Monday, February 02, 2009

Wow...
The Breslin Center mystique appears to have vanished. Penn State is officially for real. Northwestern remains hot. So does Purdue. Ohio State got back on track. Illinois overcame the ugly loss at Minnesota to get back to winning. What's wrong with Wisconsin? Wins over Duke and UCLA seem like eons ago for Michigan. When will IU get its first W? Folks, we've got ourselves a race.

While Buckeye Nation and Phats tied me, I snuck out with the tiebreaker so I pick solo this week. Every week the teeth and fists clinch tighter... hang on, gonna be a wild finish!

Tuesday
Purdue @ Ohio State

Wednesday
Iowa @ Indiana
Chicago State @ Northwestern
Minnesota @ Michigan State

Thursday
Penn State @ Michigan
Illinois @ Wisconsin

Saturday
Indiana @ Michigan State
Michigan @ Connecticut
Northwestern @ Iowa
Minnesota @ Ohio State

Sunday
Purdue @ Illinois (Tiebreaker)
Wisconsin @ Penn State

10 comments:

mayo170 said...

Purdue @ Ohio State
Iowa @ Indiana
Chicago State @ Northwestern
Minnesota @ Michigan State
Penn State @ Michigan
Illinois @ Wisconsin
Indiana @ Michigan State
Michigan @ Connecticut
Northwestern @ Iowa
Minnesota @ Ohio State
Purdue 68 @ Illinois 71(Tiebreaker)
Wisconsin @ Penn State

Anonymous said...

Winners in BOLD CAPS

Tuesday
Purdue @ OHIO STATE

Wednesday
Iowa @ INDIANA
Chicago State @ NORTHWESTERN
Minnesota @ MICHIGAN STATE

Thursday
Penn State @ MICHIGAN
ILLINOIS @ Wisconsin

Saturday
Indiana @ MICHIGAN STATE
Michigan @ CONNECTICUT
Northwestern @ IOWA
Minnesota @ OHIO STATE

Sunday
Purdue 69 @ ILLINOIS 73 (Tiebreaker)
Wisconsin @ PENN STATE

Phats said...

Shoot I needed Wisky to pull that game out over NW

PURDUE over ohio state

IOWA over indiana
NORTHWESTERN over chicago state
MICHIGAN STATE over minnesota

MICHIGAN over penn state
WISCONSIN over illinois

MICHIGAN STATE over indiana
CONNECTICUT over michigan
NORTHWESTERN over iowa
OHIO STATE over minnesota

PURDUE 66 illinois 62
WISCONSIN over penn state

Dan Meyer said...

Comments and picks:

[1] IU will win 2-3 conference games. I was impressed with Demas and Pritchard in the NU game.

[2] Manny Harris deserved a foul, possibly a foul plus tech, but he did not deserve ejection--I saw no evidence of malicious intent on the Kramer play. Krabbenhoff's pick on Jackson last week was dirtier in my mind. On the other hand, I don't like Beilien teaching players to swing elbows upward, particularly if the player is only guarded by one man.

[3] One of the Penn State blogs pointed out that the Nittany Lions need to continue to play well in the Big 10 to make the NCAAs--apparently they had a cupcake preconference schedule.

[4] My Purdue picks this week are biased--I actually expect a split, but picking the wrong loss gives me 2 losses when I can't afford losses.

Week 6 picks:

PURDUE 72 at Ohio State 70--Boilers are WAY overdue to win at Columbus.

Iowa 65 at INDIANA 68--Hoosiers get Crean his first Big Ten win.

Chi Omega, er, Chicago State 46 at NORTHWESTERN 66--Are you SERIOUS?

Minnesota 65 at MICHIGAN STATE 76--BAD time to catch Spartans at Breslin.

Penn State 62 at MICHIGAN 65--Wolverines all but out of NCAA conversation with loss.

Illinois 64 at WISCONSIN 68--Badgers struggle but FINALLY break losing streak.

