With four Big Ten teams left amongst the nation's final 16, the circumstances looked very promising for the conference heading into the regional semifinals. Ohio State and Michigan State were playing teams that they were clearly better than. Indiana was playing mighty Kentucky, but the Hoosiers had already taken them down in the regular season. Wisconsin was matched up against a Syracuse defense that you knew they would have fun shooting over.

Obviously, not everything went according to plan. Although Ohio State played excellently, the other three B1G schools disappointed and will have to watch the rest of the tournament at home like the rest of us. Of course, making the Sweet 16 is no small accomplishment and Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan State all still had great seasons. We wish they could have gone just a bit farther, though.

Kentucky 102, Indiana 90

The Hoosiers have made up for some defensive deficiencies this season by pummeling their opponents on offense. In Friday night's South Region semifinal in Atlanta, IU's offense was splendid, but it still wasn't enough to stop a Kentucky team that got to the free throw line at will. Although Indiana hit on 52.2% of its field goals and Kentucky managed just 48.4%, the difference in the game came from the Wildcats connecting on a ridiculous 35 of 37 free throws.

It's difficult to lose a game when you get to the line that many times, but when you make over 90% of your attempts, well, that is a pretty good recipe for success. When you combine Kentucky's free throw efficiency with its dominance on the boards (the team grabbed 42.4% of it's own misses), the advantage more than makes up for the small edge Indiana had in actually shooting the ball.

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In the non-conference season, wins that Big Ten teams earned on Friday would not be a very big deal. However, at this time of year, nothing can be taken for granted, because every season we see multiple major conference powers get caught off guard by lower-seeded opponents.

That didn't happen on Friday, as Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana all made short work of their second round opposition to move one step closer to college hoops glory.

Ohio State 78, Loyola 59

Deshaun Thomas showed that as long as he sticks around for next season, he'll be a candidate for first team all-conference. The sophomore forward was 13 of 22 from the field for 31 points and 12 rebounds. Said borderline crazy Loyola boss Jimmy Patsos, "I said I was worried about Deshaun Thomas. Jimmy doesn't just bartend. Jimmy knows basketball, too."

Maybe Jimmy should have used his hoops wisdom to find a way to actually slow down Thomas.

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The Big Ten title is still up for grabs! Well, sort of. Indiana's tourney prepping 70-55 victory over Michigan State on Tuesday night may end up forcing the Spartans to share the regular season conference championship instead of having it all to themselves. Their kindergarten teachers would be proud.

Speaking of pride, as a Penn State fan, I've never really grasped the significance of a college basketball conference championship (and I may never grasp it!). This isn't the Ivy League, in which the regular season championship gets an automatic bid into the tournament. Even if it was that way, this is the Big Ten, a conference that's usually good enough to get at least its top four teams in the dance.

The regular season title also lacks the dramatics of a Big Ten Tournament championship, where there are confetti and hats and a nationally televised CBS Sunday afternoon telecast that just feels important because Jim Nantz said "Hello friends" at the beginning. That said, winning the tournament championship is much easier to do than winning the regular season one. I should know, because Penn State was one win away from the tournament title last season.

Anyway, whoever shares either title will end up having their season defined in the NCAA Tournament anyway, right? It's not like in college football when your team is already eliminated from the national title chase so you might as well win the conference. The truth is, I don't know how it feels. Let me know in the comments!

The Actual Game

About that game... Indiana jumped out to an 18-8 start and Michigan State just didn't have what it took to come back from that. They came close a few times -- mostly on the strength of clutch Draymond Green three-pointers that kept IU from completely pulling away -- but Indiana was too furious on the offensive end to let the lead slip away.

Victor Oladipo was freaking fantastic for the Hoosiers. The athletic sophomore scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half to help gain a 41-27 IU advantage at the break. Oladipo was also 7 of 8 from the free throw line to cap a brilliant month of February in which he has solidified his role as a key cog for Tom Cream's Hoosiers. He probably would have had more points if not for a left ankle injury he suffered at the end of the first half.

