Someday, if this Big Ten basketball tournament concept ever catches on, there will be a stigma attached to the first day’s pairings.
As in: “Can you believe Indiana’s playing on Thursday?”
The first round is not for the fabled in these year-end conference get-togethers. But because the Big Tens have no history, the sixth-seeded Hoosiers actually seemed pleased with themselves after sweating out a 78-71 victory over bottom-seeded Ohio State in front of an announced crowd of 21,711 in the United Center.
The Hoosiers, after all, had ended a three-game losing streak. They would play on Monday if they had to.
“Obviously, this win was important for us,” Hoosiers forward Luke Recker said.
It was important for the tournament too. On Friday night, the United Center will be treated to one of the great rivalries in the campus game.
Indiana vs. Purdue. Hoosiers and Boilermakers. Bob Knight and Gene Keady.
The country cousins bring their feud to the big city. Neutral ticket-holders are instructed to avoid crimson and cream and black and old gold.
“I think it’s going to be a madhouse,” Indiana’s Charlie Miller said.
And Dennis Rodman isn’t even going to be in the building.
Because tickets were divided evenly among the 11 conference members, it’s doubtful either school’s followers will dominate the crowd–though it’s safe to assume Northwestern, Penn State and Ohio State fans had some interesting offers for their seats after their teams were eliminated Thursday.
If they’re wise, the neutral will hold onto their tickets.
“A lot of people hear about the rivalry, and now they’ll get to participate in it,” Hoosiers guard Michael Lewis said.
The Hoosiers and the Boilermakers split their two regular-season meetings, each defending their home court in tight, tense games.
Third-seeded Purdue seems to have the momentum coming in, and it certainly will be more rested, but Indiana might have more motivation.
“Purdue’s pretty much got a lock on the NCAA tournament,” Recker said. “But we don’t know anything yet.”
The Hoosiers (19-10) probably sewed up a bid by defeating the Buckeyes (8-22). But it certainly wasn’t easy.
The Hoosiers got strong inside-outside production from center Andrae Patterson, who scored 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and guard A.J. Guyton, who added 23 points and committed only one turnover in 39 minutes.
The Hoosiers frittered away most of a 17-point lead with less than 5 minutes to go. Ohio State cut the deficit to four with 18 seconds to go, and if the Buckeyes hadn’t misfired on a couple of long-range bombs, the ending would have been perhaps too interesting for Knight and friends.
“With 4 or 5 minutes left in the game, it would have been easy for (the Buckeyes) to say, `Let’s get this done,’ ” first-year Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien said. “I’m very proud of these kids.”
So the Hoosiers survived Thursday. Someday, it may mean something.
“We haven’t beaten a good team in a while,” Guyton said. “We’ve been unsure about our team, about how good we are.”