Iowa 68 at MICHIGAN STATE 84--New win streak at Breslin offically reaches 2.

Michigan 58 at CONNECTICUT 70--Three upsets of Top 5 teams is one step too many.

Northwestern 68 at IOWA 69--Home court pick, VERY much in doubt.

Minnesota 64 at OHIO STATE 66--Same sentiments as NU-Iowa.

PURDUE 70 at Illinois 68--This time Boilers MAKE foul shots.

WISCONSIN 63 at Penn State 60--Loser's NCAA hopes definitely take a hit.

Dan Meyer said...

MID SEASON Bracketology and awards:

Michigan State--NCAA 3 seed
Purdue--NCAA 4 seed
Illinois--NCAA 5 or 6 seed
Minnesota--NCAA 8 or 9 seed
Penn State--NCAA 10 seed
Ohio State--NCAA 11 seed
Wisconsin--NIT 3 seed
Michigan--NIT 3 seed
Northwestern--NIT 6 seed
Iowa--CBI or home

All mid-season Big Ten
Kevin Coble, F, Northwestern
Goran Suton, F/C, Michigan State
Talor Battle, G, Penn State (MVP)
Evan Turner, G, Ohio State
Manny Harris, G, Michigan

All mid-season Defensive Big Ten
Daemon Johnson, F, Minnesota
Dallas Lauderdale, C, Ohio State
Chester Frazier, G, Illinois (MVD)
Chris Kramer, G, Purdue
Al Nolen, G, Minnesota

All-freshman or newcomer Big Ten
---- Gatis (?), F, Iowa (MVN)
Tom Pritchard, F/C, Indiana
Ralph Sampson III, C, Minnesota
Anthony (?) Jones, F, Penn State
D. Demas, G, Indiana

Co-Most Improved:
Mike Davis, F, Illinois
JuJuan Johnson, F/C, Purdue

Co-Top Coaches:
Ed DeChellis, Penn State
Bruce Weber, Illinois

Andy Gamm said...

WHOA! Kalin Lucas is flat out on the first team. IMO he and Battle are the Co Players of the Year right now.

And no Travis Walton on the All Defensive team? Walton guards from PG to PF on the floor.

Andy Gamm said...

I totally blew not getting my picks up today... I would have taken Purdue tonight so that didn't hurt me.

The rest in case I don't get to a blog tomorrow...

Indiana
Northwestern
Michigan State
Penn State
Wisconsin
Michigan State
UConn
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois 64-62
Penn State

Anonymous said...

The Buckeyes William Buford has GOTTA be on the All-freshman team.

Dumes on IU isn't a frosh, he's a transfer junior.

Dan Meyer said...

Andy: Who do you take off the all-Big Ten team? Battle (widely viewed as MVP), Turner (who certainly made an excellent case for MVP last night (whimper), or Harris (top two in scoring and rebounding as of 2/2). I might consider Cornley over Coble, but unless you move Turner to G/F (not convincing with Hummel last year either) including Lucas places four guards, one too many for me. On the other hand, I'll acknowledge Walton as a reasonable alternative for Nolan on All-Defensive. Note that I'm not exactly being a homer; E. Moore was not mentioned at all and J. Johnson only in the improved category.

BN--Congratulations, we appear to be cursed at Value City. Buford made an EXCELLENT case for inclusion over Jones of Penn State. Note that the category was called freshman OR newcomer, thus I stand by including Demas.

Anonymous said...

Dan,

Thanks! I was at the game last night, and there were a few vocal Boiler fans around the arena.
I didn't realize that we had this home winning streak against Purdue until after the game, and did not realize we were tied going into last night in the all-time series.
It's a rough go on the road in the Big 10, especially this season.
We tried to get Dumes to Columbus, but he turned us down, so we got Simmons instead.
I agree with your take a Jajaun Johnson, where did he come from?
He certainly had his way last night.