The Big Ten Tournament rolls in in Indianapolis this weekend as the semifinals get underway at 1:40 today. The first matchup features the #1 overall team in the nation, Ohio State, taking on Michigan. They've already met twice this year with the Buckeyes winning both, however both games were competitive with Ohio St winning by 4 in Ann Arbor and 9 at home. Michigan is hot coming into the Big 10 tourney having won 9 of 12, but almost no one is hotter than Ohio State, winners of 30 of their last 32.
Penn State advanced with a win over the #13 ranked Wisconsin Badgers in a game that the Big 10's official blog referred to as a 36-33 "thriller." Not sure whether they meant that tongue in cheek or not, since it's hard to describe a game where the winning team scored 36 points as "thrilling." Maybe in football...
Michigan State surprised Purdue to give them their 4th win over a ranked opponent this year. Coach Tom Izzo said he was proud of the way his team bounced back on short rest.
"I’m really proud of this team for what they came back from. I thought last night, you know, they were so tired when we got back, and I felt like we’ve been emotionally drained… I thought my assistants and my players did an incredible, incredible job of prepping for this game with personnel."
Here's today's schedule.
Saturday March 12
Ohio State Buckeyes vs Michigan Wolverines 1:40pm CBS
Michigan State Spartans vs Penn State Nittany Lions following game one CBS