Hey guys, I’m back for another recap of the awesome Big Ten Conference and the extremely wild week of basketball that unfolded before our eyes. If you guys didn’t catch any of the games, I feel really sorry for you because almost all of they team’s that were ranked played extremely tough games and barely slipped out with wins. Well, let’s get to the recap and I’ll fill y’all in if you missed out!
Games of the Week
Tuesday, January 31th
Since there weren’t any games on Monday we jump straight to Tuesday where there was a total barnburner of a matchup up in Columbus where the Ohio State Buckeyes hosted the 17th ranked Maryland Terrapins. To sum up this intense game of restlessness by the Buckeyes of not backing down their star players Jae’Sean Tate added 20 points on 7-10 shooting and Marc Loving tallied 18 points on 6-12 shooting but that simply wasn’t enough. Down the stretch, on Tuesday night the game was only a one point lead for Maryland, but Maryland coach Mark Turgeon put Melo Trimble back into the game knowing how poor of a game he has already been having and said, “Take it over.” With 2 1/2 minutes remaining, the reliable guard knocked down a 3-pointer and scored the Terps’ last seven points of the game as they held off the tenacious Buckeyes down the stretch to win 77-71. Melo Trimble finished with 13 points on 5-13 shooting but was lead by Justin Jackson with 22 points on 8-12 shooting and 4-7 from behind the three-point line.
Wednesday, February 1st
Well, the first night of B1G basketball in February was a fantastic one in my opinion. If you saw my article last week I picked the game between #25 Northwestern and #23 Purdue to be a great one. I was wrong and Purdue took complete control from start to finish and easily won 80-59 thanks to 24 points and 16 rebounds from star Caleb Swanigan. But the real game on this day was a triple overtime thriller between Penn State and Indiana in Bloomington. The game was simply taken control by three main IU players. They needed three career-high scoring efforts to extend a Big Ten game that they nearly lost twice to take down Penn State 110-102 in triple-overtime on Wednesday night. Sophomore center Thomas Bryant scored 31 points on 13-18 shooting, eight more than his previous best, and grabbed 11 rebounds. While Josh Newkirk and Robert Johnson also set personal bests with 27 points apiece with Newkirk going 4-8 from downtown. Penn State was led by Lamar Stevens who recorded 26 points on 9-17 shooting and 2-3 from three-point range and Tony Carr with 23 points on 7-17 shooting but couldn’t pull out the win. The Nittany Lions were in a position to win the game at the end of regulation as well as the first overtime. But Indiana freshman De’Ron Davis sank two free throws to tie the game at 72 a piece with 3.9 seconds remaining in regulation. Then Newkirk’s driving layup that beat the buzzer with less than a second left eventually counted after a lengthy video review, tied the game at 80 at the end of the first overtime. After that Indiana never looked back and held on.
Saturday, February 4th
This day was filled with three great games and it was tough to pick just one of them for the Game of the Day for Saturday so I will do all three. First off, last week I told y’all that Ohio State and Michigan resumed their rivalry in Ann Arbor and it wouldn’t be an easy one for the Buckeyes. Ohio State was able to pull out a 70-66 win thanks to 17 points from Marc Loving on 4-12 shooting and 3-7 shots from behind the arch as well as 13 points from Jae’Sean Tate and Trevor Thompson. Rutgers was finally able to pick up their first Big Ten road win over Penn State thanks to a stunning 25 points Corey Sanders on 8-18 shooting and 4-5 from three-point range. Penn State tried fighting back thanks to 24 points from Shep Garner on 9-13 shooting and 6-9 from downtown but couldn’t pick up the win. Now the real game of the day for Saturday was when #23 Purdue traveled to College Park to take on the #17 ranked team in the nation in Maryland. This game was full of excitement all the way down to the final seconds of the game and I think everyone can agree with me on that one! Purdue was once again led by Caleb Swanigan who poured in 26 points on 9-19 shooting as well as going 50% from three-point land. But the real hero was Purdue’s guard Carsen Edwards who made two clutch free throws with 2.1 seconds left after getting fouled driving to the basket, as No. 23 Purdue rallied to beat No. 17 Maryland 73-72 on Saturday and knocked the Terrapins out of first place in the Big Ten as well. Maryland’s star point guard Melo Trimble scored 22 points on a terrible 4-15 shooting from the field and notched 14 of his points from the charity stripe. Maryland got one last chance with an inbound in Purdue’s zone with .5 seconds left, they ran a perfect play that left Kevin Huerter wide open for the game-winning three but he bricked it and Purdue was able to rally for the comeback win.
Sunday, February 5th
There were only two games on yesterday, a day that was overshadowed by a historic SuperBowl, but hey we are a college website let’s stick to talking about that! This match-up featured a disappointing Indiana Hoosiers team traveling to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the #10 ranked team in the nation Wisconsin Badgers at home. This game, to my surprise, was a really good game when I thought it was going to be a blowout! Indiana only trailed by three points at halftime and was led by Josh Newkirk who tallied 22 points on 7-15 shooting and 4-6 shooting from behind the arch. While the Badgers were led by Ethan Happ as he scored 20 points on 8-10 from the field and gave his team a huge defensive spark down the stretch, while Nigel Hayes added 15 and 10 rebounds. Happ came up with a big steal with 3:33 left for one of two critical defensive plays by late in the game. About a minute later, Happ blocked a shot, corralled the rebound and called a timeout just before falling out of bounds to save the possession. Indiana came with everything they got after that, but Wisconsin was relentless on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball and pulled out the 65-60 win.
Clutch Shot of the Week
This week’s clutch of the week goes to Hoosiers guard Josh Newkirk who beat the buzzer with .1 seconds left to send the game into double-overtime against Penn State. This was so clutch because Indiana was down two when they inbounded the ball with 4.5 seconds left and he didn’t even think twice about passing. He went right to the hoop, layed the ball up and off the glass with poise and three players around him! I mean seriously, a millisecond later the clock would of expired and the shot wouldn’t have counted, his shot blew my mind when I saw it. Superb shot and poise Josh!
Player of the Week
For this week’s honor, I decided to go with sophomore Boilermaker stud, Caleb Swanigan who went completely off in his two games this week. In his first game this week against #25 Northwestern he recorded 24 points, on 7-11 shooting, 2-4 from three-point land, 8-9 from the free-throw line, 16 rebounds, and one assist. His next game against #17 Maryland he put in 26 points on 9-19 shooting, 3-6 from behind the arch, 5-6 from the charity stripe, 10 rebounds, and three steals. These two games with double-doubles stretch his streak to six games in a row with a double-double.
Game to Keep your Eyes On
Michigan State at Michigan on Tuesday the 7th:
Both teams are having a little disappointment to their seasons so far and you can clearly see it. Michigan is currently on a two-game losing streak while MSU is on a nice little two-game winning streak itself but that is after losing three in a row to some poor teams. Whenever these two team’s get together it’s always a heated intense battle because it’s the battle for Michigan and even their fans get into it. These two already played each other last Sunday the 29th in East Lansing and that game saw Michigan State come out on top 70-62 so you know the Wolverines will be out for revenge.