1. It’s been years since Wisconsin put forth this level of mediocrity at home — the Badgers’ four home losses this year equals their total of home defeats in the previous three years combined — so Wisconsin has had to make up for it elsewhere. If you aren’t superb at home, that leaves no other option than to play well on the road. Heading into its game at Minnesota, Wisconsin is 5-2 away from the Kohl Center, the club’s best road record since it won the Big Ten regular season and conference tournament titles in 2008.
2. Draymond Green continues to put up All-Big Ten-caliber numbers with yet another double-double on Wednesday night against Penn State. Michigan State‘s two meetings coming up against Ohio State in the next few weeks will likely not only determine the conference champion, but the Big Ten Player of the Year between he and Jared Sullinger. Green leads the league with 13 double-doubles, but Michigan State fans won’t have much more time with the senior captain. So what kind of future does Green have beyond Michigan State? He has a variety of influences he uses to help guide his way.
3. Scott Dochterman from The Gazette wants to know if it’s too early to talk RPI for Iowa. The better question might be — is it too late? The Hawkeyes are certainly on the outside looking in when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, but Dochterman says this game against Northwestern would go a long way for Iowa’s RPI and strength of schedule, which gets a bit of a boost from the tough conference. A win Thursday would give the Hawkeyes their first three-game winning streak since 2007 and beating another bubble team (Northwestern has an RPI of #36) would certainly lend a hand.
4. According to the Big Ten Geeks, Tuesday night’s Ohio State–Purdue game was a special one, particularly for Big Ten fans who are used to the slug-it-out nature of play in the conference. The 87-84 Ohio State victory was certainly a change of pace after Illinois beat Michigan State, 42-41, just a week ago. Among the rare highlights: Purdue, in a close losing effort, did not turn the ball over in the second half. Both teams had an efficiency of better than 1.30 per trip, setting season-highs for both groups. Both teams also shot above 50% from three-point range. And Purdue continued to have greater success working with a smaller lineup. By Big Ten standards, the game was certainly a rarity. Any chance we see one like it again this season?
5. As for what worked for Ohio State in the victory, the Columbus Dispatch‘s Michael Arace gives credit to Buckeyes coach Thad Matta. The team’s defense and half-court offense have both come a long way, Arace says, and those components make the Buckeyes that much harder to take down. The team doesn’t so much rely on the three-point game as it did with players like Jon Diebler and David Lighty running on the wings, and the Buckeyes are the nation’s top defense this season. These changes could make Ohio State better than ever come the NCAA Tournament this year.

jnowak (138 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 7:01 am by jnowak and is filed under big ten, microsites. Tagged: draymond green, iowa, jared sullinger, michigan state, northwestern, ohio state, purdue, thad matta, wisconsin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.