Big Ten Tournament
BTT Prediction Contest Final Results
StegerWithSwagg and Seer both had 17 points after Michigan State's win in the Big Ten Tournament Final. SWS ended up in first place due his guess of 130 points as the tiebreaker. The total score of the game was 132. Since SWS is a writer on the site, he is not eligible to win the prize. So Seer wins the gift certificate to the BTN store.
The rest of the results are after the jump, or you can click here to see the spreadsheet.
Thanks to everyone who picked.
2012 Big Ten Tournament Championship Game/Selection Sunday Open Thread
We have a classic matchup brewing today, as the one-seed Michigan State Spartans take on the third-seed Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten Tournament Championship game. Michigan State will be trying for their first tournament title since 2000, while Ohio State will try for the three-peat. As we await the selection show, this should be a great game to watch.
Selection Sunday Topics: BTT Final and Selection Predictions
Selection Sunday is one of the biggest sports days of the year. It's kind of an odd day, as the most important part of it isn't a sporting event, isn't just people on TV talking about upcoming games. It's fun to make predictions about things that happen on Selection Sunday, so some of our writers made some predictions.
Prediction #1: BTT Winner
apy5000: Michigan State
Although the Buckeyes are playing as well as they have all season, Michigan State is built to defend Jared Sullinger. The Spartans have size at forward with Draymond Green, Derrick Nix and Adreian Payne. On the other side of the ball, Ohio State does not have a man who can guard Green one-on-one.
babaoreally: Ohio State
I like what I've seen from the Buckeyes in the BTT so far. Evan Ravenel has played well lately, and I think he will help balance out Michigan State's size inside. They're both pretty good teams that seem to be peaking in the right month.
OBrienSchofieldismyHero: Ohio State
OSU wins a close one 57-56. The Spartans get a chance at the victory, only for William Buford to crush their hopes and dreams.
StegerWithSwagg: Michigan State
Michigan State and Ohio State both dominated their opponents in the semis, but Draymond Green struggled for the Spartans. He rarely has two poor games in a row, so I expect him to lead the charge for the Sparty victory.
BT Hoops: Michigan State
Both teams come in sizzling from the semifinals, but I think the defensive presence of the Spartans inside will be enough to stop Jared Sullinger and earn the Spartans their first Big Ten Tournament Championship since 2000.
David P Funk: Ohio State
The loss of Branden weakens the rebounding advantage that MSU has coming in. Also, OSU has been playing very well in the tournament.
More predictions after the jump.
Thoughts While Watching Ohio State vs. Michigan
I'm writing down my thoughts as I watch this game. Feel free to use this as an open thread to discuss the game.
Second Half
0:00 Ohio State wins in a rout. Hopefully the OSU-MSU final tomorrow is more competitive.
From @MattMcCoyWTVN: William Buford will be the first player in BTT history to play in the final all four years of his career. OSU won the last two and lost in the finals three years ago to Purdue.
2:52 Subs in for both teams. They have given up. So I will give up as well.
4:20 Aaron Craft's mouthpiece on the ear thing is pretty disgusting.
4:20 Pac-12 Final up next! Watch teams that are worse than you will see in a mid-level conference!
6:00 This game is over. The announcers are barely talking about the game, and I can't blame them. Unless there is a fight or something, I don't think there will be too many more updates.
Thoughts While Watching Wisconsin vs. Michigan State
Second Half
0:00 That's it. MSU advances to the BTT Finals for the first time since 2000(!). They have been in Finals twice, winning in both 1999 and 2000.
4:21 Steve Kerr says that Larry Bird has done a good job with the Pacers the past couple of years. I don't think anybody will ever say that about Kerr's GM tenure with the Suns.
5:00 I'm not a fan of these alternate camera angles during a game. Please just give us the standard up high sideline view. Mix it up during replays if you want, but not during live play.
As OBrienSchofieldismyHero pointed out on twitter, I don't think Ryan Evans should be chucking up a bunch of threes. He is 19% for the year.
7:28 Jordan Taylor, please don't complain about a foul call after you swing your arm into Green's face.
7:46 MSU back in control, back up 14.
9:25 Appling buries a three at the end of the shot clock. UW no longer has the momentum.
