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when we consider whether the Big 10 Champs are really ready to cook up something special for the Big Dance… or are they just chicken. Will Edey be the gourmet delivering the magic elixir that has eluded the Boilermakers for so long, since the days of Wooden, through the trials and tribulations of Combover Keady, and the pre-mature promise of Painter’s past pretenders. Lots more to consider, from the battle on the bubble to who’s most likely slated for Humpty Dumpty treatment.
And for your further consumption, we got Abe’s etsy swagger, Well-read’s soundboard back on track, Dorothy’s nutritional knowledge, and some choice prime clips chucked out there by ChabDog.
Take it in at chabdog.com….

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Listen to the tide slowly turning
Wash all our heartaches away
We’re part of the fire that is burning
And from the ashes we can build another day
MAKE WAY FOR CREIGHTON.

interest rates are going down, this year’s gonna end with a positive bang, and when April flowers bloom,

the Moody Blue Jays will be jubilant.

So sayeth the Oracle of Omaha…

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The Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket is here, and as usual, it is glorious. What’s even better is that the beautiful pinwheel logo has returned to prominence after one-year hiatus that is among the worst decisions in college basketball tournament logo history. Penn State has almost zero chance of winning this thing, which is its only available path to the NCAA Tournament, but I can dream of a run to the semifinals thanks to a favorable draw that avoids Purdue and Illinois through the first three rounds.

Sure, Penn State has to play on the first evening of the tournament, which is a Peacock exclusive event, but if it had been seeded a little higher in slots 10 through seven, the matchup in the quarterfinals would feature Purdue or Illinois instead of the less intimidating Nebraska. I’m getting way ahead of myself, though, since just reaching the quarterfinals means defeating a red hot Indiana team that is desperate to play its way onto the NCAA bubble. Penn State might have a psychological edge from defeating the Hoosiers twice this season, but Indiana has looked like a different team on its current four-game winning streak. Plus, just to get to that date with Indiana, the Nittany Lions must get past Michigan tonight. The Wolverines have lost eight straight, but Penn State has a loss to Bucknell on its resume, so nothing is impossible.

Purdue established Big Ten supremacy last week with a thrilling victory at Illinois before wrapping up its regular season with a home win over Wisconsin. The slumping Badgers have not been a great team since February started, as they finished Big Ten play 3-8 after starting 8-1, but I’ll give them credit for the way they battled the Boilers despite having another rough game from beyond the arc. Wisconsin shot 5-for-24 from three-point range, but John Blackwell and Tyler Wahl both went 7-for-10 from the field to keep Purdue from running away with the game.

Blackwell in particular is a guy to look out for with 35 points over his last two games. He’s a freshman who has gotten better throughout the season, and he’ll have to be a major factor if the Badgers are going to make a run in Minneapolis. For Purdue, the Big Ten Tournament is a precursor to the Big Dance, where Matt Painter’s team must redeem itself for last year’s embarrassing loss to Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round. If the Boilers fail to reach the Sweet 16 again, they will be laughed at for years to come, and I think most college hoops fans will even consider the season a failure they fall short of the Final Four. There is going to be a lot at stake in every NCAA Tournament game for Purdue as it tries to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1980. It will be interesting to see how the Boilers handle the Big Ten Tournament since their status as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament is locked in. Winning a Big Ten Tournament title in addition to the regular season title is an amazing accomplishment, but no one will care if Purdue doesn’t follow it up with a Final Four appearance.

Without all that pressure of recent history, Illinois figures to be looser and more motivated in the Big Ten Tournament. If it takes care of business, a third game against Purdue in the championship on Sunday is very possible. And unlike Purdue, Illinois can improve its seeding in the NCAA Tournament with a Big Ten Tournament title. The Illini may have lost to Purdue last week, but they are still playing their best basketball of the season over the past month with the way their offense has blown up. They bounced back from the Purdue loss with an impressive win against Iowa in a game that Iowa needed to have with its NCAA Tournament hopes on the line. Illinois held the Hawkeyes to 61 points in a 73-61 win and Iowa’s Tony Perkins had one of his worst games of the season with two points on 2-for-10 shooting.

That can happen when you’re locked in a matchup with Terrence Shannon Jr. like Perkins was. It’s easy to forget sometimes that Shannon is such a good defender because of how good he is on the other end, but this guy is the complete package. There aren’t a lot of players who can attack the rim as ferociously as Shannon does while also shooting 35 percent from beyond the arc, and all of his skills were on display in Iowa City. Shannon scored 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting while going 3-for-8 from beyond the arc. The man can take over a game whenever he wants.

To have any chance at the NCAA Tournament, Iowa will need to defeat Ohio State on Thursday and win its rematch with Illinois on Friday. Tony Perkins obviously must play better, even if that means deferring to teammates instead of looking for his own shot. I would suggest passing more to big men like Owen Freeman and Ben Krikke. They combined for just 10 points on Sunday despite Illinois’ lack of size on the post.

Indiana is another team that is desperate for a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament. I’m not sure if an at-large bid is even possible for the Hoosiers, but they have looked fantastic lately, and they kept their hopes of dancing alive with a 65-64 home win over Michigan State on Sunday. Indiana jumped out to a 17-point lead midway through the first half, only to watch it disappear in about 10 minutes. Michigan State led by as many as seven in the second half, but the Hoosiers went on an 8-0 to take the lead back on Xavier Johnson’s three-point shot with eight minutes to play. The two teams battled down the stretch, with Kel’el Ware putting Indiana up by two on a five-foot hook shot with two minutes left. Tyson Walker answered with a driving layup, and after an empty trip for each team, Ware was fouled by Malik Hall with 17 seconds left, which resulted in the game-winning free throw.

With Trey Galloway banged up and limited to seven minutes of play, Indiana didn’t get much from its backcourt, but Ware continued his dominance with 28 points and 12 rebounds while Malik Reneau handed out five assists in addition to his 16 points. Michigan State got 30 points from Walker, but Malik Hall and Jaden Akins combined for just 17 points on 7-for-24 shooting.

The battle in Bloomington was by far the most exciting game of the Big Ten’s regular season finale. Elsewhere on Sunday, Ohio State held Rutgers to 27 percent shooting and outscored the Knights by 20 in the second half on the way to a 73-51 win in Piscataway. In another road blowout, Nebraska hammered Michigan 85-70 behind 30 points from Keisei Tominaga. And even my Nittany Lions got a convincing win! They won 85-69 at home against Maryland, but with Julian Reese nursing an injured ankle and no hope of an NCAA Tournament appearance, I’m not sure Maryland was very motivated. Jahmir Young only played 30 minutes, Donta Scott only played 20, and seldom-used bench guys like Caelum Swanton-Rodger got meaningful playing time. Whatever; a win is a win.

We should be in for a great Big Ten Tournament with two elite teams in Purdue and Illinois, two feisty overachievers who are looking to prove themselves in Nebraska and Northwestern, and two teams who are clinging to hope of an NCAA Tournament bid with Iowa and Indiana. Story lines galore! My pick to win it is Illinois because it is an extremely deep and talented team and will be more motivated than Purdue. As for the best gambling value, that goes to Northwestern at +1600. If Boo Buie and that offense gets hot, watch out.

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I said on the Chabdog Sports podcast last Sunday that Purdue would be listed as champion when I fill out my NCAA Tournament bracket in a couple of weeks. On Tuesday night, the Boilers showed why I think they will complete their redemption arc when they beat Illinois 77-71 in Champaign. The combination of opponent and venue made the game Purdue’s stiffest test since December, and it passed thanks to a clutch three-point shot in the final seconds by Braden Smith. The shot came at the tail end of a broken possession by the Boilers that was saved once by Zach Edey, who slapped the ball away from Illinois and into the hands of his teammates Fletcher Loyer following Lance Jones’ wild layup attempt. Smith saved it again when he casually pulled up from five feet beyond the arc and drained his jumper over Terrence Shannon Jr.

