Big Ten Tournament set

Now that Indiana has wrapped up its expected thrashing of Penn State, the Big Ten Tournament pairings are established:

Thursday
8 Michigan vs. 9 Minnesota, noon (ESPN2)

7 MSU vs. 10 Northwestern, 2:30 (ESPN2)

6 Illinois vs. 11 Penn State, 5:05 (ESPN2)

Friday
1 Ohio State vs. U-M-Minnesota winner, noon (ESPN)

4 Iowa vs. 5 Purdue, 2:30 (ESPN)

2 Wisconsin vs. MSU-Northwestern winner, 6:40 (ESPN Plus)

3 Indiana vs. Illinois-Penn State winner, 9:10 (ESPN Plus)

The semis are Saturday (1/8/9 vs. 4/5 at 1:40 and 2/7/10 vs. 3/6/11 at 4:05, both on CBS) and the finals are 3:30 Sunday, also on CBS.

So what jumps out at you? For me it's the enticing possibility of rematches between the two big dogs and the two Michigan schools on Friday. The Spartans certainly liked the idea of a rubber match with Wisconsin when I asked them about it in the locker room today. And Michigan-Ohio State could be a very interesting quarterfinal. The Wolverines flat-out blew that game today, but if they handle Minnesota and get revenge on OSU, I think they'll be back in the NCAA discussion.

Iowa-Purdue also is interesting. It would behoove the Boilermakers to win that one if they want to get into the tournament. But it's never easy against those BTT stalwarts from Iowa.

The quarters could be OSU-U-M, MSU-Wisconsin and Indiana-Illinois, along with Purdue-Iowa. That's a pretty intriguing day of basketball. I know a lot of people are down on the BTT and would rather see a 20-game round robin, but I think 18 games plus the tournament could work.
I mean, everyone but the Ivy League has a tournament. It makes money. It's not going away. So make the best of it. I think this year's version could be very entertaining, and with all the teams hovering around the bubble, it'll matter.

As for the Spartans ... impressive effort today. Basically no Morgan, lots of mistakes, refs clearly worried about the potential for football on hardwood and whistling everything, and yet MSU was right there with a great chance to win. But this team needs to find a way to finish those games, because second chances aren't available from now on.

I think Northwestern is the best possible draw for a first-day opponent. Yes, that zone can and Princeton offense can be troublesome, but Izzo's teams have handled it well over the years. And the Wildcats just don't have any standout players (Evan Eschmeyer, Jitim Young, Vedran Vukusic) who can go nuts on a particular day and hurt you. I think the Spartans win easily.

That'll sew up an NCAA bid, with a big opportunity against Wisconsin on Friday. I'm guessing the ceiling for this team is the 5-6 seed range. Moving up to a 6 would be huge in terms of avoiding a 1 or 2 on the second day. So there's plenty of incentive here.

Anyone else think this is the best time of the year?

Comments

[Stephanie]

I think its absolutely nuts that UM and State (if they both win) are playing OSU and Wis. respectively. OSU and Wis. almost got beat today (although OSUs win was definitely more deserved than Wis.) And im glad to see MSU is paired against NW. The only time we played them was at home this yr where we beat them 66-45. We almost tripled their rebounding (37-13) but on the other hand we got 26FTs to their 8. Thats huge. It was a big game for Gray with 16 pts and Naymick added 7 (but they were all FTs). Morgan had 7, Neitzel 18, and Walton only 2. So with the added offense Walton and Ray have brought, plus the MUCH improved play of both Naymick and Suton i think we have this in the bag. According to the stats Neitzel wasnt any hotter than usual (4-9FG and 3-6 3FG) And only 3 FG attempts were made by Drew in the first half (this set him up for his usual surge in the second half). However now he plays both halves almost equally, so with Neitzel healthy and hopefully by then Raymar and Naymick healthy we got it.

And hopefully we can get our own revenge on Wis. (since the refs kind of stole this last game from us) in neutral territory.

GO GREEN!

[markv]

I think the seeding should hold pretty true to form, with 1 1/2 exceptions. The one is i think Illinois can stifle Indiana and dominate a grind out game. The 1/2 is that with Butch out we have a decent shot at Wisconsin if we take care of the ball.

NU should be a win, but they tend to keep games slow and close, which might mean we don't get to rest our starters much. With that and an emotional Wisconsin game, i don't think we're deep enough to go to the final.

Great time of year for sure.