On his aggressive play, Oladipo said, "I just felt I could go past because a lot of the guards weren’t checking me. I was just trying to use my athleticism to get past the defenders."

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Just three days after a horrible effort and eventual loss against the Hawkeyes, the Wisconsin Badgers traveled to Columbus to take on the Ohio St. Buckeyes. The Buckeyes had won in the Kohl Center for the first time against Bo Ryan, and were looking for a sweep. On Senior Day a year ago, the Buckeyes had unleashed an incinerating effort from the three point line, winning 93-65.

But instead of a sweep, they got a rude surprise as Wisconsin, which had started off 5-1 on the road in the Big Ten (before losing to MSU and Iowa), refused to die in Columbus. The murderous three-point barrage that had murdered Wisconsin a year ago would not be repeated, and the Buckeyes finished 4 of 11 from that department. Even more damaging were the 9 free throws that the Buckeyes missed on 19 attempts, which kept them from closing out the Badgers and allowed Wisconsin to stay alive. Neither team looked like they would run away with the game. And in the end, neither team did.

Wisconsin simply outlasted the Buckeyes on the road and ruined Ohio State's Senior Day, along with Thad Matta's 7-0 record on Senior Day. Twice before (2006-07 and 2010-11) the Badgers had fallen to the Buckeyes on Senior Day, both times against top-3 opponents. This time, however, they didn't get the job done from the perimeter, and carried by Jared Berggren, the Badgers knocked off a top-10 opponent on the road.

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Wisconsin has excelled at keeping opponents from hitting three-pointers all season long, but they couldn't keep Iowa's Matt Gatens down on Thursday night. The senior shooting guard was a ridiculous 7 of 10 from beyond the arc and finished with 33 points to lift Iowa to its first sweep of Wisconsin since the 1994-95 season.

What's even crazier is that Gatens had just gone off for 30 points in Iowa's previous game, a 78-66 thrashing of Indiana. But the Hoosiers have had defensive lapses all season. This sort of thing is not supposed to happen to Bo Ryan's squad.

"We tried to make [Gatens] work hard for them," said Ryan after the game, "If he’s going to make shots, we want them to be tough twos. But he got hot. He is on a consistent streak and is playing really well. And we knew that, it’s not like we were surprised. You have to give a guy credit when he can knock those kinds of shots down."

The last two guys to drop 30 on the Badgers were Jacob Pullen of Kansas State, who put up 38 in last year's NCAA Tournament match-up, and the incomparable Stephen Curry of Davidson, who went for 33 to upset Wisconsin in the 2008 Tournament.

Amazingly, Gatens was also 7 for 10 in the Indiana game. Before that, in losses to Penn State and Northwestern, he shot 5 of 7 and 3 of 5 from three-point range. That's four straight games shooting over 50% from that distance. 22 for 32 is some kind of hot streak.

Said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery after the game, "There's nobody playing better than Matt Gatens in the country right now. He's a real intelligent basketball player and a substantially better basketball player than anyone gives him credit. He [is] special, very special."

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Oh, those poor Minnesota Gophers. Another tough loss that could end up being the difference between an NCAA Tournament bid and an invitation to the lame as heck NIT. Wisconsin appeared to be running away with the game midway through the second half, but then the Badgers hit a scoring drought that lasted for the last 7-plus minutes of regulation.

Yes, that usually means the game went into overtime. That was certainly the case on Thursday night. Minnesota guard Austin Hollins tied the score at 51-51 with a pair of free throws with 1:02 remaining in the second half. Wisconsin's Jared Berggren missed a corner trey on the ensuing possession to set up Minnesota's try for the win.

Andre Hollins tried to get by Jordan Taylor with a crossover dribble, but Taylor stayed in front of his man and denied his shot attempt.

"I was trying to stay solid, stay in front of him," said Taylor, who accomplished his goal and made Hollins take a tough shot. "I was fortunate enough to get a piece of the shot."

