In a league defined by chaos this season, last weekend was fairly uneventful and arguably almost normal. There were no upsets, although there were a couple close calls as an undermanned Illinois squad had to sweat it out against Penn State at home, while Rutgers hung with Indiana thanks to the heroics of Myles Mack. Michigan State needed overtime to knock off a gritty Michigan team that once again was without the services of point guard Derrick Walton Jr. Meanwhile, Minnesota avenged an earlier loss to Nebraska by forcing an obscene 20 turnovers and holding the Cornhuskers to just 42 points. It would be obscene not to read the rest of this, so here’s the best and worst of weekend number five in the B1G.

Maurice Walker was unstoppable in the post in Minnesota’s 60-42 victory over Nebraska on Saturday. (Ben Garvin, Pioneer Press)

• Player of the Weekend: Maurice Walker essentially stole Walter Pitchford’s lunch money, gave him a swirly, and then forged a note making fun of the teacher to get him in trouble. Cheesy elementary school metaphors aside, Walker was dominant on the low blocks for Minnesota, scoring at will on his way to a 19-point effort on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. The rest of the Gophers’ offense was nonexistent for most of the contest, so give the guards credit for pounding the ball inside to him. The fifth-year senior also added eight rebounds, two blocks and three steals. Minnesota is great at taking the ball away ( 14.8% steal rate, third nationally), but Walker is actually fourth in the Big Ten with a steal rate of 3.99 percent. He has really quick hands and does a nice job poking the ball away from post players without fouling. He had three first-half steals in this game as Nebraska coughed the ball up a total of 14 times before halftime.
• Super Sub of the Weekend: Tom Crean wasn’t happy with the way Indiana had been playing, so he shook things up a bit on Saturday against Rutgers. The change meant that Troy Williams –– despite the fact that he’s had a really good season with some outstanding performances — came off of the bench. He had some silly turnovers but the sophomore also contributed a double-double in the form of 14 points and 10 rebounds. He scored on his usual array of drives and dunks, but one thing slightly unique about this performance was that he was led the break after grabbing a defensive rebound. This led to a faster break out in transition, and it also gave the Hoosiers an ability to have Yogi Ferrell spot up on the perimeter with the rest of the shooters. Don’t expect Williams to become a point forward  at Indiana anytime soon, but this was a neat look that takes advantage of Williams’ outstanding ability in the open court while giving Ferrell more looks.

• Best Win: Illinois should beat Penn State at home, but the Illini are not the same team that they were back in November. Aaron Cosby and Rayvonte Rice were both slated to return, but they were suspended by John Groce for an indefinite period of time. The team, as a result, has since added a manager to the active roster so it could have enough players to run a full practice. Given all of this, it would have been easy for the Illini to have simply gone into the tank by now, but they’re still hanging on and grinding out wins, most recently against Penn State over the weekend. The sophomore trio of Malcolm Hill, Kendrick Nunn, and Jaylon Tate have all had their moments this season, but it was Hill’s turn to shine with 27 points and a sterling 164.0 offensive rating for the game. Nnanna Egwu is still the senior leader of Groce’s squad, but it’s evident from watching this team that the sophomores are slowly taking over.
• Worst Loss: Iowa beat North Carolina in Chapel Hill on December 3 to grab one of the league’s best non-conference wins of the season. Since that date, the Hawkeyes have gone 7-6. The fact that they made their way back into the Top 25 for a brief one-week cameo masks the fact that it’s looking like they’re about to hit another late season swoon. Wisconsin managed to put up 1.30 points per possession in a 74-63 win, as the Badgers pretty much had their way with the Hawkeyes’ defense throughout. Aaron White clearly didn’t look right with his banged-up shoulder, but it’s no time for excuses — Jarrod Uthoff and the other experienced players must step up. The trio of Uthoff, Mike Gesell and Adam Woodbury combined to score only 25 points in this one — an unacceptable offensive performance from a group with that much natural talent. It’s getting late in the season again for Iowa, and just like last year at the same point, it’s time for Fran McCaffery’s talent to finally play up to its level of ability.
• Most Efficient Performance: Wisconsin is not the most efficient offense in the country by accident. The Badgers didn’t even shoot the ball all that well (44.2%) against Iowa, but they still played an efficient offensive game by aggressively attacking the rim and getting to the free throw line for 21 points (on 26 attempts). When they missed shots, they corralled 46.9 percent of those misses, with Sam Dekker leading the way with five offensive rebounds. No starter scored fewer than eight points, and they all collectively did their usual good job in taking care of the ball (10.5% turnover rate). This was a vintage Wisconsin win under Bo Ryan, and at 8-1 in league play, they’re threatening to run away with the conference race over the next couple weeks.

Brendan Brody (307 Posts)

Brendan Brody is in his fourth season covering the Big Ten for RTC. Email him at brendan.brody@gmail.com, or follow him on twitter @berndon4.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 at 5:15 pm by Brendan Brody and is filed under big ten, microsites. Tagged: aaron white, Adam Woodbury, derrick walton jr, illinois, indiana, iowa, jarrod uthoff, maurice walker, Mike Gesell, minnesota, myles mack, sam dekker, tom crean, Troy Williams, walter pitchford, 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.