It was a big week of big matchups for the Big Ten. So let’s see what we learned about the conference this week including a discussion of the Penn State Nittany Lions as this week’s spotlight team. I’ll give the fans an update on Basketball now that football is over, IU finding its stride and of course No Explanation Power Rankings. Finally, I’ll end with a look ahead to next week.
Penn State Nittany Lions Spotlight
Penn State lost both it’s games this week in its spotlight week.
First up, The Nittany Lions lost 74-79 in Overtime to Wisconsin. A balanced effort from Wisconsin’s best four carries them to victory. Penn State looks balanced on box score but really nobody had a great game. Jalen Pickett can’t do it all.
Micah Shrewsbury and Penn State followed that up with a 68-74 loss at Maryland on Saturday. Penn State falls to 14-11 overall and 5-9 in the Big Ten. Currently, they are on the outside looking in for March Madness.
There has been no consistent play from any Big Man (Dorsey, Njie, Henn, Lilley). Either get abused down there or (like in the Purdue game) give up a million open threes. Jalen Pickett is a 1st team All Big Ten player don’t get it wrong. I was hoping for more from Penn State. Especially, I wanted more from the Freshmen.
Jameel Brown has disappeared. Kebba Njie hasn’t made the leap. Lilley is out of the rotation. Mahaffey and Clary at 3 pts a game each being the best freshmen is a disappointment.
Transfers like Cam Wynter and Andrew Funk have been good but inconsistent. When they are good Penn State usually wins. Mikey Henn falls into the category of big men who haven’t made an impact.
I wanted Penn State to pull off a couple more wins that they weren’t supposed to. Not sure how there’s been enough in the Shrewsbury tenure to prove he deserves a job like Notre Dame. Yes his resume and experience is impressive but the results haven’t come yet.
Penn State has work to do going forward if they want to make the tournament. But you know who is making March Madness…
Northwestern is Going Dancing!
The Wildcats knock off number one Purdue 64-58 in Evanston in one of the most Big Ten games you will ever see.
Both teams kind of forgot how to play offense in the last ten minutes of game time. Northwestern remembered just in time to finally take the lead late. Purdue’s freshmen guards had huge turnovers late. Zach Edey also couldn’t figure out Northwestern’s double team. Hopefully a learning moment for Purdue.
For Northwestern it was huge. The Wildcats have been in the top half of the B1G standings all season but have been on the outside looking in for March Madness.
Beating Purdue is a signature victory that solidifies the rest of the numbers/results this season for Northwestern.
It was a tremendous home environment and its great to see the passion from the students for what is normally one of the most hands off fan bases in the Big Ten.
It was a really cool moment after the game with the fans storming the court and having Andy Katz interview Chris Collins and his son (a manager on the team) as they both have tears of joy.
This is why the College basketball regular season matters.
Chris Collins is in his 10th season coaching at Northwestern. He just passed 300 games as head coach. All those games, practices, recruiting visits, film sessions, etc. that he has had to put in have led him to knock off the number one team in the nation for the first time in program history and to cement their spot in March Madness for only the second time ever.
Northwestern won’t make the final four. They might not even win a game in March Madness. But last night… Chris Collins, the Northwestern players, and the Wildcat fans were on top of the world.
No one can take that moment from them. Things like that are why I love college basketball. Even if the upset came against my favorite team.
Indiana is on a hot streak
- Indiana has won 8 of its last 9
- February so far: Win over Purdue, Rutgers and at Michigan
- Only loss at Maryland
- Might be ranked in the top 15
- Winning games they weren’t last year or even earlier this year
- Next four are @ Northwestern, Illinois, @ MSU and @ Purdue.
- Let’s see where they are at after those games. IF they win 3 of four might be up to a 3 seed? If they drop 3 of four might be back down to a 6 seed
Post Super Bowl College Basketball Roundup
Outside of the Conference:
- Everyone keeps losing but Purdue
- Oops Purdue lost to Northwestern
- Basically a “no great teams” season
- Houston is for real this year
- Nate Oats has Alabama balling with all American and Top 5 pick in Brandon Miller
- Big 12 is the best league with 4 teams in the top 12 but also they all beat each other and just stay ranked high so could be a self fulfilling fallacy. “Of course Iowa State is top 15 they just beat Baylor who’s a top 15 team.”
- Creighton started top 10, lost a bunch, became unranked, and won a bunch to be back in the top
- UConn started unranked, won a bunch, made the top 5, lost a bunch and is back to unranked
- UCLA and Arizona keep swapping between being legit title contenders to being on upset watch for march madness
- Duke is a 7-10 seed range, UNC is on the bubble, and after losing to Georgia Kentucky might have to win the SEC tournament to make march madness
- Rick Barnes and Tennessee look destined to be a 2 or 3 seed and pull a Rick Barnes and lose early
- Texas’ administration doesn’t want you to look up Chris Beard or Quinn Ewers new haircut. They just want you to know Rodney Terry and the Longhorns are final four threats.
No Explanation Power Rankings
Apparently the No Explanation committee were watching the Super Bowl yesterday and didn’t submit any explanation for the rankings this week. Oh wait, they do that every week? Oops. Well, here you go!
- Purdue
- Indiana
- Maryland
- Nothwestern
- Rutgers
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Wisconsin
- Penn State
- Nebraska
- Ohio State
- Minnesota
Looking ahead to Next week
Maryland is next week’s spotlight team. They host Purdue and play at Nebraska.