The other Hollins, Minnesota's Austin, was able to track down the rebound for another crack at the victory, but his fade away shot was off target and the game went to overtime. That's when everything changed for Wisconsin.

Despite the raucous atmospher inside The Barn, Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Bo Ryan's Badgers remained calm.

Yet the mood inside the UW huddle just before overtime was decidedly upbeat.

"We said everybody's got to be aggressive," junior forward Mike Bruesewitz explained. "Everybody's got to make hard cuts. We've got to move better. We can't just look at Jordan and say take over this game for us. Everybody's got to make sure they do their own part."

Wisconsin showed a much more aggressive gameplan in the extra period. Instead of just living on the perimeter, the Badgers dashed toward the hoop and drew fouls. Of their 17 overtime points, 15 came from the free throw line. Wisconsin went on to win 68-61.

Hit the jump for a statistical summary.

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Tuesday night brought in a pair of teams looking to remain well in the Big Ten title hunt. Michigan State, riding a 2-game winning streak powered by the dependable Draymond Green, traveled to Champaign-Urbana to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini. At the end of the night, the Spartans left Illinois with a bitter pill of a 42-41 loss and an injured Draymond Green.

The Wisconsin Badgers, winners of their past 5 games, looked to beat the Penn St. Nittany Lions in the Bryce Jordan Center, where they had lost 56-52 a season before. While they struggled horribly in the first half shooting the ball and trailed by six at the break, the Badgers came out swinging in the second half and knocked off Pat Chambers's squad to improve to 7-3 in the Big Ten, taking 2nd place in the conference heading into a very crucial game with power Ohio State.

Both Illinois and Wisconsin were able to come away with low-scoring wins, in part because of great defense, in part also because of bad shooting. Draymond Green's injury was hardly what MSU needed on a night where they shot a pitiful 24% from the field and 21% from beyond the arc, and the sputtering Spartan offense never truly put the Illini away. While Illinois also shot rather poorly (especially from the free throw line, where they were just 9 of 17 in a game where every miss could haunt them), they never truly fell apart. And as they had done against Ohio State, the Fighting Illini held on to knock off a ranked opponent in Assembly Hall.

Wisconsin entered the game against Penn State with one of the best defenses in the nation, and held the Nittany Lions to 23 points in the first half. Unfortunately for Wisconsin, the first half offense was simply atrocious, and the Badgers had just 17 points of their own. Wisconsin survived a 10-0 run by the Nittany Lions in the first half, and seized the momentum of the game before the half on a Jordan Taylor layup as time expired. In the 2nd half, Bo Ryan's Badgers wrested control of the game from the Nittany Lions early on and endured the best efforts of Tim Frazier until the final buzzer sounded, giving Wisconsin its 7th conference win and 4th on the road.

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Ohio State earned a big home win over Michigan this afternoon and pacing the 64-49 victory with 17 points and 12 rebounds was not Jared Sullinger nor William Buford. Instead, it was the lesser known Lenzelle Smith, Jr. who led the Buckeyes in both points and rebounds during a great team effort orchestrated by coach Thad Matta's starting five.

Smith, Jr. was 6 of 12 from the field and dominated the boards with 8 offensive rebounds. One one play in the first half, Smith flew in to rebound a miss, then grabbed his own rebound after the put-back went awry, then was fouled during a successful put-back try to get three points the old-fashioned way. His tireless hustle was imperative in Ohio State's dominance of the glass. As a team, they grabbed 14 offensive rebounds compared to only 6 for the Wolverines.

While Jared Sullinger did not dominate in this game against Michigan's shallow front line, he did appear overpowering at times. Sullinger was able to plow through Michigan defenders on his way to the bucket on a number of occasions. However, he only was 5-11 from the field with 13 points, which is a testament to Michigan's eager ability to double team and force the ball from the big guy's hands. Sullinger countered this strategy with some sound, if sometimes awkward, passes out of the post that only resulted in a single turnover.

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