If Smith had not clutched up, Illinois would likely the ball back down by three points with 18 seconds to play. Instead, the lead was six, and the game was over when Shannon’s answer bounced off the rim. Smith’s effort was just one of several big three-point shots for Purdue in the second half. Edey dominated the first 20 minutes with 18 points, but Illinois held him to 10 after the break, forcing the Boilers to look to their role players for help. They answered, starting with Mason Gillis’ three-point shot in transition that gave Purdue its first lead at 56-54 with 10 minutes to play. Gillis drained another one to put the Boilers ahead 64-58 with seven minutes left, but Illinois tied the game with a dunk by Coleman Hawkins two straight driving layups by Marcus Domask, the last of which he floated in over Edey.

Illinois would retake the lead on a pair of free throws by Shannon, but Loyer put Purdue back up by three with a three-point shot and a runner in the paint on consecutive possessions. Lance Jones hit a monster triple from the corner to expand the advantage to six with less than a minute on the clock, but Domask struck back with another layup plus the foul to set the stage for Smith’s heroics.

With Edey doing his thing like he always does, Purdue is not going to be beat when it shoots the three as accurately as it did against Illinois (9-for-16). Matt Painter’s team doesn’t excel at creating its own shot from the perimeter, but it showed that it can break down the opposing defense and find the open man with 20 assists on 29 field goals during the win. Illinois did an excellent job slowing down Edey in the second half, but it could not keep up with Purdue’s three-point shooting. Illinois was just 4-for-16 beyond the arc, and most of that came from Quincy Guerrier catching fire in the first half. Domask was the one guy who came up huge down the stretch, and Shannon needs to step up if the Illini are going to win a rematch with Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament or NCAA Tournament. He went 3-for-13 from the field with just 11 points.

Purdue and Illinois are locked into the top two seeds of the Big Ten Tournament with the Boilers clinching their second straight outright conference title with their victory. That means that the next time these two could meet is on Sunday in the final game of the tournament. There’s a decent chance for that since both squads have proven to be in a tier of their own above the rest of the Big Ten, but one team that could derail destiny is the Indiana Hoosiers.

I left Indiana for dead after it lost to my Nittany Lions two weeks ago to complete a four-game losing streak, but these Hoosiers are finally showing some resiliency that they have lacked for most of the campaign. They bounced back with three straight wins, with the last two coming on the road against Maryland and Minnesota.

Two of the biggest factors in Indiana’s revival were on display during their 70-58 victory in The Barn on Wednesday night. The first is Kel’el Ware  emerging as a consistently dominant center. Ware has had some monster games this season, but two of his best have happened during Indiana’s winning streak. He scored 27 points on 11-for-12 shooting with 11 rebounds and five blocks against Wisconsin before feasting in similar fashion at Minnesota. In that game, he scored 26 points with 11 rebounds and three blocks, but he also showed off his guard skills some more with a pair of three-point field goals on three attempts and three assists as well. Ware is shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc this season (16-for-36), so I’m looking for him to expand that part of his game as we head into tournament play.

The second revival factor is Trey Galloway embracing the point guard role. We know that Indiana’s backcourt production has been an issue all season with Xavier Johnson going in and out of the lineup. It doesn’t help that Galloway is only hitting 25 percent of his threes this season or that Gabe Cupps barely shoots at all. If you’re a guard who doesn’t shoot well, you better be able to break down a defense, and Galloway has proven much better at that lately. He averages 4.8 assists per game, but all three of his double-digit assist games have come in the past six games for Indiana. That includes Galloway’s 11 dimes against the Gophers that he dished out despite Johnson playing 22 minutes off the bench. Galloway led a passing effort that saw the Hoosiers assist on a crazy 28 of 30 field goals. Indiana was beat up on the glass by Pharrel Payne and Dawson Garcia, but it still ran away from Minnesota in the second half thanks to that incredibly efficient offensive performance.

In the early game on Wednesday, Michigan State got a win it desperately needed by beating Northwestern 53-49 in a good, old fashioned East Lansing rock fight. The Spartans have mostly been a flashy, guard-led team this season that loves to run the floor and score in transition. In their effort to snap a three-game losing skid, though, they showed a ton of grit against the Wildcats. Michigan State only shot 32 percent from the field, but it grabbed 19 offensive rebounds on 41 missed field goals to generate enough opportunities to pull out a win. Malik Hall was responsible for seven of those offensive boards and a whopping 17 overall to go with his 15 points, and Tre Holloman scored a clutch 12 points off the bench for Michigan State.

With the game on the line, though, of course it was Tyson Walker who showed up to put the game in the W column. Michigan State was clinging to a one-point lead with less than three minutes to play in a game where a field goal had not been made in more than four minutes. Walker proceeded to score layups on two straight possessions to give the Spartans a commanding five-point lead. They still had to sweat, though. Ryan Langborg was making his return to the Northwestern lineup, and was having a pretty miserable game, but he came up huge with a three-point shot that cut Michigan State’s lead to two with a minute to play. After Northwestern got a stop, Langborg had a clean look for three and the lead with 10 seconds left, but the shot clanked off the back rim and Holloman drew a loose-ball foul when he hustled after the rebound. The reserve guard hit his two free throws to wrap up the victory and give the Spartans a little momentum as they head into a huge game at Indiana on the final day of the regular season.

Northwestern bounced back nicely with a 90-66 blowout win against Minnesota on Saturday night in Evanston. Garcia scored 30 points with nine rebounds and three blocks for the Gophers, and Elijah Hawkins had 14 points with 10 assists, but the Northwestern offense was overwhelming on this night. The Cats shot 10-for-18 from deep and 59 percent overall while committing just one turnover. That is ridiculous. They were well balanced as well, with four players handing out at least four assists and four scoring at least 14 points. Boo Buie and Brooks Barnhizer led the way with 23 points each, and Northwestern looked like that team that you don’t want to face at this time of year. The emergence of Nick Martinelli late in the season has taken the offense to a new level.

The only other Big Ten game this week that I haven’t mentioned yet featured Wisconsin taking care of business at home against Rutgers 78-66. The Scarlet Knights led by seven early in the second half, and they shut down Tyler Wahl and Max Klesmit, but Kamari McGee was a hero off the bench for the Badgers. The seldom-used junior showed off his quickness and scored 11 points in 10 minutes, with nine of them coming during the 19-2 run that let Wisconsin take control of the game. John Blackwell also starred in a backup role with 17 points and eight rebounds, while starting center Steven Crowl was a beast on the boards with six offensive rebounds, 11 total rebounds, and 17 points of his own. AJ Storr led everyone with 19 points.

On the Rutgers side, freshman Gavin Griffiths had one of his best shooting nights of the season by going 4-for-9 from beyond the arc and scoring 14 points, which are the most he’s had since blowing up for 25 against Boston University back in November. As a team, the Knights shot 45 percent from the field, which is pretty damn good for them, especially on the road. The problem was that they turned the ball over 18 times against a team that doesn’t do much to force them. Yuck.

Holy cow, there is just one game left of Big Ten basketball before the Big Ten Tournament and the glorious return of the beautiful pinwheel logo. Northwestern and Minnesota are in the clubhouse, but everyone else has one last game to play on Sunday. The Wildcats look like a good bet for a top four seed and a double bye in the bracket since they just need Wisconsin to lose at Purdue. Nebraska would then be able to join Northwestern with a 12-8 record and a double bye if it wins at Michigan, which is the first game of the day. If the Huskers slip up, it’s possible for there to be a four-way tie for fourth place with Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan State. For that to happen, Iowa and Michigan State would have to defeat Illinois and Indiana, respectively. Those are going to be tough games, so we’ll wait for the results before we attempt to figure out how to break the hypothetical tie.

There is also a potential traffic jam when it comes to the 11th seed, which is the highest ranked team that has to play on the first day of the Big Ten Tournament. Penn State occupies the spot now, but it can move to 9-11 with a win at home over Maryland, while Indiana could possibly fall back to 9-11 with a loss to Michigan State. If Ohio State (at Rutgers) and Penn State win while Indiana loses, that would create a four-way tie for seeds eight through 11, so we might have to sort through that as well. I cannot wait for the bracket to come out on Sunday night!