[Ben]

To start, Todays game was gutty to say they least, however it has been to often we have empty pos. late in games. The failure to get the ball in the hands of Drew up 1 with 35sec to go was devistating. Also I think its time we never play mojo again he brings nothing to the table, he cant drive, he cant rebound, he cant defend and now he cant even hit shots time to pull the plug on him and give Dalhman a chance he atleast plays smart.
Now on to the big10 tourny. NW scares me a little because they play that grind it out princtin game and hopefully the young spartans dont get antzy and force up shots. That being said i think we will win because of rebounding. On to Wis. I would love to get another shot at them with Raymar and without some home calls. I think if we get them again we need another great performance from drew but will beat them. Overall I am so impressed with this team, they had no expectations (for good reason) and an easy excuse, wait till next year. This squad is an example of how great of a coach tom izzo is, he turns a group of unharelded recruits (minus the Drews and Gray both top 100s) into a hard nosed winning team that will put us in the tournement for the 10th straight year (baring a loss to NW i think). Great Job is and GO STATE!!!!

[Wally]

The grind of four games in four days makes 100% health critical. Everyone (other than Izzo!) has to be completely over the flu. If that's the case, the Spartans can make it to the conference championship.

But to do it, all they have to do is beat two potential #1 seeds! It is a tribute to Izzo that everyone in America believes it is possible (even if not likely).

Tournament games tend to favor teams that 1) have a great point guard, and 2) play skin-tight defense.

OSU has the best point guard, but MSU has #2 and #3. And there's no question that MSU is the best defensive team in the Big Ten and one of the best in the nation. That's a formula for being a bracket-buster.

[Brett]

Hey Ben lay off Mojo the only reason he had to play so many minutes and was in at the end of the game was because there wasn't anyone else. The kid is put in tough situations because of lack of depth and I credit him for not backing down. He busted his tail all game guarding Tucker at times and left it all on the floor and you really can't ask for more.

Now I haven't been so proud to be a Spartan fan in about 3 or 4 years. This year for me anyway has been great and I want to say Congrats to both Izzo and his team for what they have done this year. Another gritty performance yesturday, as everything was going against them and they still had a chance to win. Props to the Taylor kid as that was who State wanted to shoot that shot. Neitzel continues to amaze me every game and I think he should be considered for an All-American team....Well it's tourney time and I like the bracket that the Spartans are in for the BTT. Take care of buisness on Thurs and I like our chances on Friday. Tucker won't shoot as well from the free throw line and hopefully we will be back to full strength. Lunardi seems to think that we don't need another win to get it but losing would hurt our seed badly. I on the other hand would feel more comfortable with another W, and I think Thurs is a great set up for one but you never know with a young team. Good Luck Sparty and continue to make us proud!!!!

[Evergreen]

The Spartans have the best defense in the conference. NW is NW. They have their quirky offensive but I see it as no match for State.

UM is a likely winner on Thursday, but not a certain one. Minnesota fought with them before giving up a week ago, and though they have nothing to play for tourney-wise, they'd love to play the role of the Weasel-spoiler.

Illinois handles Penn State with no problem.

On to day two, Michigan State against Wisconsin will be intriguing. These teams know each other well, and State has held them out of their style twice now. Butch is out. Neitzel should be at 100% health. If RayMo can get there too, it'll be a game, once again. Wisconsin is more talented and is a better team, in my opinion, but State has had their number twice now. This is a toss-up. I want to take MSU here, and I think I will anyway.

Michigan will get crushed by OSU on Friday. No more senior day emotion, no more friendly confines of Crisler Land Fill.

Indiana/Illinois will be a good game as well. They split the regular season and neither game was a run-away. Illinois is still looking to cement their status into the tournament, and they need this game to do it. I take Illinois.

Iowa/Purdue is also interesting, as always. Both are fighting for a berth, and this is their first game to do it. Each needs at least one win to build that case. Iowa won big in their only meeting (at Carver) this year, and I take Purdue in this one.

Saturday would pit Purdue vs. Ohio State, and Michigan State vs. Illinois. The boilers are no match for OSU, and I'm taking Michigan State over the Illini. Ohio State wins for a third time over the Spartans on Sunday.

[Evergreen]

If Morgan's still pretty sick, they're out to Wiscy on Friday, and the Badgers fall to Ohio State on Sunday.

[David]

OSU has the best point guard? WRONG - Neitzel creates all of Suton's baskets and for that matter most of his teams's baskets because they double him off screens even when he doesn't have the ball. Conley has Oden. Watch Conley next year without Oden. Walton will shut him down, and Neitzel will eat him up!

[Dagwood]

Good stuff guys!

Where's goblue? Awfully quiet from him after another late game collapse by the ugly helmets. Brent, nice haircut. Do you think he's OK? Hey, goblue, where are you?