10:30 Northwestern has never made the tourney? That's the first I've heard of that.
11:56 Second time in the game we have had an MSU timeout followed by an MSU basket and a foul, followed by a TV timeout.
Recaps of Early Friday's Big Ten Tournament Action
The second round games of the Big Ten Tournament produced solid early action.
After an early scare from Fran McCaffery's Iowa Hawkeyes, the Michigan St. Spartans offense came roaring to life. Bolstered by 58% field goal shooting, the Spartans scored 93 points and advanced to the tournament semifinals. Draymond Green scored 21 points and recorded yet another double-double with 10 rebounds. Adreian Payne added in 16 more points on 7 of 8 shooting to help the Spartans to the hard-fought W. For the Hawkeyes, Matt Gatens picked a bad time to go cold, shooting just 1 of 6 from the floor and 1 of 4 from beyond the arc. Josh Oglesby, however, picked up the slack and shot 5 of 7 from beyond the arc, finishing with a team-high 20 points.
Paced by Rob Wilson's 30 points, a career-high for the little used senior guard, the Wisconsin Badgers kept even with and eventually knocked off the Indiana Hoosiers, 79-71. Jordan Taylor shot poorly in the first half and for the game, but did enough to give Wisconsin the victory. Jared Berggren had 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting (with 5 made free throws), and Ryan Evans added in 12 of his own. Indiana drove to the free throw line with regularity, but despite three players scoring 17 points (Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford, Cody Zeller), the Hoosiers just didn't get enough out of their offense to win.
Wisconsin will play Michigan State tomorrow in the Tournament Semifinals. The Spartans swept the regular season series with Wisconsin, winning 63-60 (in overtime) and 69-55.
In other news, Derrick Nix has had enough of your basket supports.
BTT First Round Quick Recaps
You probably know what happened in the BTT first round. The only upset was 10 Minnesota beating 7 Northwestern in heartbreaking fashion for the Wildcats. Purdue and Indiana took care of business against the conference doormats and Iowa might have just put the finishing touches on Bruce Weber's Illinois career. Here are some reactions from around the internet.
Iowa 64, Illinois 61
Iowa Reaction: It's time to dance!
Illinois Reaction: Talking about what's next for Illinois and Bruce Weber (HINT: Bruce Weber will not be the coach next year).
Indiana 75, Penn State 58
Indiana Reaction: IU's first BTT win is hard to celebrate after Verdell Jones III's knee injury.
Penn State Reaction: Some analysis about how Indiana stopped Tim Frazier.
Minnesota 75, Northwestern 68 OT
Minnesota Reaction: Hopeful for the future with Andre Hollins leading the way.
Northwestern Reaction: FML.
Purdue 79, Nebraska 61
Purdue Reaction: Happy with the offensive production out of the young guys.
Nebraska Reaction: Not too many people seemed surprised. That might have been the end of the Doc Sadler regime.
BTT Prediction Contest
(UPDATE: Contest is closed for new entries. Good luck to everyone who participated.)
It's time for the second annual BTT prediction contest. It's easy to enter and a nice warmup for the brackets you'll be filling out next week. I haven't decided on a prize yet, but, rest assured, there may or may not be one. (UPDATE: Winner gets a $25 gift certificate to the BTN store. If a writer wins, prize goes to highest scoring reader.)
Anyway, it's a simple process. Pick the winners of each of the games in the comments. Pick the total score of the championship game for a tiebreaker. Points awarded start at one for the first round and increase by one in each subsequent round.
Here are the games:
G1: 8 Iowa vs 9 Illinois
G2: 5 Indiana vs 12 Penn State
G3: 7 Northwestern vs 10 Minnesota
G4: 6 Purdue vs 11 Nebraska
G5: 1 Michigan State vs G1 Winner
G6: 4 Wisconsin vs G2 Winner
G7: 2 Michigan vs G3 Winner
G8: 3 Ohio State vs G4 Winner
G9: G5 Winner vs G6 Winner
G10: G7 Winner vs G8 Winner
Champ: G9 Winner vs G10 Winner
My picks as well as the rest of our writers' picks are after the jump.
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