Big Ten Football & Basketball Blog

The Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Kansas State Wildcats in second round NCAA Tournament competition from the McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona. This was a back-and-forth contest between two evenly-matched teams, as one would expect in a 4-5 game. A terrific individual performance from Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen was nearly enough to get the Wildcats to their second straight Sweet 16, but in the end, it was the defensive heroics of Jordan Taylor that sealed the deal for the Badgers. Pullen, who scored 38 points, rose to tie the game with a three-pointer with just two seconds left, only to be denied by a Taylor block. It was an ironic end to a night that had largely unfolded in a different direction up to that point in time. Pullen dominated the individual matchup with Taylor, tossing in shots left and right while his Wisconsin counterpart made lots of bad decisions, including a foul on a Pullen 3-point attempt with 10.1 seconds left in a game Wisconsin led by a 66-63 score. (Pullen made two of the three foul shots, forcing Wisconsin to hit two free throws of its own and make the score 68-65, setting up the final sequence.) However, Taylor redeemed himself and gained the last laugh as his Badgers moved on to play eighth-seeded Butler in the round of 16.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

The Big Ten is well represented in the NCAA Tournament this year in a field that includes the #1 overall seed, the Ohio State Buckeyes. Let’s take a look at each game featuring Big Ten schools:

- #1 Ohio State vs #16 Texas-San Antonio - March 18 @ 4:40 pm ET - Ohio State v Texas San Antonio NCAA Tournament preview

- #3 Purdue vs #14 St. Peter’s - March 18 @ 7:20 pm ET - Purdue v St Peter’s NCAA Tournament preview

- #4 Wisconsin vs #13 Belmont - March 17 @ 7:27 - Wisconsin v Belmont NCAA Tournament preview

- #8 Michigan vs #9 Tennessee - March 18 @ 12:40 - Michigan v Tennessee NCAA Tournament preview

- #10 Penn State vs #7 Temple - March 17 @ 2:10 - Penn State v Temple NCAA Tournament preview

- #10 Michigan State vs #7 UCLA - March 17 @ 7:20 pm ET - Michigan State v UCLA NCAA Tournament preview

The Ohio State Buckeyes are back in action today in the Big Ten Tournament final facing an unlikely foe; the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State (19-13) has won three straight Big Ten Tournament games to advance, and four straight overall, in beating Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan State. But Penn State has their hands full with #1 Ohio State (31-2), a team that looks poised to be the #1 overall seed in the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

The Big Ten Tournament Championship will tip-off at 3:30 pm ET and will be televised on CBS.

The #1 Ohio State Buckeyes survived a scare today, a scare that came from #8 seed Northwestern. The Buckeyes and Wildcats spent the second half trading leads before and overtime period was needed. But Ohio State was able to outscore Northwestern in OT 15-9 as they advance to play the winner of #4 Michigan versus #5 Illinois in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament which is on ESPN right now.

With the win the Buckeyes continue to look like the favorite for the #1 overall seed in the 2011 NCAA Tournament which will be announced on Sunday night.

The 2011 Big Ten Tournament is underway as three games fill the schedule for Thursday, March 10th. Held at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the conference with the worst logo in sports tipped off their 2011 tournament earlier today with #8 Northwestern and #9 Minnesota squaring off. The Wildcats kept their dreams of the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance alive as they topped the Golden Gophers 75-65 to start the day. #7 Michigan State is currently facing #10 Iowa on ESPN2 and tonight’s game is #6 Penn State vs. #11 Indiana.

One day after suffering an upset loss to UConn, the #2 Michigan State Spartans improved to 4-1 with a win over #11 Washington by a score of 76-71. The Spartans, playing in the Maui Invitational, took 3rd place in the tournament with the win which was their first win over a ranked team in 2010. MSU trailed Washington by 10 at the half at 44-34, but rode a 42-27 second half to victory over the Huskies.

With the holiday season in full swing and holiday shopping upon us, there is no doubt that Michigan State merchandise will be popular once again when combined with the success of the MSU basketball team. The Spartans get a competitive break when they face Tennessee Tech (0-2) on Sunday before traveling to face #1 Duke on December 1st. The back-and-forth schedule continues when MSU hosts Bowling Green on December 4 before facing yet another Top 10 opponent in #10 Syracuse on December 7th.

Talk of the Big Ten’s expansion has swirled throughout the sport world in 2010 with names like Texas, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Missouri and others having been brought up on several occasions. While arguments can be made for a variety of schools to join the financially-attractive Big Ten with all of their tradition, Colin Cowherd said that UConn appears to be the front-runner. The more that I think about UConn in the Big Ten the more I like it. Let’s take a look at some brief details of why.

