Will Tournament Put Cherry on Top of Strange and Terrific B1G Season?
It might be Big Ten basketball’s strangest season when you consider the impact of Covid-19...No fans in the stands, erasing the drama that usually plays out in storied arenas as rabid spectators will their teams to victory...Wrenching multi-week layoffs for teams such as Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Penn State.
But it also might be the Big Ten’s greatest regular season, if measured by NCAA tournament bracket rewards. The league is tracking to receive four of the top eight seeds in the Big Dance. No conference has ever done that. In line for a pair of top seeds are Michigan and Illinois. No. 2 seeds seem imminent for Ohio State and Iowa.
Five more Big Ten teams will be in the Field of 68, CBS analyst Jerry Palm predicted in his latest bracket: No. 4 Purdue, No. 8 Rutgers, No. 9 Michigan State, No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 11 Maryland. That’s nine of 14 teams, if you’re keeping score at home. That would be a Big Ten record, and would be tied for the second-most NCAA bids for a conference.
Two teams that would feel safer about their NCAA resumes with another victory will clash head-on in their Big Ten tournament opener. Thursday’s 8-9 game between the Terrapins and Michigan State ought to be pretty intense. Well, as intense as a game that tips off at 10:30 a.m. can be.
By the way, some bracket experts have Michigan State lower than No. 9. I tend to agree with my friend Jerry Palm, who comes from a computer/statistics background rather than sportswriter background. I also find it hard to believe the committee will overlook a team that notched three top-five wins when its season was on the brink.
The Big Ten tournament, originally scheduled for Chicago, has shifted to Indianapolis, which could be advantageous for the Midwestern behemoths. They will play their conference tourney at Lucas Oil Stadium, which will be the main venue of the NCAA tournament, which has been confined to Indiana by the pandemic.
Maryland will be wanting a win to make its NCAA case stronger. Michigan State has already done that with three top-five wins over Illinois, Ohio State and Michigan in the last two weeks.
The Spartans also will be wanting a win because that would set up their third meeting in four games with Michigan. Wouldn’t that be fun? A rubber match between two fierce instate rivals?
Will the Wolverines (2017 and 2018) and the Spartans (2016 and 2019), who have won the last four Big Ten tourneys, make it five in a row for the Great Lakes State? Friday will provide an important data point.
That’s just one of the quarter-finals possibilities for a Friday that should be memorable. Ohio State, which is in danger of slipping from its No. 2 NCAA seed after a late swoon, only managed the No. 5 seed in its conference tournament. Its likely Friday meeting with No. 4 Purdue should be another dandy that's critical to the Buckeyes No. 2 seed.
The other Friday possibles: Can Rutgers or Indiana give high-flying Illinois a game? The hot Illini have won 11 of their last 12, basically erasing the consistency concerns that clouded a modest 5-3 league start.
The Illini notched their best win, a 76-53 blowout at Michigan, without their star, Ayo Dosunmu (above), who returned wearing a mask after suffering a broken nose in a loss at Michigan State. And no, it was not an N95 mask. More like the mask of Zorro. Which suits his swash-buckling style.
With a mask like that, what could possibly go wrong?
And. . . Can Wisconsin, which has lost five of its last six, rediscover its lost shooting touch in a possible Friday rematch with Iowa, which held off the Badgers on Sunday? That assumes, of course, that the Badgers get past the Nebraska-Penn State winner on Thursday.
Stranger things have happened in this season unlike any other.
A lot stranger things...
2021 Big Ten Tournament schedule
All times Central.
First Round: Wednesday
Game 1: No. 12 Northwestern vs. No. 13 Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Game 2: No. 11 Penn State vs. No. 14 Nebraska, 25 min. after Game 1, Big Ten Network
Second Round: Thursday
Game 3: No. 8 Maryland vs. No. 9 Michigan State, 10:30 a.m., Big Ten Network
Game 4: No. 5 Ohio State vs. Game 1 winner, 25 min. after Game 3, Big Ten Network
Game 5: No. 7 Rutgers vs. No. 10 Indiana, 5:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Game 6: No. 6 Wisconsin vs. Game 2 winner, 25 min. after Game 5, Big Ten Network
Quarterfinals: Friday
Game 7: No. 1 Michigan vs. Game 3 winner, 10:30 a.m., Big Ten Network
Game 8: No. 4 Purdue vs. Game 4 winner, 25 min. after Game 7, Big Ten Network
Game 9: No. 2 Illinois vs. Game 5 winner, 5:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Game 10: No. 3 Iowa vs. Game 6 winner, 25 min. after Game 9, Big Ten Network
Semifinals: Saturday
Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, Noon, CBS
Game 12: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 25 min. after Game 11, CBS
Championship: Sunday
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 2:30 p.m., CBS