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After two days in the desert sun, my skin was turning red, in the desert you can remember your name cuz there ain’t one for it to give you no pain… but for this show, if I can’t remember the poinit, it won’t disappoint…. this is the re-named CDST “Show with no theme, but a great Abe meme”.
How bout them apples… and nothing rotten about our clips and tournament preview. Just delicious food for thought. Catch it all at chabdog.com.
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The Peacock strikes again! We heard outrage from across the sports universe when the NFL made its Dolphins vs. Chiefs Playoff game exclusively available on NBC’s streaming service. Now, something similar is happening in Big Ten Basketball, and the conference should be embarrassed that the top game on its regular season schedule won’t be in front of as many viewers as possible. Before the Big Ten’s new media rights deal that went into affect this fall, Purdue vs. Illinois on Tuesday night would be on ESPN where every fan knows how to find it, and it would have been promoted all day long on ESPN’s many programs. The new deal might work for football because the Big Ten doesn’t need ESPN when it has games on three major networks all day, but with basketball NBC has made Peacock part of the deal, and that is a nightmare for ratings.

The worst part is that we are over a month away from WrestleMania, so a fan would need to subscribe for two months in order to get Purdue vs. Illinois as well as the Showcase of the Immortals. At least with the NFL sham, the Royal Rumble was included in the price of the football game. As a wrestling and Big Ten fanatic, I’ve been watching on Peacock all season, but for fans who are just getting into college basketball now, the stream exclusive is going to be a major turnoff. They’ll likely just stick with ESPN for Alabama vs. Florida and Kansas State vs. Kansas.

Those who do invest in Peacock should get a great game. Purdue and Illinois met earlier in the season on January 5, and the Boilermakers led comfortably for much of the game on the way to a 83-78 win. However, not only was that game at Mackey Arena where Purdue never loses, but Illinois’ star guard Terrence Shannon Jr. was suspended due to sexual assault allegations. The Illini held Zach Edey to 10 points, but they were burned by Trey Kaufman-Renn, who erupted for 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting. It will be interesting to see if Illinois head coach Brad Underwood employs a similar strategy tonight since Kaufman-Renn hasn’t approached that kind of scoring output in the last two months and hasn’t even scored 10 points in his last six games.

With the game shifting to Champaign’s State Farm Center and Shannon playing some of his best basketball, the Illini are favored by two and a half. It will be the first time Purdue is an underdog in Big Ten play this season and the first time it is an underdog at all since its clash with Arizona back in December. Both teams are riding three-game winning streaks, but Illinois’ schedule has been a little tougher lately with a game at Wisconsin and another against a hot Iowa team at home. Plus, the Illini have scored at least 85 points in their last six games. With Shannon finding his three-point shot and Marcus Domask being a master technician in the paint, this is a team that can come at you from everywhere, and I didn’t even mention Coleman Hawkins’ range at center or the rebounding ability of Quincy Guerrier and Ty Rodgers.

In other words, Illinois won’t be the only defense with its hands full tonight. On the other end, Zach Edey has been unstoppable lately. In Purdue’s last game against Michigan State on Saturday night, Spartan big man Mady Sissoko accumulated four personal fouls in just six minutes. Michigan State threw a bunch of bodies at Edey, but he still scored 32 points on 9-for-15 field goal shooting and 14-for-20 free throw shooting. Edey is too big to keep him from getting into scoring range, but he can be forced into turnovers if he has to put the ball on the floor. Turning a few Edey turnovers into fast-break scoring opportunities will be key for Illinois tonight. Scoring in transition helped the Illini put away Wisconsin on Saturday when Justin Harmon blocked Chucky Hepburn’s shot in the paint in the final two minutes. That led to a fast break and a layup for Shannon to give Illinois a 10-point lead.

Here’s what else happened in the Big Ten over the weekend.

Penn State collapsed against Minnesota for the second time this season

As if one collapse against Minnesota was not enough, Penn State went up by a whopping 23 points in the first half in Minneapolis only to lose 75-70. Hot three-point shooting by Puff Johnson and Ace Baldwin Jr. helped the Lions gain the early edge, but the Gophers whittled the lead down by 12 by halftime and overtook Penn State thanks to some big shots by Cam Christie (19 points) and a key steal by Elijah Hawkins (18 points, 8 assists) down the stretch.

Iowa got another huge win at Northwestern

The Hawkeyes are binging on Quad 1 wins lately, and they might have won five games in a row if not for the awesome offensive performance by Illinois two Saturdays ago. Northwestern is still without Ryan Langborg, but it still shot 54 percent from the field and 10-for-20 from beyond the arc thanks to Boo Buie’s 27 points and 6-for-7 three-point performance. Buie hit some monster shots to keep the Wildcats in the game throughout the second half, but Iowa was just a little better the whole way. The Hawkeyes won 87-80 with 25 assists on 33 made baskets. Tony Perkins had 14 of those assists, while Josh Dix remains as hot as liquid magma with 24 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting. Payton Sandfort had another well-rounded game with 23 points, five rebounds, and six assists. Iowa is still projected to miss the NCAA Tournament, but it can change that with a win in its final regular season game against Illinois on Sunday.

Indiana might be back after a big second half comeback at Maryland

If Iowa is the potential seventh Big Ten team in the NCAA Tournament, could Indiana be the eighth? Probably not, but its insane fans are starting to talk themselves into it now that Mike Woodson’s team has won two straight over Wisconsin and Maryland. The Terps got a rare balanced performance on offense with four players in double figures and 48-percent field goal shooting. They led by 10 at halftime and by as many as 16 in the second half, but the Hoosiers stormed past them and won 83-78 thanks to some solid point guard play by Xavier Johnson off the bench (13 points, six assists), and Mackenzie Mgbako exploding for 24 points on 4-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

With Johnson healthy, Mgbako playing like a seasoned veteran, and Ware and Reneau dominating the paint, it’s not crazy to think that Indiana could win its final two regular season games against Minnesota and Michigan State. If it does that, the Hoosiers will be a hot pick to make a run in the Big Ten Tournament next week.

Nebraska completes perfect Big Ten home slate and Ohio State gets revenge on Michigan

It was not surprising to see Ohio State blow out Michigan 84-61 on Sunday since the teams are headed in opposite directions. The Buckeyes might have to consider making Jake Diebler the full-time head coach with the way he has led this program after Chris Holtmann was fired, but I’m guessing Ohio State has bigger fish in mind. Meanwhile, the Wolverines have to figure out if Juwan Howard is the man to turn their mess around after a very disappointing campaign.

In the final game of the weekend, Nebraska took care of business against Rutgers 67-56. The Huskers are 10-0 at home in Big Ten play and 1-8 on the road. They have a great chance to get a second conference road win a trip to Ann Arbor this Sunday, but it will still be very interesting to see which Nebraska team we get when the Big Ten Tournament tips off in neutral site Minneapolis. The Huskers have lots of scoring and shooting depth, so if they can bottle up the Pinnacle Bank Arena vibes, they are another dark horse to watch this month.

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I really thought Ohio State was done with the upsets after it stunned Purdue two weekends ago in interim head coach Jake Diebler’s debut, but on Sunday, the Buckeyes pulled off yet another shocker. They went into East Lansing as 10-point underdogs and beat Michigan State 60-57 with the margin of victory coming on a last-second three-point heave by Dale Bonner. Just moments earlier, Tyson Walker had a chance to put Michigan State ahead with a fair of free throws, but he somehow wedged his first attempt in between the backboard and the rim. Walker had to settle for a tie with his second free throw, but Bonner’s clutch bomb ensured that it didn’t matter.

Ohio State is now 2-1 since Chris Holtmann was fired, and I feel a little bad for him even though he is technically on a paid vacation right now. These kinds of wins are what Ohio State was building towards with its young lineup, and against Michigan State, it was even younger than usually due to Jamison Battle missing the game with an ankle injury. Freshman Scotty Middleton replaced Battle to give Ohio State all underclassman in the starting five. The Buckeyes certainly missed Battle’s three-point prowess, as they went 3-for-17 from beyond the arc in the low-scoring affair, but the Spartans had their own shooting issues and shot just 4-for-16 from that range, including 1-for-9 from Tyson Walker and Jaden Akins.

