1. College Basketball coaches are used to selling their program all the time.  Marketing is usually geared towards recruits but March can be a time for lobbying for an NCAA bid if you live on the bubble.  But Northwestern Head Coach Bill Carmody refuses to do that this week.  He understand that the Wildcats control their own destiny if they can beat Minnesota on Thursday.  That won’t make them a shoe-in but should certainly help their case especially if they also give Michigan a great game on Friday. Carmody’s team split the season series against Minnesota as each team held server on its home court.  If Drew Crawford continues to be a force offensively — 23 points against Ohio State and 18 against Iowa — the Wildcats might finally make it to the NCAA Tournament.
2. With Branden Dawson out for the season, Tom Izzo needs every other Spartan to be healthy and ready to step up over the next few weeks.  Travis Trice re-injured his ankle during practice on Wednesday and had to be carried from practice by a trainer. Trice should get more than 17 minutes per game which has been his average this season.  Look for Izzo to use Brandon Wood as the primary ball-handler and run more offensive plays for Keith Appling.  Whatever it may be, the veteran coach will be trying out a few rotations during the B1G tournament before the Big Dance.
3. Has any other Big Ten coach received more national coverage over the last month than Bruce Weber? Sports Illustrated published an article about the Illinois coach on Wednesday. Michael Rosenberg makes the case that Weber is being forced out despite having a solid record in the Big Ten (albeit skewed towards the early years).  He also makes a great point that the Big Ten has been a “coaches league,” so the best of the best are going against each other which makes the job very stressful and as a result, programs expect consistent titles in the conference.
4. Michigan fans have been celebrating all season long, all the way until its shared Big Ten title on Sunday. Whatever happens over the next few weeks, Wolverines fans will be happy for what they got this year.  But they would ask only one more thing from their sophomore star, Tim Hardaway Jr. — to come back for a junior season. Hardaway, Jr., dodged the question about his future in an interview with Grantland, but if he does come back, the trio of himself, Trey Burke and the highly recruited Mitch McGary, the Wolverines might just have their sights set on the 2013 Final Four.
5. Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger came back for one more season to make something happen in March.  Winning the regular season championship is just one of his checklist items but he has been waiting for postseason play ever since the Buckeyes’ loss to Kentucky a year ago.  Sullinger is anxious to go further than the Sweet Sixteen round, and the sophomore definitely put in the work during the offseason. Thad Matta hopes it will continue to pay off as Ohio State looks to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2007.

Deepak Jayanti (270 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2012 at 7:01 am by Deepak Jayanti and is filed under big ten, microsites. Tagged: bill carmody, branden dawson, jared sullinger, thad matta, travis trice. 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.