[RC]

Joe, any thot on why MSU does not run the pick-&-roll off the screen at the top of the key? Its automatic now when Drew gets the screen at the top the pickman's defender jumps out at him, leaving the screener open. I can recall two times in the 2nd half when Suton set the screen he was left open, but Drew kept dribbling. Suton is the one Big who can pop the 15 footer or drive to the basket. The coaches must see this on film. I can't believe that the p&r is not in the play book. Any ideas on what gives?

[Armstrong]

Joe- I respectfully disagree with you on the current B10 setup...with Purdue's schedule MSU has at least three more wins because they would have had the almost automatic wins against Minn, Penn State and NW. Also had Purdue had to play at Breslin my guess is MSU has another win and Purdue has another loss. This not only impacts the B10 seeding but certainly 3-4 extra wins would help their NCAA seeding.

[Michael Motta]

I agree with Brett to lay off Mojo. I saw him busting tail in there to yank down some impressive rebounds @ Wisconsin. And on that final shot I think he did his best to get around the screen and on the shooter; you could see the effort right in his face.

I think everyone on the team is playing at least as well, if not better, than most of us expected in October. Gray is a possible exception, because while he's played okay, I think expectations for him were probably second highest to those for Neitzel.

It's been fun following some of the teams we defeated in the non-conference season, rooting for them to win in order to pad our resume. Belmont is in the Big Dance already, Vermont won its conference regular season title and is looking for the American East auto-bid, Bradley made it to the MVC semi-finals, BYU I believe won the Mountain West regular season title, Loyola (MD) is playing in a MAAC semi-final tonight, Texas is nationally ranked. Oakland is having a decent season, Brown didn't stink up the Ivy League, finishing just a game under .500 I think, UW-GB made it to the Horizon semis by beating Youngstown State (another Spartan foe). IPFW well okay, they're not very good (but oddly enough I see they're nationally ranked in men's volleyball of all bizarre things to find in a small midwestern school when most of us like MSU don't even have men's volleyball as a varsity sport). The Citadel is worse than IPFW. Chicago State had a rough season too being on the road the vast majority of their games. But on the whole the teams we beat have played better than expected, and those to whom we lost (MD and BC) have made our losses look better too.

Hence our stellar RPI, which is ranked 20th at the time of this entry. You can follow RPI (for the women too) here: http://realtimerpi.com/

[JMCSpartan08]

RC, GOOD POINT!!! The pick and roll is always open! I wish we would do it, I'd love to see Naymich get the rock and just facialize one of their defendes going to the rack...Paul Davis did it a few times last year, if you look up MSU highlights on youtube there's a couple shots of him doing it. My suitemate and I counted the time the PnR was open and it was a lot.

Secondly, NW plays zone defense?!?! OH CRAP! Well we're done... According to the other board if we'd have played zone yesterday we'd have won! Apparently the zone is an inpenetrable wall of defense.

[nad]

i didn't get to watch or listen to the games yesterday due to a hectic work schedule...checked my phone after work and almost cried...ok i'm being a little dramatic, but damn a two point loss at wisc. is a heartbreaker, definetly up there with the osu loss earlier in the season at their house but i am so proud of these guys and am feeling better about their tourney chances than i was last year...i will be on the edge of my seat from the beginning of the btt to the seeding on sunday...go state, i'm hoping for a descent run in the btt for seeding purposes...but these guys could go down to nw and still get in the tourney...but thats not going to happen, i'm thinking deep into the btt and a 5 seed is locked up, win the btt and i think a 4 seed is possible...if they lose the first game in the btt, probably a 7 seed which scares me so lets get it done guys, you deserve it...go green go white

[Rob]

Am I the only one wondering why the Spartans didn't call time out sooner than they did on that last possession so they would have had more time to run the offense? Wisconsin was going to get another possession any way

[markv]

A post where i disagree with everyone at least once:

Nad, your seeding projections for us are all about 2 too good. If you look at who the 4 or 5 seeds are right now, they all have way fewer than our 10 losses. On top of that, the committee tries to have all the middle seedings in place by the beginning of the weekend, so they can concentrate on bubble teams and 1 seeds. We're locked in somewhere between #8 and #11.

JMC and RC, i see the p&r too, but i'm not so sure our bigs can catch the ball on the move and not turn it over. Seriously, that might be why Izzo isn't running it.

Motta and Armstrong, hmm, no disagreement.

Dagwood, please don't try to get goblue to post again. please.

David, i think Neitzel is Big Ten MVP, but he's not really a distributer this year. Check out his assist numbers...gotta go with Connely.

Evergreen, Purdue looks terrible away from home this year, and i think Alford will be very ready for this game. Iowa.