Still, Michigan State appeared to have the game under control with a 12-point lead and 11 minutes on the clock, but Devin Royal came off the bench for Ohio State and proved to be an unlikely hero alongside Felix Okpara. The pair of big men led the Buckeyes on the comeback trail and closed to within one point at 52-51 with six minutes left, setting the stage for the exciting conclusion. Royal, another freshman, showed off his post moves and mid-range game while scoring 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting in just 18 minutes. Okpara added 10 points and six rebounds, with four coming on offense.

No matter who is the head coach for Ohio State next year, the team has a bright future with all the young talent that has emerged this season. If the roster doesn’t fall apart, it should be a very desirable job since whoever gets it will be in line for massive improvement without having to do much. Michigan State, meanwhile, looked like it was a lock for the NCAA Tournament a week ago, but back-to-back home losses over teams with worse records have put the Spartans’ postseason status in doubt. It doesn’t help that their next game is on Saturday at Purdue.

Speaking of the Boilermakers, they took care of business on Sunday with a 84-76 victory at Michigan. The Wolverines as usual showed some life in the first half, but Purdue broke away with an 18-6 run leading into halftime and kept Michigan at arm’s length for the rest of the game. Juwan Howard made the odd decision to not double team Zach Edey, and he took full advantage with 35 points on 14-for-18 shooting. Purdue had a poor shooting day from beyond the arc, going 7-for-24, but Edey and company grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to mitigate the damage. Without all those second chances, it would have been a much more interesting game, as Michigan got a balanced effort on offense led by Dug McDaniel’s 19 points and six assists. The Wolverines shot 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range even with Olivier Nkamhoua out for the rest of the season due to wrist surgery.

The most exciting game of the Big Ten weekend was Illinois’ 95-85 win over Iowa in Champaign. It was also a great example of why gambling should be done responsibly. Iowa was in the game the whole way through and even led by seven with just over 12 minutes left, but Illinois pulled away late with much thanks to a steal and breakaway dunk by Coleman Hawkins that helped it cover the nine-point spread. Hawkins was a major factor all day as he bounced back tremendously from his snafus at the end of the Illini’s loss at Penn State. The long and versatile big man scored 30 points on a scorching 9-for-11 from the field and also dished out five assists and added five steals. Illinois is so tough to play against when Hawkins plays up to his potential because of the nightmare he poses for opposing defenses. He can step back and hit the three against traditional big men and also score in the paint against smaller players. We know what Terrence Shannon Jr. is capable of, but he only needed to score 12 points in this one and Illinois nearly scored 100 points.

Illinois has all the tools it needs to make a deep NCAA Tournament run, and Brad Underwood showed off the depth of his team early in the second half against Iowa when he made a full line change. The Illini played with five bench players on the floor for about four minutes, and the unit held its own. Italian freshman point guard Niccolo Moretti even stuck around and played in crunch time, hitting a pair of huge three-point shots in the process. I’ve talked before about Illinois lacking a traditional point guard in its starting lineup, and while Underwood has found a way to fill the void, Moretti is certainly someone to watch as a potential impact player in March.

For Iowa, it was a disappointing loss even though the team came in as a big underdog. The Hawkeyes were right there for most of the afternoon, but they missed out on a third straight Quad 1 win. As a result, they are still likely out of the NCAA Tournament field if it was decided today. There are still plenty of chances for Iowa to improve its resume with Northwestern and a rematch with Illinois left on the schedule, but first it must defeat Penn State at home on Tuesday night. Josh Dix led the Hawkeyes in scoring in Champaign, and he is becoming a bigger and bigger factor with his mid-range shooting accuracy.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Penn State impressed me with a win over the reeling Hoosiers. I knew that Indiana was down bad and I knew that the Lions were supposed to win, but I was still dreading the game. Fortunately, Indiana continued to be one of the worst shooting teams in the country by going 2-for-15 from three-point range and 14-for-25 at the free throw line. It’s preposterous that an Indiana team is so bad at the great equalizing factor of basketball, and it has been a major factor in the program having a horrific campaign. The Hoosiers still shot 51 percent from the field with Malik Reneau (27 points) and Kel’el Ware (16 points) dominating in the paint, but Ware’s impact was minimized by foul trouble and Penn State pulled away from Indiana with a 26-for-30 performance from the charity stripe and sharp three-point shooting led by Zach Hicks going 4-for-8 from beyond the arc with 17 points.

These days, it’s hard to have a Penn State win without Ace Baldwin Jr. playing well, and he was pretty great on Saturday with 23 points, 7-for-12 shooting, nine assists, and four steals. He also played all 40 minutes and scored eight straight points to give the Lions a little cushion at halftime following a tightly contested first half. The Lions will need Baldwin to keep playing like a stud if they’re going to do anything in the postseason. The NIT is still up for grabs, but to get there, Penn State probably needs to win one of its remaining two road games at Iowa and at Minnesota.

Maryland and Minnesota are two other contenders for the NIT, and they went in opposite directions on Sunday. The Terps picked up a big road win at Rutgers, and it was the first home loss for Rutgers since Penn State went into Piscataway and won 61-46 on the last day of January. Maryland also held the Scarlet Knights under 50 points with a 63-46 victory that was never close after the Terps went on a 10-0 run at the end of the first half that featured three-point shots by Jordan Geronimo, Jahmir Young, and Donta Scott.

We know that Rutgers’ offense has been rotten all year, but it was particularly bad against Maryland’s tough defense. The Knights shot 37 percent from the field, went 2-for-11 from three-point range, and did not have a starter score in double figures. That is ugly. For Maryland, Julian Reese was dominant with 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, Young handed out nine assists, and Geronimo played one of his best games of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Minnesota is a team we’ve talked about as a dark horse for the NCAA Tournament here and there, but it has a weak non-conference resume and has fallen short in key spots during Big Ten season. Two weeks ago, the Gophers had a chance to pick up a key road win at Iowa, but Dawson Garcia got hurt and they blew a 19-point second half lead. This latest game at Nebraska was another opportunity for Minnesota. I knew Nebraska had not lost a home game in 2024, but I figured it would be hotly contested because of how well Minnesota was playing lately. Well, it was hotly contested for the first 11 minutes. Then the Huskers pulled away on a 14-2 run and continued to increase their lead in the second half.

Keisei Tominaga and Rienk Mast struggled for Nebraska, but Juwan Gary picked up the slack with a game-high 22 points, 7-for-13, shooting, and eight rebounds. Brice Williams pitched in with 15 points, eight rebounds, and three steals while Nebraska’s defense held Minnesota to 31 percent shooting and forced 13 turnovers. The Gophers have not been very good outside of the Barn this season, but they will need to figure out a way to win on the road at Illinois on Wednesday if they want to keep their faint NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

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We’ve been saying for years that Penn State Basketball would be a more impressive television product if the home arena wasn’t the Bryce Jordan Center. The giant arena is way too big for a program that strives to be in the middle of the Big Ten standings in a good year. When Penn State plays in the Palestra or at Rec Hall, it looks like a proper basketball program, and sometimes it even plays like one. Wednesday night was one of those nights with Illinois in town. However, for most of the night, it looked like a typical 2024 Penn State loss. The Lions got off to a hot start on offense, but then fizzled and struggled to keep pace with the talented Illini because of their failure to grab a rebound on defense. Illinois often doesn’t need second chances, especially with Terrence Shannon Jr. playing like he did, but it got 19 of them, with the Swiss Army Knife Ty Rodgers grabbing five offensive boards. That helped make up for 18 Illinois turnovers that Penn State needed just to keep the game respectable while Shannon was going off for a career-high 35 points on 10-for-18 shooting.

Another reason why Penn State only trailed by 10 points with two and a half minutes left was Nick Kern Jr. He has shown some upside with his athleticism this season, but again Illinois he got to the basket at will. At one point in the second half, Kern scored 13 straight Penn State points, and he finished with a season-high 22. Now that Kanye Clary is out of the picture, I’m hoping that Kern can stick around for one or two more seasons and develop into a star, but to do that he needs to expand his range past 10 feet from the basket.

