Big Ten Football & Basketball Blog

Are you ready for the biggest weekend of the college basketball season? With several conference tournaments already underway, there are five automatic bids to hand out. Additionally, with one week until Selection Sunday, it is time for bubble teams to make a statement to the committee. Many of the teams on the fence go up against a top team with a chance to pick up a marquee win, while other bubble teams need to just continue winning and avoiding bad losses. On top of that, there are a handful of match-ups between championship contenders. Oh yeah, there’s also the biggest rivalry in the game on Sunday afternoon. Here’s the breakdown in the Big Ten:

Top Game

Michigan State at Wisconsin (Saturday, 12:00 PM, ESPN): Rematch of last week’s Michigan State victory. Another win here for the Spartans, and they will get a huge boost in seeding for the NCAA Tournament. Drew Neitzel was hampered by the flu against Michigan this week, but if he is 100%, he can carry MSU. Raymar Morgan is also starting to come into his own on the wing. Wisconsin needs to bounce back from last week’s losses. Without Brian Butch, Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor will have to take on more of the scoring burden for the rest of the season. The Badgers are still in the mix for a top-seed in March. Prediction: Wisconsin 62, Michigan State 55

Fighting for Bids

Ohio State at Michigan (Saturday, 4:00 PM, CBS): Meaningful Big Ten battle. Michigan picked up a huge win over Michigan State at home this week, while Ohio State would likely lock up a #1 seed with a victory here. Prediction: Ohio State 69, Michigan 65

Must-win for Bubble Teams

Illinois at Iowa (Saturday, 12:05 PM, ESPN FullCourt): Two middle-of-the-pack Big Ten teams battle it out. Illinois would get to ten wins with a road win at Carver-Hawkeye. A loss here would drop them back into the muddle of 9-7 teams from around the country. Prediction: Iowa 63, Illinois 58

Northwestern at Purdue (Saturday, 2:17 PM, ESPN FullCourt): An absolute must-win for the Boilermakers. A win over the Wildcats would be their third in a row, and would also get them to 9-7 in the Big Ten. They have won five of their last seven games. Prediction: Purdue 60, Northwestern 48

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 am and is filed under Big Ten Sports General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.