First of all, Connecticut brings the Northeastern U.S. to the Big Ten. The New England media market currently focuses on the Big East and by bringing in one of the top Big East programs in terms of media coverage (ESPN loves local UConn), the Big Ten is a big winner. That ESPN connection will continue to ensure that the worldwide leader in sports continues to talk Big Ten regularly, thus resulting in increased brand awareness, added Big Ten merchandise sales and more.

The second main point is the huge boost that Big Ten basketball would get from the addition of UConn. Not only would the Huskies move to a competitive, but much less top-heavy conference where they would surely finish in the Top 3-4 or better annually. The addition would also help attendance at every Big Ten school’s basketball games, especially in women’s basketball, due to the tradition of both the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

Overall, the UConn addition makes a ton of sense. If the Big Ten does indeed expand in 2010, and all signs point to expansion being inevitable, UConn may have the best argument. However, a few of the other teams mentioned in Cory McKnight’s July 2007 article “Big Ten to add a 12th team?” including Missouri, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers & Notre Dame. While Notre Dame does not appear to be a major option despite the geographic logic of their joining the Big Ten, I think the other schools make more sense.

Missouri adds a western presence to the Big Ten’s media market. Having a school two hours from St. Louis makes sense and they would even tap into the Kansas City market as well. Rutgers brings another upstanding academic institution to join Northwestern and Michigan in the Big Ten and they would help grow the New York & New Jersey markets. West Virginia is not a growing market and they are well-known for their fans’ disrespectful antics so I really do not see them getting into the prized Big Ten. Pittsburgh brings a solid media market and makes great sense geographically as well as solid football and a even better basketball program.

So overall there are several good cases and likely a few I have not mentioned. However, UConn, the more I think about it, seems the best candidate for Big Ten expansion. How will it play out? I guess we will find out in time!

I thought the Big Ten was supposed to be down this year… I guess not! The Spartans of Michigan State seem poised to ensure the world knows that the Big Ten is still going strong as they not only made it to the 2009 Final Four, but tonight advanced to the NCAA Tournament Championship game with a 82-73 win over UConn. As if Michigan State basketball apparel & clothing was not flying off the shelves fast enough, the win tonight and appearance in the National Championship Game on Monday night will only boost sales even more and boost the local Detroit economy with local fans flocking from across Michigan.

So who will the Spartans face on Monday night? UNC and Villanova are about to tipp off so we will know more in a couple of hours.

The 2009 Final Four is set and Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans, the Midwest Regional’s #2 seed, is officially a member of the 2009 NCAA Tournament Final Four. While Michigan State was not expected to advance this far, predicted to lose the game they just won against Louisville, the Spartans have had back-to-back extremely impressive wins in order to advance to the Final Four in Detroit. As a member of the 2009 Final Four, Michigan State will face the UConn Huskies on Saturday @ 6:07 pm ET. In the other game on Saturday night, #3 Villanova will face #1 North Carolina @ 8:47 pm ET.

2009 NCAA Tournament - West Region - University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ
No.1 Connecticut (29-4) vs. No. 5 Purdue (27-9)
Time/Day/TV: 7:07 EDT/Thursday/CBS

Connecticut Road to the Final Four: Defeated No. 16 Chattanooga, 103-47 Defeated No. 9 Texas A&M, 92-66

Pudue Road to the Final Four: Defeated No. 12 Northern Iowa 61-56 Defeated No. 4 Washington 76-74

Connecticut Moment of Truth: There really hasn’t been one except when coach Jim Calhoun wasn’t at the first round game.

Connecticut Leading Scorers: A.J. Price 14.6, Jeff Adrien 13.9, Hasheem Thabeet 13.7

Purdue Moment of Truth: The Boilermakers blew a double digit lead in the second half against Washington but held on.

Purdue Leading Scorers: E’Twaun Moore 14.0, JaJuan Johnson 13.4, Robbie Hummel 12.4
Key Matchup: Purdue’s half court vs. Connecticut’s transition. The Boilermakers are going to try and slow this game down to a crawl and keep it into the 60s. If they can, they can be in the game. Purdue is one of the Big Ten’s top offensive teams. But it has to value possessions.

Who Wins and Why: Connecticut. The Huskies just have too many options that the Boilermakers can’t match. And when you add a shot blocker like Thabeet, it makes taking anything to the glass tough. Connecticut is just a vastly better team.