Anyway, Zach Hicks hit a mid-range shot to cut the deficit to eight points, and then the Illinois collapse began. Shannon drove into the paint and kicked the ball to the corner to set up Luke Goode with a wide-open dagger three. With the way Goode shoots the ball, that should be a layup for him, but he missed, and Hicks answered with a triple for Penn State to cut the lead to five. However, Illinois was still in great shape after two free throws from Marcus Domask and a missed three by Ace Baldwin Jr. Now the Illini were up by seven points with less than a minute left. Shannon tried a runner in the paint, but it bounced out and Jameel Brown took advantage by crushing a three-point shot in transition. Brown’s next play was even bigger, though, because Penn State needed a turnover to make it a one-possession game. Brown came through by stripping Shannon of the ball, which led to an easy layup for Puff Johnson. All of a sudden, the Lions trailed by just two with 30 seconds left.

The pressure was building on Illinois to put the game away, and Coleman Hawkins had a chance to do that when he was fouled by Johnson on the next play even though it looked like Hawkins traveled. It ended up not mattering as Hawkins missed both free throws despite being an 80-percent shooter from the charity stripe this season. Penn State appeared to botch the ensuing possession when Baldwin got stuck in the backcourt and Hicks fired off a prayer of a shot from well beyond the arc, but Hawkins incredibly fouled Hicks in his rush to defend the low-percentage attempt. Hicks calmly sunk all three free throws to give Penn State 90-89 lead and it was a big bail-out moment for Mike Rhoades. He got caught sitting on a timeout during that horrible final possession, but the dumb foul by Hawkins changed everything.

Illinois had no time outs and three seconds left to respond, and it came surprisingly close to winning thanks to a long inbounds pass to Justin Harmon that led to a five-foot runner at the buzzer. The shot fell out, and it was time to party in Happy Valley. The upset win was a great morale booster following the departure of Clary, but it probably won’t change the postseason fate of these Lions. The bubble is too competitive and the team has too many weaknesses. It’s not like Penn State outplayed Illinois for more than one wild final minute.

I think the best parts to come out of the win were the national media attention that the awesome Rec Hall atmosphere got and the play of Kern. We now have big college hoops personalities like Andy Katz advocating for more games inside Rec Hall, and that’s great for the future of Penn State Basketball. Plus, I’m going to put my hopes and dreams into Kern developing a jump shot and becoming a versatile scorer down the stretch of this season. After all, the NIT is still a longshot.

I’m now afraid that Penn State will suffer a letdown on Saturday against an Indiana team that appears to be cooked following home losses against Northwestern and Nebraska. The Hoosiers had a great opportunity to get into the bubble conversation with wins over the two teams that have struggled on the road all season long. Indiana was indeed favored in both games, but you would not know from the results. After being beaten soundly by Northwestern on soundly, Mike Woodson’s team was crushed by Nebraska 85-70 on Wednesday. The Hoosiers never had the lead and were bombarded by Nebraska’s three-point shooting. The Huskers took more than half their shots (33 out of 63) from beyond the arc and shot 42 percent from there with Jamarques Lawrence coming off the bench with 19 points on 5-for-5 three-point accuracy. Keisei Tominaga was “only” 4-for-9 from deep and he led Nebraska with 20 points. Indiana got a second straight 20-point performance from Mackenzie Mgbako, but its 4-for-21 shooting from three-point range was not enough to keep pace with Nebraska.

Mike Woodson has got to be on the hot seat with Indiana continuing to disappoint its fans week after week, but the emergence of the freshman Mgbako and the recent good health of Kel’el Ware at least offer hope for the future. Indiana’s backcourt is still a mess with Xavier Johnson out due to injury and Gabe Cupps coming along slowly (he was shut out in two of his last three games), but these Hoosiers are still plenty talented enough to take out Penn State in the BJC. I’m hoping my Lions take care of business and bury the woeful Hoosiers, but despite our win in Bloomington weeks ago, it’s difficult to trust Penn State with its inconsistent play.

We also got three results on Thursday from the Big Ten, but none of them were very surprising. Purdue bounced back from its upset loss to Ohio State by blowing out Rutgers at Mackey Arena. The Boilers shot 59 percent against Rutgers’ normally stout defense, with freshman Camden Heide going 7-for-7 from the field and 4-for-4 from beyond the arc. Having another shooting option to compliment Zach Edey is not what opponents need to see from Purdue right now.

At the Barn, Minnesota pulled away from Ohio State in the second half and won 88-79 despite great games from Bruce Thornton (25 points, 10-for-14 field goals, 6 assists) and Jamison Battle (21 points, 5-for-10 from deep). The Buckeyes shot 51 percent, but the Gophers were even more effective on offense with Elijah Hawkins calling his own number for 24 points in addition to seven assists. Minnesota has now won two straight and five of seven, but an NCAA Tournament bid is still unlikely because of a poor non-conference resume.

With Ohio State and Penn State picking up big wins recently, Michigan is clearly at the bottom of the Big Ten. It stayed that way with a 76-62 loss at Northwestern in which the Wolverines briefly led in the second half before the Wildcats pulled away. Michigan shot the ball better than Northwestern with Nimari Burnett leading the way with 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting, but Nick Martinelli continued to be a beast on the offensive glass for Northwestern like he was in the win over Indiana. The Cats won the offensive rebounding battle 14-5 and the turnover battle 11-5 and ended up taking 20 more shots than Michigan. Boo Buie established himself as the Northwestern GOAT by taking over the all-time scoring lead, but Ryan Langborg has been just as key to their chances lately. He led the team with 20 points, knocked down five of his nine three-point attempts, and now has 46 points in his last two games.

It’s a light Saturday slate for the Big Ten with Penn State taking on Indiana and then Iowa visiting Illinois. The second game is way more interesting because the Hawkeyes have won two straight over Wisconsin and Michigan State while playing their best basketball of the season. A third straight Quad 1 win could force Iowa into some NCAA Tournament projections but it is not going to be easy in Champaign.

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Take some time, after the Super Bowl and before the Tournament, to go back in your mind to the days when you woke pampered, protected and primed for creating you own play-by-play. Abe the Babe, ChabDog and his Uncle Abie, Well-read, DD and Get the Sensation Yorke invite you the “Ain’t That a Wonderment?” CDST Show. Taking stock of some hockey, as all those teams really start to jockey, the NBA finally gets off the pine built during the force-fed All-Star Break, and of course, it’s time to teach ourselves some college basketball….

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I almost feel bad for Purdue fans even though they have a tremendous basketball team that will probably make the Final Four. No matter what the Boilers do in the regular season, there is nothing they can do to change their reputation as a team that collapses in the big moment. The only way to do that is to win in the NCAA Tournament. Whenever Purdue slips up this season, the doubters and haters (Indiana fans) come out of the woodwork to say “this is what will happen in March.”

I have said since November when Purdue won the Maui Invitational that this team reminds me of the 2019 Virginia team that bounced back and won the national championship after losing to a 16 seed the year before. Maybe Purdue will fulfill that prophecy, or maybe it will hilariously disappoint its rabid fans once again. On Sunday in Columbus, Matt Painter’s team gave us a preview of March or a blip on the radar, depending on your perspective. Despite shooting 20-for-20 from the free throw line and dominating the offensive glass like they always do, the Boilers lost 73-69 to an Ohio State team that was playing its first game since head coach Chris Holtmann was fired.

It didn’t help that Purdue turned the ball over 14 times, most notably when Zed Key poked the ball away from Zach Edey with less than a minute to play and the Boilers needing two points to tie the score. Purdue ended up fouling Jamison Battle, who helped put the game away at the charity stripe.

Just moments before, Purdue rallied to overcome a seven-point deficit and tied the game 65-65 on Lance Jones’ clutch three-point jumper, but Battle answered with a 15-foot jumper to ensure that Ohio State would not fall behind. The Buckeyes were boosted by Battle’s 19 points on 6-for-8 shooting as well as 26 points from a bench effort led by Key and Dale Bonner. Purdue, meanwhile, got its usual great effort from Edey (22 points, 7-for-11 shooting, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks) but only four points from the bench. I still have no clue how Ethan Morton gets more than 10 minutes a game on team as talented as Purdue.

Ohio State interim head coach Jake Diebler made a great impression and he’ll have a case to keep the job full time with a few more wins down the stretch. I will feel very smart for talking about the potential of Ohio State’s young core if the team can upset Minnesota or Michigan State on the road.

