With a trio of less-than-scintillating games leading off the Big Ten tournament Thursday, some fans might find it tempting to peek ahead to the second round.
Iowa and Michigan meet in the opener of Friday’s four-game United Center bonanza, and then Indiana-Purdue battle in the nightcap.
Make that could battle. When someone asked Purdue coach Gene Keady what he thought about a matchup with archrival Indiana Friday night in the United Center, Keady growled, “Ohio State’s already forfeited?”
The 11th-seeded Buckeyes (8-21, 1-15) play Indiana (18-10, 9-7) at 6 p.m. Thursday in the United Center. A Buckeye upset would spoil the much-anticipated back-yard brawl between Purdue and Indiana, set to tipoff at 9:05 p.m. Friday. ESPN2 will carry the game regardless, but take a guess which matchup the cable network would prefer.
Of course, Indiana has performed so poorly down the stretch that a loss might not be considered an upset–especially against a team it beat by only two points Feb. 19 in Columbus. Since then Indiana has dropped three games by double-digit margins; the last time that happened was 1985, the last year the Hoosiers failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
NIT-tany Lions? The hottest team in town this week is Illinois, whose only loss in its last 11 games was by three at Purdue.
But Penn State is also on a roll, winning five of its last seven to all but wrap up an NIT bid. The Nittany Lions (15-11, 8-8) are nursing hopes of an NCAA berth if they make it to Sunday’s final. Seventh-seeded Penn State meets No. 10 seed Wisconsin at approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday. The schools split their two regular-season games.
“In the end, don’t be surprised if Penn State can advance,” Minnesota coach Clem Haskins said. “They’re playing outstanding basketball, and they’re putting it together at the right time.”
Penn State’s top gun is guard Pete Lisicky, the team’s lone senior, who averaged 14.9 points a conference game. But the Lions have a deep bench and a strong front court in Jarrett Stephens and Calvin Booth, who led the league in blocked shots for the third consecutive season.
My kind of town: Wisconsin Athletic Director Pat Richter said he likes Chicago because it is a “geograpically neutral” site for the Big Ten tournament. That brought a chuckle from Northwestern coach Kevin O’Neill, whose campus is 30 minutes away. O’Neill conceded that NU doesn’t enjoy a home-court advantage in Chicago.
“That’s OK,” O’Neill retorted with a laugh. “From what I can tell, the Kohl Center’s been kind of neutral this year too.” The Badgers went 2-5 in their sparkling new building, which opened to great fanfare with a 56-33 spanking of O’Neill’s Wildcats Jan. 17.
Free throws: Former Ohio State coach Eldon Miller resigned Wednesday as coach at Northern Iowa. Miller, whose team slumped badly after early wins over Iowa and Iowa State, has a record of 568-419 in 36 years in college basketball. . . . The official scorer for the Big Ten tournament is Bob Rosenberg, who handles the same duties for the Bulls. . . . The Pac-10 is keeping tabs on the action here this week as its Rose Bowl partner goes into the basketball tournament business. The Pac-10 dropped its tournament in 1990 after four years of weak fan and sponsor interest, but last year came within one vote of reinstating it.
