You beat me to it FTB
GREAT day for the Big Ten. Consider:
* Michigan, selected to finish in the middle of the pack to the bottom of the Big Ten, defeated Duke a few days after Purdue, the conference favorite, got smoked at home by the same Blue Devils and we heard the "Duke might be the only team that can match up with UNC" talk. Michigan now has non-conference victories over UCLA and Duke.
* Illinois put a hurting to Georgia at home, defeating the Bulldogs by 34 points, while shooting 57% from the field. Their starting bigs were a combined 24 of 30 from the floor.
* Ohio State defeated their second straight Top 25 team, defeating #7 Notre Dame on a neutral court after winning at Miami in the Big 10-ACC Challenge. The Buckeyes held Kyle McAlarney to 6 points who was on a five game stretch where he had averaged 27 points per game. Over these two games, Evan Turner's averaged 23.5 points and appears to have stepped into the role of go to guy for the Buckeyes.
* Our Gophers outscored Cornell 43-14 in the second half to claim a 17 point win over the Big Red. In the second half, they held Ryan Wittman to one field goal and for the game they held Cornell's second leading scorer, Geoff Reeves to 0 points.
* Northwestern beat down DePaul by 27 points at home. Northwestern! This is coming off a double digit win earlier in the week versus Florida State. This from a team that did not win a Big Ten game all season last year.
* Purdue bounced back from their double digit loss to Duke with a game that made everyone feel good on the Boilermakers sideline, defeating Ark-Pine Bluff by 48 points.
* Penn State lost at home to Temple, which could have been a hangover from their road win against Georgia Tech in the Challenge. Stanley Pringle got hurt early in the game which could have affected the outcome. No idea how long Pringle's out.
* Indiana lost by 16 to Gonzaga, a team many have pegged for the Final Four. The Hoosiers were playing the Zags tight at half before letting it get away in the second half.
* Wisky got beat by Marquette, and honestly, it makes me smile. On a day when almost everyone else in the Big Ten did well, it's nice to see the Badgers struggle.
(No games for Iowa or Michigan State today).
I consider this to be good news/bad news for the Gophers. Earlier this week, I railed against their non-conference schedule and how it could hurt them come selection time. But the way the conference is playing collectively in the non-conference, if the Gophers finish 4th or 5th in the Big Ten, they should be in great shape for the NCAA tournament.
The bad news is, everyone in the Big Ten is playing well. In fact, I'd argue that everyone in conference has had a more impressive win on their resume than the Gophers(edit-except for Indiana, I'm kind of forgetting about them this season, even though any team heading into Assembly Hall would be foolish to look past them). The road in the Big Ten looks particularly tough this year-trips to Penn State, Northwestern, Michigan, Iowa that looked promising for a win before the season started now look quite daunting. It looks to be a dogfight of a season for our Gophers, as the Big Ten seems ahead of the pace I imagined when thinking our conference was returning to prominence in the near future. Buckle up!
