Big Ten Daily (Jan. 31): Ranked Wisconsin, Minnesota Stumble on the Road

No. 14 Wisconsin and No. 21 Minnesota both took a beating on the road on Saturday, with Penn State and Purdue doing the whipping. Here's the roundup, plus a look at how to watch Sunday's two Big Ten games.

Fans or no fans, it's still tough to win on the road in the Big Ten. Wisconsin and Minnesota, both ranked in the top-25 right now, found that out the hard way on Saturday when they lost to unranked Penn State and Purdue, respectively.

No. 14 Wisconsin usually hangs its hat on its defense, but the Badgers allowed 50 second-half points in an 81-71 loss at Penn State. With the loss, the Badgers fell to 7-4 in the league and 13-5 overall. Once ranked No 8 in the country, Wisconsin has now lost three of its last six games.

"I’ll watch the film, but the defensive end was my main concern," Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said Saturday after Penn State snapped a 13-game losing streak to the Badgers. "We weren't able to keep the ball out of the paint. Obviously, their guards are good at getting it there, but we made too many mistakes, both halves. I thought we gave them a lot of confidence and they took advantage of our mistakes."

Penn State got 20 points from Myreon Jones, who made all three of his three-point attempts, and their 81 points were the most that Wisconsin has given up all year. The Nittany Lions had only six turnovers all day, and won for the third time in four games, adding a win over Wisconsin to previous victories over Northwestern and Rutgers.  Their coming together nicely after being forced to miss 20 days earlier this season because of a COVID-19 outbreak inside its program.

"I thought that was a great team win, a great program win," said Jim Ferry, Penn State's interim head coach . "I have the ultimate respect for Wisconsin, the way they do things and the way they play, they are so difficult to beat. 

"I really like the resiliency this group keeps showing. After that tough loss at Ohio State, we really locked in and I thought we defended really well. We got the game to be played at our pace, which we talked about being very important. This was a total team win. I'm really proud of these guys. We're getting better, that's the focus. We're starting to play more games, and we're seeing ourselves getting better and better and better and that's what we have to continue to focus on."

In a rare scheduling quirk as the Big Ten tries to make up games missed by COVID, these two teams meet again on Tuesday in Madison. It will be interesting to see if the Badgers can figure some things out in a few days.

Purdue gets 29 from Newman, beats No. 21 Minnesota

Brandon Newman, a redshirt freshman from Valparaiso, Ind., had the best night of his career at Purdue, making 9-of-14 shots, including 5-of-6 from three-point range in the Boilermakers' 81-62 win over No. 21`Minnesota.

Those five makes from three by Newman tied a school record. He also made all six of his free throws. He previous high was 21 against Oakland back on Dec. 1, and his best in a Big Ten game had been 17 against Maryland on Christmas Day.

"I thought I was getting in the flow of things more offensively and defensively," Newman said. Purdue is now 7-4 in the Big Ten, and 12-6 overall. Minnesota, which is 0-5 on the road in the Big Ten this season, is now 11-6 overall and 4-6 in the league.

Purdue is now 18-5 against ranked teams in Mackey Arena during the past six seasons. Even more impressive is that Purdue is 12-3 in those games as an unranked team.

To read the complete game story for our Sports Illustrated guy at Boilermakers Country, CLICK HERE

How to watch Sunday's Big Ten games

There are two Big Ten games on Sunday. Here's what you need to know about watching those two showdowns:

• Michigan State at Ohio State (1 p.m. ET; TV: CBS): The Spartans (8-5, 2-5 in the Big Ten) are playing just their second game since Jan. 8 because of COVID-19 problems inside the program. They were drilled by 30 at Rutgers on Thursday and are hoping to bounce back. The Buckeyes (13-4, 7-4 in the Big Ten) have won five of six and are riding E.J. Liddell a lot lately. He's been their leading scorer in three of their past four games, and he's averaging 23.7 points per game in their last three wins.  Ohio State is a 6.5-point as of 11 a.m. Sunday according to the DraftKings.com website.
• Rutgers at Northwestern (7:30 p.m. ET; TV: Big Ten Network): Rutgers (9-6, 5-6 in the Big Ten) has bounced back nicely from a five-game losing streak, beating Indiana at Assembly Hall for the first time ever, and then crushing Michigan State 67-37 on Thursday. That also was a first, with the Scarlet Knights ending an 11-game losing streak to Michigan State. Northwestern (6-8, 3-7 in the Big Ten) is dealing with a losing streak of its own, dropping seven games in a row after starting the Big Ten season with a 3-0 record.

Related stories on Big Ten basketball

• MAKE-UP GAMES DILEMMA: There have been 15 conference games postponed thus far because of COVID, and it's next to impossible to reschedule them all. Columnist Tom Brew says don't worry about. In the middle of pandemic, the athletes should come first. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA VS. ILLINOIS: The tipoff time for Tuesday night's game between Indiana and Illinois is now set for 9 p.m. Here's the story. CLICK HERE
• COMING MONDAY: Tom Brew's Big Ten Power Rankings are going to see all kind of movement this week. Check them out at 8 a.m. ET on Monday.