Northwestern, MSU and Penn State all advance to the quarter finals tomorrow. Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana are eliminated in first round.
In todays action Ohio State will face off with Northwestern, Michigan plays Illinois and Wisconsin takes on Penn State, Michigan State faces Purdue. The Buckeyes need to get off to a fast start and eliminate Northwestern from controlling and slowing down the game, which is seems to be their preference. This will be the first meeting in 14 years of the tournament that Northwestern and Ohio State have played each other. (Unbelievable)
Michigan is playing well at seasons end. Evan Turner had to hit a trey at the buzzer last year, for us to advace. Anything is possible in these tournaments!
Buckeye win in OT against Northwestern, but what a difference between today and the season ending game with Wisconsin. We were frigid in our field goal shooting, but the two freshmen Sully and Craft saved the day! Sully had a tremendous day on the boards and from the charity stripe. Craft assisted in the scoring and defense, which always seems to be his primary strength.
Big upset this evening with MSU eliminating Purdue. Boilers were very cold and Lucas was red hot, makes for a bad combination, depending on whom you are rooting for in the tournament.
Penn State upsets Wisconsin. Must have been a slow down game, but did not watch it so really do not know what transpired. Wisconsin shot 29% from the field! Michigan won over Illinois, not a big surprise. These tournaments can play havoc with final seeds.
Stu, belated congrats to JJ and Painter for POY and COY awards - both well deserved as we talked previously.....surprised by the recent struggles but I'm hopeful that Painter can get em pointed in the right direction by next week! They are still going to be a tough out in the dance.....
Michigan players think they can play with us in todays semi finals. Beating any team three times in one season is no small feat. Hopefully we will be able to shoot the ball better today, or it might be troublesome!
Thanks, Terry...I appreciate it. I think Purdue is just plain worn down right now...Moore is recovering from the flu and JJ is having to bear the brunt of the burden...and we need somebody to step up and be a third threat. There are guys who have shown flashes of doing that but they have disappeared lately. Purdue has just never seemed to do well in the BTT...not sure why. But I told Crazy John today that maybe a positive is that this team will get some rest. The way MSU smoked us I thought they'd beat Penn State...doesn't look like it's gonna happen. This has been a very unpredictable tournament.
Penn State looks like they might get an invite to the field even if they lose to Ohio State today. They have a blue collar type team and if Battle is hot, they can do a lot of damage. Our game with them this afternoon is not a gimme by any means! I was very pleased to see several Buckeyes come in yesterday off the bench and give us some constency, with Lighty and Craft on the bench, due to foul problems in the first half.
Stu, I hear you about needing the rest.....our troops are clearly worn down as well. They seem to have no bounce in their step and have played at least in my eyes, the two worst games back-to-back all season......teams have abandoned all pretense of defending legitimately Sully in the low post.....hack-a-Sully is in full effect. In the BTT he's shooting 7 of 25 from the floor....only one or two of which were from 10 feet or more.....tough to make a shot with at least two 230 lb young men hanging on your back and arms.....I expect him to have more room to operate in the NCAA. The last month of the season and the BTT were just brutally physical.....interesting championship game today in the Spencer household!
Sid, I have a mixed marriage...... My wife and her entire family are Penn Staters as mine are all Buckeye all the time - with a couple of bizarre exceptions we sent to Tallahassee to become 'Noles. The kids are split down gender lines.....young son bleeds scarlet and gray but I fear I have lost my daughter to the other side.....it makes for interesting times in the fall, but never an issue during basketball season, until today...... 8)