Indiana blew a chance to join the bubble

Speaking of upsets, only one other Big Ten underdog won outright over the weekend. That was Northwestern defeating Indiana, but we can probably have a long argument over whether or not the Wildcats should have been considered the underdog in Bloomington. While they have been way more successful than Indiana this year and are projected to make the NCAA Tournament, Northwestern hasn’t impressed on the road. That’s why I saw this game as a great opportunity for Indiana to get a quality win and get into the bubble conversation. I should have known that the Hoosiers would waste it since they have shown so little heart and fight this season.

Indiana found a way to lose 76-72 while shooting 16 percent better than Northwestern (51 percent to 35 percent). It’s just another facepalm moment for Hoosiers fans who have suffered through a brutal campaign filled with disappointment after disappointment. Indiana lost the turnover battle 11-3 and the offensive rebounding battle 14-6 to the more disciplined and tougher Wildcats. Indiana shouldn’t be getting crushed on the glass like that in any game that Kel’el Ware plays 36 minutes in, but to Ware’s credit he collected 16 boards (four on offense) to go with his 22 points and four blocks. I guess no other Hoosiers wanted to rebound, so Nick Martinelli and Matthew Nicholson combined to create 10 second chances for Northwestern and they each had a double-double in this game.

The big star of the game for Northwestern, however, was Ryan Langborg. With Brooks Barnhizer and Boo Buie struggling for most of the game until Buie finally got going with eight straight points to put Indiana away, Langborg scored 26 points with six assists and zero turnovers while playing all 40 minutes. That’s the kind of effort the Wildcats need from the Princeton transfer down the stretch with Ty Berry missing the rest of the season due to injury.

Iowa makes its case for March Madness

While Indiana squandered its opportunity, the leading candidate for a seventh Big Ten team in the NCAA Tournament is now Iowa. The Hawkeyes picked up two huge wins over the last four days when they beat Wisconsin 88-86 in overtime on Saturday and followed that up with a big 78-71 road upset over Michigan State on Tuesday night. Just a week ago, Iowa had zero Quad 1 wins on its resume and now it has two. I’m still catching up with what a Quad 1 win is because I was just starting to figure out RPI when they got rid of that, but going from zero to two sounds like a big deal.

Even more impressive than Iowa’s recent results is that Fran McCaffery’s team got contributions from different players. In the home game against Wisconsin, it was all about Owen Freeman, Tony Perkins, and Josh Dix. Freeman was a force down low with 20 points scored on just six field goal attempts as well as 12 rebounds, six assists, and four blocks. It was the most complete game of the season for the likely Freshman of the Year in the Big Ten. Meanwhile, Dix was unstoppable from the mid-range with 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting while Perkins came up clutch down the stretch with 16 of his 18 points coming in the second half and overtime. He tied the score 78-78 with a driving left-handed layup at the end of regulation and then won it with one second left in overtime on another drive where he powered through a steal attempt by Chucky Hepburn.

The script was very different in East Lansing with Freeman only playing eight minutes due to foul trouble. Ben Krikke took over as the go-to guy down low and provided 18 points with 14 rebounds. Payton Sandfort only connected on two of his seven three-point attempts, but he did a great job getting to the basket and pacing Iowa’s transition offense with 22 points and six rebounds. During Iowa’s huge run at the end of the first half, Sandfort stole the ball and hit Patrick McCaffery for a breakaway dunk. The coach’s son would score 14 points off the bench and Iowa overcame a strong three-point shooting night by Michigan State with 51 percent overall shooting.

Iowa has a chance to pull off a third straight Quad 1 win when it visits Illinois on Saturday, and that promises to be another high-scoring affair played at a fast pace. A big game to watch this weekend!

Maryland is falling out of the at-large race

It looked like Maryland had the upper hand on Iowa to secure an NCAA Tournament bid when it came from behind to defeat the Hawkeyes last week, but since then the two programs’ fortunes have reversed. The Terps also had two chances at Quad 1 wins on Saturday and Tuesday, but they dropped both of them to Illinois and Wisconsin. Maryland’s hopes at an at-large bid are now dismal.

It’s not the Terps didn’t put up a fight. They were playing with heavy hearts against Illinois on Saturday following the death of legendary Maryland head coach Lefty Driesell, and while Kevin Willard’s bunch hung with the superior Illini throughout the second half, Illinois never surrendered the lead. Jahmir Young came awfully close, though, with around three minutes to play. Maryland was down by one and Coleman Hawkins tried to save his own rebound under the basket and blindly chuck the ball out to midcourt. Young was there to corral the wild pass, but his fast-break layup was thwarted by Marcus Domask’s defense. Justin Harmon picked the ball up and found Hawkins wide open on the other end of the court, where he dunked the ball and was fouled. Instead of Maryland taking a one-point lead, the Illini lead expanded to two possessions. That’s quite the swing in a game that was tight throughout, and the Terps didn’t get a better chance to pull even in the 85-80 defeat.

It was a tough loss for Maryland, not just because it needed the game, but because the Terps are usually in great shape when they get solid production from Young, Julian Reese, and Donta Scott in the same game. All three guys did their thing on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Illinois’ deep offense led by the amazing Terrence Shannon Jr. who scored 27 points and went 14-for-16 at the free throw line.

Illinois as a team went 32-for-36 at the stripe, and Maryland ran into a similar problem when it traveled to Madison for Tuesday’s tilt with the Badgers. Wisconsin closed the first half with a 37-29 lead thanks to a three-point shot by Chucky Hepburn and led by two or more possessions for most of the second half. Once again, the Terps could not keep their opponent off the free throw line, and Wisconsin shot 28-for-31 from there with Max Klesmit, Tyler Wahl, and John Blackwell doing most of the damage. The foul shot barrage made it impossible for Maryland to make a solid dent in Wisconsin’s second half advantage, even with Young, Reese, and Scott combining for 50 points. Tyler Wahl and his 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting held keep the Terps at bay before Klesmit put them away with a three-point shot in the final minute. Badgers won 74-70, but I’m still not convinced they have pulled out of their February slump. I need to see them win their next two at Indiana and vs. Illinois at home before I can say they are ready for March.

The Penn State disaster

I’m trying to cover the entire Big Ten, but I’m also a huge Penn State fan, so I don’t even know if Kanye Clary being removed from the Nittany Lion program is news that resonates beyond me. He was just a sophomore and Penn State’s best player. He was a foundational piece that Mike Rhoades could have built a program around. Now he is gone and we don’t know why. Yes, you can always find a patch in the transfer portal, but Clary was shaping up to be the type of player that you don’t just find a patch for. The good news is that Ace Baldwin Jr. is doing a good job as the floor general, and he might come back as a graduate student for one more season. The bad news is that Baldwin has not shot the ball well during Penn State’s three-game losing streak and the most recent game at Nebraska was not close for the second half.

There’s not much to say about Nebraska from the 68-49 result. The Huskers took care of business at home like they always do and Keisei Tominaga hit a disgusting step-back three over Puff Johnson while leading Nebraska with 17 points. I guess it’s encouraging for Nebraska that it won handily while only shooting 4-for-21 from beyond the arc, but Penn State’s offense was so putrid that Zach Hicks led the team in scoring despite going 1-for-7 on his own three-point shots. I will be interested to see if Nebraska can finally win a conference road game tonight against the no-heart Hoosiers. Indiana is favored by one and a half as of this writing!

Penn State has Illinois at home and instead of the cavernous Bryce Jordan Center, the game will be played at Rec Hall, which will feel like an old-school basketball gym. The environment should give the Lions a better home-court advantage, but that probably still won’t be enough to make up for a big talent gap. The Illini are favored by seven and a half.

Best of the rest

Minnesota beat Rutgers 81-70 on Sunday, which ended a four-game winning streak for the Scarlet Knights. If Rutgers had come out on top, I might have to start considering them as a very dark horse to make a run on the bubble, but the Gophers helped me kick that can down the road with a fantastic offensive performance against one of the best defenses in the country. You just don’t see many teams shoot 51 percent against Rutgers, even in their own buildings. Minnesota turned the ball over 15 times, which helped Rutgers keep the game close in the first half, but the second half was all Gophers.

