Big Ten Tournament:
Location: Verizon Center, Washington DC
Dates: March 8th-12th
Defending Champ: Michigan State
Bracket link: Bracket
(Discuss this on the BSL board here.)
Purdue won the outright title by 2 games. They are the favorite to win the tournament as well. Purdue is the most balanced an arguably most talented team in the Big 10. They are ranked 13th in the Kenpom rankings and are top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. The Big Ten didn’t end up as good of a conference as many felt it would be this year. Wisconsin struggled to be the top 10 team many felt they would be. Michigan State had some bad injuries and a youth problem. Indiana never figured out they had to defend and also lost OG Anunoby to a torn ACL.
The Big Ten also had perhaps the best story of the year in Northwestern. The Wildcats figure to get into the NCAA tournament for the first time ever. They seemed to seal it with a last second lay up against Michigan last week. In addition to NW, the conference had 5 other 20 win teams and 3 others that won 18. The conference does have some depth to it but you have to question if that depth will translate into wins once the big tournament starts next week.
For teams on the bubble, this is a huge week for the Big Ten. Joe Lunardi currently has 7 teams in the field from the Big Ten and they are all solidly in. With Michigan, already likely in, Illinois must win that first game and they may also need to beat Purdue. Illinois suffered a bad loss to Rutgers this past weekend and that likely has them out of the field for right now. The winner of the Iowa/Indiana game perhaps has some life to still make the field. Indiana likely has to go on more of a run than Iowa does. Illinois and Iowa are amongst the “next 4 out” in Lunardi’s latest bracketology, so they stand the most to gain in this tournament this year.
Another storyline will be how the Terps play in front of the home crowd. With the Verizon center close to the MD campus, MD should have the majority of fans compared to any other team. Can they take them to a title? With them likely getting Northwestern and then likely Wisconsin, I think they got a good draw to advance deep into the tournament, despite how poor they looked down the stretch. The Michigan St win had to help and Wisconsin hasn’t played well down the stretch either. The sleeper team in the tournament is Minnesota, who has played very well lately and brings a very good defense to this tournament. I think Purdue will still find a way to beat them (I do think Minnesota beats Michigan St) but watch out for the potential upset there.
I am going to go with the favorite here to win the tournament. I think Purdue is too good on the interior and are too balanced. I do think they will have to beat Maryland to do it and that won’t be easy with a crowd that will probably be, at least, 75% Terps fans, although MD didn’t play as well at home this year anyway.
Rob has interviewed guests from outlets such as ESPN, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports, Baseball Prospectus, Athlon, Sporting News, MLB Network, Brooks Baseball, Baseball Info Solutions, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Sports on Earth, Grantland, NFL Network, FanGraphs, Football Outsiders, ProFootballFocus, etc. etc. The Baltimore native lives in Perry Hall with his Wife Lindsay, and two young sons. He has appeared as a guest on 105.7 The Fan, Q1370, and WNST 1570. Co-Host of The Warehouse: https://anchor.fm/the-warehouse Co-Host of Sports Tonight: https://anchor.fm/sports-tonight