I hope you're right Wally, but really there's no way we can win the tournament. Four straight days, with our depth? And our concentration? As soon as we get a big win, we usually follow it up with at least a terrible half, if not game. And we're gonna be wiped out after the first 2 games.

Also Wally, check out at espn.com their series on tournament success indicators. The whole defense and point guard thing is a myth, and they make a good case for it with hard numbers. I mean, it sure is important, but if you look at the really successful tourney teams the past 10 years, they have big time high-flying offenses, and BIGS. That's what we had when we were winning tourneys. Plus great defense and Mateen to make us unbeatable. But without the bigs and the fast break, we would have been eliminated by Syracuse or even Utah.

[Mary Lou Heinig]

Certainly is the best time of the year. I felt the 5th foul on MoJo was a little uncalled for considering that a bit before in the game Nemick nearly got his teeth knocked out. Naturally, the refs did not call that one. I will say no more but I sure do get tired of it. The team played well especially considering the health of the players. They played hard. Things happen when Neitzel is in there. He does not get enough credit from the so called "experts." Where are their eyes. Or are they partial like everyone else.

NU is not an automatic shoe in. I would like to see us beat them and give WIS a real whipping this time because if we are healthy and on a neutral court I feel we can do it!

Team, rest up for a day, get healthy, and play hard. We believe in you. You have improved so much. You can beat anyone if you want it bad enough!

[Sparty]

The Spartys haven ot been hut by MoJo or lack of effort in the last tow games...what nobody is noticing is that we are putting teams on the line early in the second half with dumb fouls. Sure there is the missed call/bad call, but our dumb fouls by Walton, Morgan, and MG have killed us in the last two games. They are slapping at balls when they are not in a position to try and get a steal, and they are fouling WAY away from the basket. You need to come with seriously intense defense this time of year, but you can;t get stupid. If they can clean up their stupid fouls and quit getting beat at the line this team has the opportunity to go out and really leave a footprint on the program.

[vnflcards]

Tournament time is the best time of year, particularly on the internet.

Not only does practically every website have a bracket challenge that you can enter, but they are also broadcasting live games on the internet as well.

Last year I watched nearly every game in the NCAA tournament for free at www.sportsline.com.

I plan on doing the same thing this year, but I will also watch as many of the conference tourny games as I can at www.espn360.com.

[Go Blue]

alright, im back boys, so my predictions for this tournament as I'm sure you all are very interested in hearing goes as fallows....michigan defeats minnesota on thursday, michigan beats northwestern and illinois beats penn state...fair enough?
Now on friday, Michiga WILL upset ohio state...seniors want it bad enough that an ugly petway made himself even uglier by shaving his head like a football helmet(I'm a michigan fan and I admit that was a little Gay)Purdue over Iowa, Wisconsin over MSU(thats right green sucks) and illinois over Indiana....thats leaves wisconsin to beat illinois on saturday along with michigan beating purdue to leave the championship game Michigan vs. Wisconsin, Michigan winning by 7 points, and insuring their spot in the NCAA tournament, where they will go farther than MSU(thats right Green sucks)I'm thinkin an elite 8 spot...Thank you all for your time....this has been a GO BLUE production....
GO BLUE!!!!!!!!

[Evergreen]

Another good laugh. You going to guarantee that one too?

[Go Blue]

haha yea if i'm wrong I'll buy you some rice kitchen

[Munisingmike]

FOR GO BLUE...
Yes everyone is entitled to their opinion, but your predictions for the Big Ten Tourney,, Come On get out of the clouds and stop dreaming. I am not going to predict the winner, that is until I know the Spartans are healthy, if you get my drift, but I would like to see a rematch MSU-UM, what a sweet thing it would be to see the Spartans take it to the Blue Team. You know the ole saying regarding the UM football team when they keep going to the Rose Bowl, NOT Who Won? BUT "HOW BAD DID MICHIGAN LOSE THIS YEAR?" Maybe some one will start with the basketball team... How did they do in the NIT tournament this year???? GO SPARTANS.......

[Go Blue]

well im pretty sure michigan won by more at home than state did, so if you add the points to both games together, im pretty sure we win....and as far as Bowls are concerned you never here anyone ask how bad state lost because they already know they werent good enough to go to the motor city bowl....and another thing....as far as the NIT goes....let me know how state does in that this year....please and thank you....This has been another Go Blue production brodcasted directly too Munisingmike.....GO BLUE....

[danb]

Hmm close GoBlue...we won by 15 at home and lost by 11 at the Crisler Library. But I'm sure your boys will fare will in the NIT as always! When will they figure out that Tommy A. isnt the answer down there...hmm hopefully never!!

Great showing my State Saturday. Very tough to beat Wiscy there. If we were healthy we probably would have won. Bring em on again on Friday!