The beginning of the best few weeks of the year started yesterday with the Big East tourney first round. Lets take a look into the best conference this year.
The B1G tourney starts with the Iowa vs Illinois game. Both teams will not make the NCAA tourney with out winning the 4 games in a row in Indianapolis. Illinois might be playing some of the worst basketball in the nation. Iowa is very over matched in terms of athleticism but I think they have a very good coach who motivates players to play extremely hard. I think Iowa has more to play for in this game and will likely wear down the fighting Weber's.
The game that I am looking forward to most in this years tournament is the rematch of IU and Wisconsin. Both teams are playing some of their best basketball here at the end of the season. Indiana could win this thing and secure a 3 seed, but it seems likely both teams are slated for the 4 line. I think the winner of this game will make the championship game on Sunday.
It will be interesting to see how MSU responds to the OSU loss to close the season. They are without one of their best players for the rest of the season because of a torn ACL. I think the Spartans will struggle with Iowa for most, if not all, of the game. They are so much more talented than the Hawkeyes, so I think they will escape their first game. Indiana dominated MSU when they played last week in Bloomington, but I think they would do a similar thing this time in Indy.
The bottom part of the bracket is just as exciting as the top. Will Northwestern beat Minnesota and Michigan and secure their first trip to the NCAA tournament ever? It will be very difficult for Michigan to beat the same team 3 times in one year, although the 2nd half of their last meeting was a pretty big blowout. Purdue has been playing some of its best basketball since they kicked off Barlow from the team. They could cause a lot of problems for OSU. The problem with them though is they are not very deep and will likely be pretty tired if they do pull the upset over the Buckeyes. In reality, no team on the bottom half of the bracket goes more than 7ish deep. No matter which team makes the finals, especially if its against IU or MSU will be at a pretty big disadvantage.
I think Iowa, IU, Northwestern, an Purdue all advance in their Thursday games. The second day will likely see at least one upset, not including the 5 seed (IU) over the 4 (Wisconsin). I wouldnt be too surprised to see Iowa, NW, or Purdue win a second game.
If Michigan is going to make a decent run in this conference tournament they will have to get some solid minutes from Smot in every game. If Michigan wins the championship, the likely MVP will be Trey Burke to the average basketball fan. But to the home town fans and coaching staff, this honor will be heading to Smot. You see how much he can stretch the defense when he stays on the floor and shoots the ball with confidence during the PSU game. Burke will be himself as NW cannot really stop him, OSU (and the defender of the year... what a joke) didn't have an answer for him in either of the first two games, IU just doesnt believe in defense, and MSU can just hope to contain him. Hardaway looks to be getting out of his slump, and he will need to build off of his last week of the season for Michigan to beat OSU again. At this point, I am expecting Tim to get 17+ points in these games. This is the clutch part of the season, and he has shown time and time again that he comes to play when the team most needs him. If this doesn't happen, well Michigan won't go very far. But for the Wolverines to be near unstoppable, and not just a decent team, Smot will need to score double figures and play more than 14 minutes.
Most people are picking IU to play OSU in the final with OSU winning, but I have seen the Buckeyes just lose focus too many times this year. Also, I dont want to see them or MSU win this thing. The upset of the tournament will likely be NW over Michigan, but since that is dumb I will pick Purdue over OSU. Since I am picking that as the upset to watch for, I will say Wisconsin vs Michigan in the final. At that point, I think Wisconsin would have the upper edge on the rematch... but I will reserve my final score prediction until the championship game is actually determined. It would be pretty enjoyable to see the real B1G coach of the year beat the angry leprechaun on a neutral floor, but I think the Izzo choke fest will continue this weekend and then be corected in time for the NCAA tourney.
Go Blue, beat the losers!
No comments:
Post a Comment