points for the Hoosiers, things fell apart when Tucker DeVries picked up his fourth foul. Nebraska's offensive efforts were led by Jamarques Lawrence who had career high 27.

Kind of...: NATION'S LONGEST WINNING STREAK!!!

Twenty games in a row is nothing to laugh at. As came up in the discussion yesterday, it's not like this is some gimmick built on an easy schedule. The NET is #11 and BracketMatrix has the Huskers as the top 3-seed. They're not going away. Watching rsFR Braden Frager makes plays off the bench yesterday, I thought "Maybe Hoiberg will stay in one place." Then I saw that Kansas lost at West Virginia and my thoughts drifted.

Wisconsin Badgers 91, Michigan Wolverines 88

BoilerUp89: Michigan is mortal? All it took was Wisconsin going 15 of 33 from three. The Badgers post players were able to stretch the floor, bring Mara and Johnson out to the three point line, and open up the paint. There's lessons to be learned from Michigan's loss when it comes to how best attack their defense.

Kind of...: I was blessedly, gloriously wrong. Wisconsin--who already has losses of 28 and 30 this year, the two worst defeats in the Greg Gard era--went on the road and took down the team than many of you here were calling the inevitable national champions. And dear Lord, Michigan is scary. But not unbeatable.

Not sure how replicable yesterday was for Wisconsin, and I mean beyond "Lithuania frosh drilling shooting less than 30% on season drilling five threes" replicable. But John Blackwell has put together back-to-back strong outings for the first time since before winter break. If Bieliauskas is at all for real, and Blackwell is fully "back," that does change things a lot. Depth is still an issue, and this could all goes sideways @Minnesota Tuesday, but things look very different in Madison than they did a week ago.

Purdue Boilermakers 93, Penn State Nittany Lions 85

BoilerUp89: It wasn't the best defensive effort from the Boilers and the free throw shooting wasn't anything to be happy about, but going to 5-0 in B1G play isn't nothing. Penn State never quite went away but also never pulled back within two possessions for the final 16 minutes.

The Nittany Lions shot 44% from three and outrebounded Purdue by 1. Freddit Dilione V had 25 points. Purdue won because just 3 turnovers. Braden Smith had 26 points and 14 assists. Oscar Cluff got whatever he wanted (23 points on 10 off 11 shooting).

Kind of...: If you were studying for the GRE yesterday and had this game on in the background, you might call Purdue's defensive effort "desultory." Nontheless, the Boilermakers continue to operate in the shadows of Michigan's domination, quietly putting together a superb season. In fact, thanks to Wisconsin, KenPom now projects Purdue to grab a share of the B1G title.

UCLA Bruins 67, Maryland Terrapins 55

BoilerUp89: UCLA's defense was impressive, their offense not so much. Of real concern was they got outrebounded 48 to 29. Xavier Booker started again but had 0 rebounds in 16 minutes.

Kind of...: Aside from the loss to California, UCLA's season has frankly been boring. Every game has had pretty much the expected result. Preseason you wouldn't have thought they'd lose in Iowa City, but with some games on tape, that's not stunning. Basically the Bruins are an underwhelming-to-date work in progress. It didn't take very long to realize this was unlikely to be a top-4 B1G team. But, beyond that, there's still plenty to be decided. Check their progress in February.

Today's Games

#8 Illinois Fighting Illini (12-3, 3-1) at #18 Iowa Hawkeyes (12-3, 2-2)

Noon ET, FOX

MaximumSam: Tough stretch for the Hawkeyes as after this game they take the Tour of Indiana at Purdue and the Hoosiers. So they probably want to grab the one at home. Illinois needs a win to stay tied with Sparty and now Michigan. With the Wolverines looking mortal the conference crown looks more open, assuming someone can beat Nebraska.

Kind of...: Will be really interesting to see how the crowd is at Carver today. Once upon a time, this was Iowa's biggest conference game, and there wasn't a close second. Matchup-wise, this feels like a Euro futbol battle between the Netherlands and Italy. Can Illinois grind for 40 minutes? Can Iowa score enough? Really intriguing matchup. A Hawkeye win creates a 7-way logjam at 3-2 and puts Illinois behind the 8-ball in terms of a triple bye (what are we calling a top 4 finish now?), while an Illini win drops Iowa to 11th with said tour of Indiana coming up. Not much margin of error in the B1G this year.

#57 Northwestern Wildcats (8-7, 0-4) at #186 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (8-8, 1-4)

5 ET, Peacock

MaximumSam: The Detective takes on the case of Last Place.

Kind of...: Unofficial rule: if you don't have 10 wins at this point, you're probably advised to start thinking about next season.

#40 The Ohio State Buckeyes (11-4, 3-2) at #58 Washington Huskies (9-6, 1-3)

6 ET, Peacock

MaximumSam: The Buckeyes looked surprisingly competent at Oregon. Honestly, all of the West Wing teams have been pretty middling, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Let the midfest continue!

Kind of...: Still don't know how the hell OSU lost to Pitt, but it might be that that loss kills them in terms of seeding rather than keeps them out of the tournament. (But JFC Buckeyes...) Anyway, win this and with UCLA and Minnesota coming to Columbus next week, things suddenly look reasonably bright.

As for Washington, this is the beginning of a three-game homestand, the next two of which are Michigan and MSU. A loss tonight and things could spiral in a hurry for Danny Sprinkle's bunch.

Non-B1G Games of Interest

#74 Memphis Tigers (7-7, 2-0) at #103 FAU Owls (10-6, 2-1), 1 ET, ESPN2
#230 Merrimack Warriors (10-7, 6-0) at #260 Saint Peter's Peacocks (7-6, 4-1), 2 ET, ESPN+
#117 Wright State Raiders (10-7, 5-1) at #127 Oakland Golden Grizzlies (9-8, 5-1), 3 ET, ESPN2

BoilerUp89: Lots of teams afraid of competing with the NFL. Memphis/FAU is probably the top non-B1G game of the day. We've also got battles at the top of the MAAC and Horizon.

Kind of...: Oh, the Horizon League...I am sorry to inform you that Doug Gottlieb's charges are 4-2 and fourth in the conference. However, I will quickly, gladly, note that KenPom has Green Bay at 241, well behind conference leaders Oakland (126) and Wright State (146) (and the Phoenix are 38th in his "luck" metric). So, if you aren't of the NFL sort give Wright State/Oakland a look, if nothing else than to familiarize yourself with a team you might well be cheering to knock Green Bay of the Horizon League tournament in a few weeks.