The Knights got 19 points each from Derek Simpson and Clifford Omoruyi, but Pharrel Payne had his best game of the season for Minnesota. Even with the Gophers shooting so well, Payne still found seven offensive rebounds and 11 total while scoring 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting with zero turnovers. If he can play like this more often, the frontcourt combo of Payne and Dawson Garcia will be a very tough one to deal with. Elijah Hawkins did a great job at point guard as well. He scored 16 points with six rebounds and seven assists. Minnesota as a team had 20 assists on 25 made baskets. Make Ben Johnson the Coach of the Year.

Finally, Michigan State handled Michigan 73-63 on Saturday night in Ann Arbor. The Spartans were dealing with a major upset scare, but the Wolverines failed to score for the final seven minutes while turning the ball over five times in a span of six possessions. That spurt of futility helped Michigan State close the game on a 10-0 and cover the spread in a game that looked like a disaster midway through the second half. With Sparty going on to lose at home against Iowa, we can now say this game said more about Michigan than Michigan State, and it said that Michigan is a tire fire.

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Brandon’s Posts

Join us this Sunday, for CDST’s “Is Purdue finally due?” NCAA Tournament Preview Show….

when we consider whether the Big 10 Champs are really ready to cook up something special for the Big Dance… or are they just chicken. Will Edey be the gourmet delivering the magic elixir that has eluded the Boilermakers for so long, since the days of Wooden, through the trials and tribulations of Combover Keady, and the pre-mature promise of Painter’s past pretenders. Lots more to consider, from the battle on the bubble to who’s most likely slated for Humpty Dumpty treatment.
And for your further consumption, we got Abe’s etsy swagger, Well-read’s soundboard back on track, Dorothy’s nutritional knowledge, and some choice prime clips chucked out there by ChabDog.
Take it in at chabdog.com….

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SO SAYETH THE ORACLE OF OMAHA … MAKE WAY FOR CREIGHTON…

Listen to the tide slowly turning
Wash all our heartaches away
We’re part of the fire that is burning
And from the ashes we can build another day
MAKE WAY FOR CREIGHTON.

interest rates are going down, this year’s gonna end with a positive bang, and when April flowers bloom,

the Moody Blue Jays will be jubilant.

So sayeth the Oracle of Omaha…

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Well Read’s Posts

Abe’s Posts

Abe’s Super Bowl LVIII Pick

FUCK YOU JACKSON MAHOMES, FUCK YOU TRAVIS KELCE & FUCK YOU TAYLOR SWIFT YOU FUCKING SCUMBAGS

SAN FRANCISCO -2 & HERE’S MY BETTING SLIP

(Courtesy of BetMGM Sports)

| | @darthvaber99

 

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Week 18: Abe’s Scrumdidilyumptious NFL Picks (AST)

Hello everyone and welcome to another Chabdog Sports Blog of me making scrumdidilyumptious NFL picks based on very flawed science, numbies based solely on Taylor Swift’s game attendance, and a spidey sense that may or may not be functioning well based on the amount and quality of tacos I ate today since my current record is:

Week 1: 6 Week 2: 8 Week 3: 6 Week 4: 8 Week 5: 6 Week 6: 11 Week 7: 4 Week 8: 7 Week 9: 10 Week 10: 9 Week 11: Week 12: 9 Week 13: 7 Week 14: 7 Week 15: 3 Week 16:Week 17: 8

SATURDAY PICKS

 STEELERS -3 | RAVENS

TEXANS -1 | COLTS

SUNDAE PICKS

  BUCCANEERS -4.5 | PANTHERS

  BROWNS | BENGALS -7

  VIKINGS | LIONS -3.5

  JETS | PATRIOTS -1.5

  FALCONS | SAINTS -2.5

  JAGUARS -3.5 | TITANS

  SEAHAWKS -3.5 | CARDINALS

  BEARS | PACKERS -2.5

  CHIEFS +3.5 | CHARGERS

  BRONCOS | RAIDERS -2.5

  EAGLES -4.5 | GIANTS

  RAMS | 49ERS +4

  COWBOYS COMMANDERS +12.5

  BILLS -2.5 | DOLPHINS

*All odds courtesy of Bet MGM on 01/05/2024

Let me know in the comments your thoughts below, or where posted on the socials

| | @darthvaber99

 

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Dorothy’s Posts

Aaron’s Posts

The Big Ten Tournament is here with two teams trying to battle their way into the Big Dance

The Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket is here, and as usual, it is glorious. What’s even better is that the beautiful pinwheel logo has returned to prominence after one-year hiatus that is among the worst decisions in college basketball tournament logo history. Penn State has almost zero chance of winning this thing, which is its only available path to the NCAA Tournament, but I can dream of a run to the semifinals thanks to a favorable draw that avoids Purdue and Illinois through the first three rounds.

Sure, Penn State has to play on the first evening of the tournament, which is a Peacock exclusive event, but if it had been seeded a little higher in slots 10 through seven, the matchup in the quarterfinals would feature Purdue or Illinois instead of the less intimidating Nebraska. I’m getting way ahead of myself, though, since just reaching the quarterfinals means defeating a red hot Indiana team that is desperate to play its way onto the NCAA bubble. Penn State might have a psychological edge from defeating the Hoosiers twice this season, but Indiana has looked like a different team on its current four-game winning streak. Plus, just to get to that date with Indiana, the Nittany Lions must get past Michigan tonight. The Wolverines have lost eight straight, but Penn State has a loss to Bucknell on its resume, so nothing is impossible.

Purdue established Big Ten supremacy last week with a thrilling victory at Illinois before wrapping up its regular season with a home win over Wisconsin. The slumping Badgers have not been a great team since February started, as they finished Big Ten play 3-8 after starting 8-1, but I’ll give them credit for the way they battled the Boilers despite having another rough game from beyond the arc. Wisconsin shot 5-for-24 from three-point range, but John Blackwell and Tyler Wahl both went 7-for-10 from the field to keep Purdue from running away with the game.

read more…

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Purdue wins the regular season title and Indiana is still alive for the big dance

I said on the Chabdog Sports podcast last Sunday that Purdue would be listed as champion when I fill out my NCAA Tournament bracket in a couple of weeks. On Tuesday night, the Boilers showed why I think they will complete their redemption arc when they beat Illinois 77-71 in Champaign. The combination of opponent and venue made the game Purdue’s stiffest test since December, and it passed thanks to a clutch three-point shot in the final seconds by Braden Smith. The shot came at the tail end of a broken possession by the Boilers that was saved once by Zach Edey, who slapped the ball away from Illinois and into the hands of his teammates Fletcher Loyer following Lance Jones’ wild layup attempt. Smith saved it again when he casually pulled up from five feet beyond the arc and drained his jumper over Terrence Shannon Jr.

If Smith had not clutched up, Illinois would likely the ball back down by three points with 18 seconds to play. Instead, the lead was six, and the game was over when Shannon’s answer bounced off the rim. Smith’s effort was just one of several big three-point shots for Purdue in the second half. Edey dominated the first 20 minutes with 18 points, but Illinois held him to 10 after the break, forcing the Boilers to look to their role players for help. They answered, starting with Mason Gillis’ three-point shot in transition that gave Purdue its first lead at 56-54 with 10 minutes to play. Gillis drained another one to put the Boilers ahead 64-58 with seven minutes left, but Illinois tied the game with a dunk by Coleman Hawkins two straight driving layups by Marcus Domask, the last of which he floated in over Edey.

Illinois would retake the lead on a pair of free throws by Shannon, but Loyer put Purdue back up by three with a three-point shot and a runner in the paint on consecutive possessions. Lance Jones hit a monster triple from the corner to expand the advantage to six with less than a minute on the clock, but Domask struck back with another layup plus the foul to set the stage for Smith’s heroics.

