Alright, guys I know I’m a little late to the party with recapping the B1G games but better late than never am I right? So what I am going to start doing on a weekly basis every Monday’s is recapping the best games, players, and plays that happened in just the B1G that week. I can’t wait to get started with this past week because there were some awesome games, plays, and shot. Let’s jump right to it, shall we?
Games of the Week
Tuesday, January 24th:
Since there were no games on Monday as the teams had off we pick right up on Tuesday! The best matchup of the night was when the #20 Purdue Boilermakers traveled to East Lansing to take on the “always tough” Michigan State Spartans. This game was a thrilling to watch with each team basically taking a lead, holding it for a couple minutes, and then losing it again. The game was mainly dominated by sophomore standout, Caleb Swanigan. He was pretty unpopular among the Spartans’ fans because he committed to play for the Spartans before changing his mind and deciding to be a Boilermaker. He was almost out outmatched by Spartan, Miles Bridges who poured in 33 points on 12-17 shooting and 7 rebounds, but Swanigan finished with 25 points on 8-13 shooting and 17 rebounds for a dominating performance and the 84-73 win.
Wednesday, January 25th
The next day there was a battle in Columbus, Ohio as the Buckeyes of Ohio State took on the Minnesota Golden Gophers at home. The Buckeyes season this year is, let’s just say…disappointing to put it nicely. I am a huge Ohio State fan and watching them struggle this way is just a pain, but on the bright side they were able to turn things around thanks to 19 points from Marc Loving on 6-10 shooting (including 3-5 from behind the arch) and 19 points from 7 footer Trevor Thompson on 8-14 shooting and 10 rebounds (including two crucial blocks at the end of the game.) The Gophers didn’t go down without a fight as Nate Mason added 21 points on 7-18 shooting and five rebounds. Ohio State did everything they could to pull away and blow out the Golden Gophers, but Minnesota wasn’t having any of it. The Buckeyes would cling to what seemed like either a five or a three point lead for the remainder of the game past the five-minute mark of second half. Ohio State was able to hang on for the 78-72 win after some sloppy fouling from Minnesota that sent them to the line to ice the game.
Saturday, January 28th
Next, we skip all the way to Saturday as that’s when the next best game was played and boy was it a dandy of a ball game we had! I know when I watched it, my eyes never left the screen as it seemed each possession the ball found a way to go into the net. The #15th ranked team in the nation, Wisconsin Badgers faced the underdogs, Rutgers Scarlet Knights in New York at Madison Square Garden. In no way shape or form did Rutgers play like the underdogs in this game and it was so fun. Scarlet Knights guard, Corey Sanders did literally whatever he could do to help his team and tallied 15 points on 6-17 shooting and fellow guard Nigel Johnson tried to help with 13 points on the night. The Badgers were led by Ethan Happ who was on fire and recorded 32 points on 12-18 shooting and 6 rebounds including the tying layup with 2 seconds left to force overtime. Happ scored seven of his career-high total in the overtime to push the Badgers to the grind it out 61-54 overtime win!
Sunday, January 29th
The last big game of the week was a great way, in my opinion, to end a solid week of some Big Ten Basketball. This game featured, once again, #20 Purdue visiting the Nebraska Cornhuskers who have had a frustrating season so far. To sum up this back and forth game, Nebraska was led by an improbable trio for their upset win over the Boilermakers. There was Jack McVeigh, who has a love-hate relationship with his shot from three-point range, and Jeriah Horne, who actually didn’t even play in the Cornhuskers’ previous game by coach’s decision. And finally, there was Michael Jacobson, who upon reading after the game had to take fluids because he got sick to his stomach twice on the sidelines. McVeigh and Horne provided 37 points and 10 rebounds combined off the bench while Jacobson’s putback gave Nebraska the lead with 42 seconds left in an 83-80 victory Sunday. Purdue was led by Dakota Mathias who put in 19 points on 6-8 shooting including 5-7 three-pointers but it wasn’t enough to bring Purdue back and they had to take the loss to the big underdogs, Nebraska.
Clutch Shot of the Week
This week’s clutch shot of the week goes to Nebraska’s Michael Jacobson and his solid put pack off his own guy’s miss. This was so clutch because at the point the Cornhuskers were down a point with 42 seconds left. His fellow teammate missed a wide open three (that I probably could have drained because I’m better the Steph at 3’s) and went hard to the glass, got the board, and put it back up for two and the lead. Nebraska wouldn’t give up the lead for the remainder of the game and pulled off the upset, well done Mr. Jacobson!
Performance of the Week
I decided to go with Ethan Happ from the Wisconsin Badgers who poured in 32 points on 12-18 shooting, 8-16 from the charity stripe, six rebounds, four assists, and two blocks in the OT win vs Rutgers.
Game to Keep Your Eyes On
Ohio State at Michigan:
Just for the sole reason that these two teams hate each other in every single sport and when it comes to basketball, the hatred is still there. Even though both these teams are having unpleasant seasons so far, the game will still be a good one.
#25 Northwestern at #23 Purdue:
Which is the real game of the week in my opinion because of the powerhouse who are going against each other. The reason why is because Northwestern is ranked in the AP Polls for just the second time in the last 45 years (also 2009-2010). Northwestern is off to a great start, in fact just a win better then Purdue who they face on Wednesday. This game will be high scoring and highly entertaining.