To all of the basketball fans out there, Happy Thanksgiving! The Big Ten Conference had one team over the past week win a Thanksgiving tournament. However, the team that won it was a team that nobody expected to win a tournament.
#15 Minnesota Golden Gophers (5-0)
After winning the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Championship by defeating three decent programs: Western Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, the Golden Gophers have went from being unnoticed and unranked to #15 in the most recent poll. This past week proved once again that Tubby Smith is one of the elite coaches in the NCAA. What makes his coaching ability even more astounding is that he kicked arguably the best player off of the team, Devoe Joseph, before the season even started.
Instead of reeling over after losing a key player, Minnesota has become a more relentless team. In the quarterfinal against W. Kentucky, the Gophers dominated a team many consider the favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference by the score of 95-77. Minnesota were more physical than North Carolina by beating them 72-67 by controlling the paint. All three of the Gophers post players: Ralph Sampson III, Trevor Mbakwe, and Colton Iverson, were able to muscle around the skinny North Carolina team. Controlling the inside opened up the perimeter for Blake Hoffarber, who scored twenty points from the outside. By far, UNC is the skinniest college basketball team that I have ever seen. Since today is Thanksgiving, they need to eat plenty of turkey twice.
In the 74-70 championship victory over West Virginia, Minnesota was led by point guard Al Nolen’s 17 points. Nolen controlled the entire tempo of the game because he was able to drive past any Mountaineer defender placed upon him. Nolen ended up 11-12 from the free throw line because West Virginia had to foul him often. Look for Minnesota to continue to surprise teams throughout the year because they do not depend on one person to score every night to win.
Indiana Hoosiers (5-0)
Indiana has won all of its games by double-digit margins because they have not played a decent team as of yet. Having Maurice Creek back from being out a majority of last season has helped open the floor up for Christian Watford. Watford is now leading the Hoosiers in points per game (17.6), rebounds per game (7.0), and assists per game (3.0) because opposing teams have to focus on guarding Creek. Indiana will face their first test on Wednesday against Boston College. Hoosier fans can finally be optimistic again about college basketball.
#10 Purdue Boilermakers (4-0)
Purdue has been destroying cupcakes so far as they too have won every game by more than ten points. E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson are living up to the preseason hype as Moore leads the team in points per game with 19.5 and Johnson leads the team in rebounds (9.5) and in blocks (2.5). Their only non-conference test will be next Wednesday at Virginia Tech in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The team looks great so far, but it is sort of troubling that Purdue only scheduled to play one good non-conference despite knowing that the entire squad was returning.
#3 Ohio State Buckeyes (4-0)
After defeating Florida 93-75 on the 16th, Ohio State has not become complacent. The Buckeyes have won all four of their games by 18 points or more. Look for this team to continue to dominate opposition because the three freshman: Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas, and Aaron Craft, have meshed well with the key returning guys of David Lighty, Jon Diebler, Dallas Lauderdale, and William Buford to give Ohio State a deep, solid nucleus.
Penn State Nittany Lions (4-0)
Penn State has taken advantage of playing cupcake central so far since they have not played an imposing teams as of yet. The Nittany Lions will be tested this week as they play Mississippi tomorrow night and Maryland on Wednesday. Those two games will give fans a good gauge on how Penn State will do the remainder of the season since conference play will normally involve playing two tough games a week.
Northwestern Wildcats (3-0)
Northwestern only had one game during the week, a 71-45 thrashing of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. However, their schedule will become a little bit tougher this week as they play Creighton on Sunday and Georgia Tech on Tuesday. These two games back-to-back will also let you know whether or not Northwestern will be a pretender or a contender this season.
Michigan Wolverines (3-0)
So far, Michigan has obtained three rather easy victories. However, the young Wolverines will be tested tomorrow when they play at Syracuse. There is a slight possibility for an upset because Syracuse has started off the season rather slowly. We will see if Michigan is ready for the test.
#19 Illinois Fighting Illini (5-1)
Illinois failed its first test of the season by losing to Texas 90-84 in OT at the 2K Sports Classic. This game was not as close as the score indicates because Texas shot 25-44 from the free throw line. However, Illinois was able to bounce back the next day to beat an underrated Maryland team 80-76. The team will get another chance at an ACC team when they play North Carolina on Tuesday on what will be the two skinniest teams in college basketball playing against each other. Coach, where’s the weight room?
#2 Michigan State Spartans (3-1)
Michigan State ended up winning third place at the Maui Invitational by defeating #13 Washington 76-71 after losing to UConn 70-67 on Tuesday night. As of now, there is only one flaw on this team that caused for them to lose against UConn; the Spartans seemed to freeze out Draymond Green in the final two minutes and decided to throw bricks up in crunch time. That type of play lingered on in the first half against Washington because the Huskies were ahead by 10 at half. However, Kalin Lucas went bonkers in the second half to escape with victory.
The offense needs to go through Green instead of through the bricklayers on the team because Green currently leads the Spartans in points (15.5), rebounds (10.5), assists (4.5), blocks (2.5), and steals (2.8). Duh! Hello, McFly?
Watch what I am talking about because the Spartans play #1 Duke on Wednesday. If Michigan State wants to continue to throw bricks up against Duke, then they will lose by 20.
Wisconsin Badgers (2-1)
Wisconsin lost a nailbiter on Saturday to UNLV 68-65. It’s a good sign that the Badgers were able to be in this game until the end against a quality opponent. What wasn’t good was that two of UNLV’s players scored 43 of the Rebels’ 68 points. What will happen if Wisconsin plays a team with more than two scorers?
Fortunately, Wisconsin will have this entire Thanksgiving weekend to work out that problem with their defense as they play against Manhattan in the Old Spice Classic at Walt Disney World. If they win today, then Wisconsin would play the winner of Texas A&M/Boston College.
Iowa Hawkeyes (2-3)
The Hawkeyes were 1-2 this past weekend at the US Virgin Islands Paradise Jam tournament. Iowa was clobbered in their first game by Xavier 86-73. However, the Hawkeyes showed resiliency by defeating Alabama 55-47 the next day. Long Beach State defeated Iowa in the consolation championship game 78-72.
What is happening is that new coach Fran McCafferey wants the team to play at a faster tempo than what the players can handle. Notice that the team won the low-scoring game, but lost the two higher scoring games. Fortunately, the rest of their non-conference schedule is tremendously bad so that the players will have a chance to become more conditioned to play at a faster pace.
