Ohio State (5) v. Michigan State (1):

OSU seems to have saved it’s Big Dance dreams with the win over Wisconsin yesterday (developments in the A-10, Big 12 & MWC Tourneys have made the bubble teams start to sweat – In the Big Ten PSU, Minny, um & Wisconsin will have a nervous Sunday) – MSU just outlasted Minny, as I posted yesterday it wasn’t pretty but in March you win and don’t worry about style points – despite what the yutzs in the ESPN studio may say about seeding – but I’ll talk more about seeding in tomorrow’s preview when we have most of the conference tournaments final results in hand – for now let’s all agree that Jimmy’s hero Digger Phelps is just a giant homer douche and move on.

Today’s game should be another slugfest, it won’t be pretty both teams like to bang and scrap but if you like Big Ten hoops it will be a great game. Evan Turner meet Travis Walton – on the defensive side that’s the key match-up for MSU. For MSU to win Suton and Raymar need to have better games – G had his way with the young Mullens in MSU’s prior to victories and that will need to continue. Raymar usually plays well against his home state’s team so I expect his performance will improve. Roe and Lauderdale should be a good match-up (and Day-Day Green and Quise and the Dunk Police when they’re subbed in). If Mullens is playing well against G don’t be surprised to see ID – Idunk Iblock – get some minutes. Diebler will challenge MSU’s tough perimeter defense and I have no doubt he’ll get some good looks today. The last time these teams played Durrell Summers went off – here’s to hoping he can do it again.

It will be a battle but I think MSU is set for a March roll and they will outlast the Buckeyes and move onto Sunday (then we can let the seeding talk commence).

Pick: MICHIGAN STATE

Purdue (3) v. Illinois (2):

Both of these teams played well last night – but both will face tougher competition in each other today. Purdue had a bit of an offensive re-awakening last night and Illinois ground Michigan into the floor. Illinois is historically the toughest out in the BTT and they seem to be upholding that tradition without Chester Frazier’s services – it will be interesting to see how his absence plays out today. For Illinois Mike Davis is again the key and Hummel is the spark plug for Purdue. The match-up to watch will be Johnson versus Tisdale in the low post, two very skilled young big men playing against each with a trip to BTT Finals on the line – who could ask for anything more? In the end I give the edge to Purdue due to Frazier’s absence but the Illini swept the season series so it’s hard to get really excited about that pick. Should be a good defensive Big Ten battle – if ESPN doesn’t like that they can eat my shorts.

Pick: PURDUE

Comments are closed