Coming into Wednesday, Indiana and Iowa were supposed to lose. The tides have turned in the Big Ten. Minnesota and Michigan State saw themselves undergo humbling losses.
#20 Minnesota: 57 Indiana: 60
Indiana has seen itself lose it's top players this year, and yet they find a way to knock off the second straight ranked opponent they have played. How strong could Indiana have been right now if they still had all their players at full strength? Indiana is becoming a scary place to play; they are becoming dangerous at home. They still have two more ranked teams at home: Purdue, their arch-rival in a game where anything is possible, and Wisconsin.
Overall, Minnesota didn't perform as well as they could have, but you have to credit Indiana. Every time Minnesota would climb back in it, the Hoosiers would find ways to score, and that is how they won the game.
Indiana faces a really tough schedule coming up; they face ranked opponents in five of their eight remaining games. Their last four games of the season are against ranked opponents.
Can Indiana make an NIT push? It doesn't seem likely. But they have surprised us before. The last three games have been surprising. So we will have to see.
Michigan State: 52 Iowa: 72
This is an absolutely baffling loss for the Spartans. This team was expected to go to the Final Four again and were the conference favorite. They now sit at 5-5 in the Big Ten, three of those wins came in overtime.
Tom Izzo said this was the worst loss since he has coached there. It is embarrassing. There is no excuse for it.
Iowa essentially just made their season though, getting a win over a team that was expected to go to the Final Four.
MSU is now just fighting to get into the NCAA Tournament. It will be a struggle the rest of the way for them to get in, as their remaining schedule isn't nice to them. They play at Wisconsin next and then host Penn State, go to Ohio State, get Illinois at home, go to Minnesota before hosting Purdue at home.
That will be a struggle. They could potentially drop all of those if they play like they did at Iowa.