With Edey doing his thing like he always does, Purdue is not going to be beat when it shoots the three as accurately as it did against Illinois (9-for-16). Matt Painter’s team doesn’t excel at creating its own shot from the perimeter, but it showed that it can break down the opposing defense and find the open man with 20 assists on 29 field goals during the win. Illinois did an excellent job slowing down Edey in the second half, but it could not keep up with Purdue’s three-point shooting. Illinois was just 4-for-16 beyond the arc, and most of that came from Quincy Guerrier catching fire in the first half. Domask was the one guy who came up huge down the stretch, and Shannon needs to step up if the Illini are going to win a rematch with Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament or NCAA Tournament. He went 3-for-13 from the field with just 11 points.

read more…

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Purdue vs. Illinois will be an epic Big Ten clash tonight, but it’s only on Peacock

The Peacock strikes again! We heard outrage from across the sports universe when the NFL made its Dolphins vs. Chiefs Playoff game exclusively available on NBC’s streaming service. Now, something similar is happening in Big Ten Basketball, and the conference should be embarrassed that the top game on its regular season schedule won’t be in front of as many viewers as possible. Before the Big Ten’s new media rights deal that went into affect this fall, Purdue vs. Illinois on Tuesday night would be on ESPN where every fan knows how to find it, and it would have been promoted all day long on ESPN’s many programs. The new deal might work for football because the Big Ten doesn’t need ESPN when it has games on three major networks all day, but with basketball NBC has made Peacock part of the deal, and that is a nightmare for ratings.

The worst part is that we are over a month away from WrestleMania, so a fan would need to subscribe for two months in order to get Purdue vs. Illinois as well as the Showcase of the Immortals. At least with the NFL sham, the Royal Rumble was included in the price of the football game. As a wrestling and Big Ten fanatic, I’ve been watching on Peacock all season, but for fans who are just getting into college basketball now, the stream exclusive is going to be a major turnoff. They’ll likely just stick with ESPN for Alabama vs. Florida and Kansas State vs. Kansas.

Those who do invest in Peacock should get a great game. Purdue and Illinois met earlier in the season on January 5, and the Boilermakers led comfortably for much of the game on the way to a 83-78 win. However, not only was that game at Mackey Arena where Purdue never loses, but Illinois’ star guard Terrence Shannon Jr. was suspended due to sexual assault allegations. The Illini held Zach Edey to 10 points, but they were burned by Trey Kaufman-Renn, who erupted for 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting. It will be interesting to see if Illinois head coach Brad Underwood employs a similar strategy tonight since Kaufman-Renn hasn’t approached that kind of scoring output in the last two months and hasn’t even scored 10 points in his last six games.

With the game shifting to Champaign’s State Farm Center and Shannon playing some of his best basketball, the Illini are favored by two and a half. It will be the first time Purdue is an underdog in Big Ten play this season and the first time it is an underdog at all since its clash with Arizona back in December. Both teams are riding three-game winning streaks, but Illinois’ schedule has been a little tougher lately with a game at Wisconsin and another against a hot Iowa team at home. Plus, the Illini have scored at least 85 points in their last six games. With Shannon finding his three-point shot and Marcus Domask being a master technician in the paint, this is a team that can come at you from everywhere, and I didn’t even mention Coleman Hawkins’ range at center or the rebounding ability of Quincy Guerrier and Ty Rodgers.

In other words, Illinois won’t be the only defense with its hands full tonight. On the other end, Zach Edey has been unstoppable lately. In Purdue’s last game against Michigan State on Saturday night, Spartan big man Mady Sissoko accumulated four personal fouls in just six minutes. Michigan State threw a bunch of bodies at Edey, but he still scored 32 points on 9-for-15 field goal shooting and 14-for-20 free throw shooting. Edey is too big to keep him from getting into scoring range, but he can be forced into turnovers if he has to put the ball on the floor. Turning a few Edey turnovers into fast-break scoring opportunities will be key for Illinois tonight. Scoring in transition helped the Illini put away Wisconsin on Saturday when Justin Harmon blocked Chucky Hepburn’s shot in the paint in the final two minutes. That led to a fast break and a layup for Shannon to give Illinois a 10-point lead.

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Ohio State did it again and Iowa’s missed opportunity

I really thought Ohio State was done with the upsets after it stunned Purdue two weekends ago in interim head coach Jake Diebler’s debut, but on Sunday, the Buckeyes pulled off yet another shocker. They went into East Lansing as 10-point underdogs and beat Michigan State 60-57 with the margin of victory coming on a last-second three-point heave by Dale Bonner. Just moments earlier, Tyson Walker had a chance to put Michigan State ahead with a fair of free throws, but he somehow wedged his first attempt in between the backboard and the rim. Walker had to settle for a tie with his second free throw, but Bonner’s clutch bomb ensured that it didn’t matter.

Ohio State is now 2-1 since Chris Holtmann was fired, and I feel a little bad for him even though he is technically on a paid vacation right now. These kinds of wins are what Ohio State was building towards with its young lineup, and against Michigan State, it was even younger than usually due to Jamison Battle missing the game with an ankle injury. Freshman Scotty Middleton replaced Battle to give Ohio State all underclassman in the starting five. The Buckeyes certainly missed Battle’s three-point prowess, as they went 3-for-17 from beyond the arc in the low-scoring affair, but the Spartans had their own shooting issues and shot just 4-for-16 from that range, including 1-for-9 from Tyson Walker and Jaden Akins.

Still, Michigan State appeared to have the game under control with a 12-point lead and 11 minutes on the clock, but Devin Royal came off the bench for Ohio State and proved to be an unlikely hero alongside Felix Okpara. The pair of big men led the Buckeyes on the comeback trail and closed to within one point at 52-51 with six minutes left, setting the stage for the exciting conclusion. Royal, another freshman, showed off his post moves and mid-range game while scoring 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting in just 18 minutes. Okpara added 10 points and six rebounds, with four coming on offense.

No matter who is the head coach for Ohio State next year, the team has a bright future with all the young talent that has emerged this season. If the roster doesn’t fall apart, it should be a very desirable job since whoever gets it will be in line for massive improvement without having to do much. Michigan State, meanwhile, looked like it was a lock for the NCAA Tournament a week ago, but back-to-back home losses over teams with worse records have put the Spartans’ postseason status in doubt. It doesn’t help that their next game is on Saturday at Purdue.

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Penn State’s thrilling win in Rec Hall and Indiana gets cooked

We’ve been saying for years that Penn State Basketball would be a more impressive television product if the home arena wasn’t the Bryce Jordan Center. The giant arena is way too big for a program that strives to be in the middle of the Big Ten standings in a good year. When Penn State plays in the Palestra or at Rec Hall, it looks like a proper basketball program, and sometimes it even plays like one. Wednesday night was one of those nights with Illinois in town. However, for most of the night, it looked like a typical 2024 Penn State loss. The Lions got off to a hot start on offense, but then fizzled and struggled to keep pace with the talented Illini because of their failure to grab a rebound on defense. Illinois often doesn’t need second chances, especially with Terrence Shannon Jr. playing like he did, but it got 19 of them, with the Swiss Army Knife Ty Rodgers grabbing five offensive boards. That helped make up for 18 Illinois turnovers that Penn State needed just to keep the game respectable while Shannon was going off for a career-high 35 points on 10-for-18 shooting.

Another reason why Penn State only trailed by 10 points with two and a half minutes left was Nick Kern Jr. He has shown some upside with his athleticism this season, but again Illinois he got to the basket at will. At one point in the second half, Kern scored 13 straight Penn State points, and he finished with a season-high 22. Now that Kanye Clary is out of the picture, I’m hoping that Kern can stick around for one or two more seasons and develop into a star, but to do that he needs to expand his range past 10 feet from the basket.

Anyway, Zach Hicks hit a mid-range shot to cut the deficit to eight points, and then the Illinois collapse began. Shannon drove into the paint and kicked the ball to the corner to set up Luke Goode with a wide-open dagger three. With the way Goode shoots the ball, that should be a layup for him, but he missed, and Hicks answered with a triple for Penn State to cut the lead to five. However, Illinois was still in great shape after two free throws from Marcus Domask and a missed three by Ace Baldwin Jr. Now the Illini were up by seven points with less than a minute left. Shannon tried a runner in the paint, but it bounced out and Jameel Brown took advantage by crushing a three-point shot in transition. Brown’s next play was even bigger, though, because Penn State needed a turnover to make it a one-possession game. Brown came through by stripping Shannon of the ball, which led to an easy layup for Puff Johnson. All of a sudden, the Lions trailed by just two with 30 seconds left.

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