Wow, has this season really flown by. Last time I checked my calendar, it was November and in a blink of an eye March is here.
It seems as though the chaos of the past couple of weeks looks like nothing compared to what we will get next week in Indianapolis. But there is still so much to talk about, let's go!
Michigan State completes a tremendous five-game slate, rightfully leads the Big Ten
There was a time when Michigan State’s stature inside the top four in early February was looked at as illegitimate, and I believed it, they hadn’t played anybody. Fresh off of a loss at home to Indiana Feb. 11, the room for error became razor thin. Five Quad One games later, Michigan State leads the conference at 15-3.
Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Maryland and Wisconsin have all gone down. Some efforts have been stronger than others, but down nonetheless.
Let's take a look at the Maryland game, what was nearly a remake of Michigan vs. Nebraska two days prior. It was an absolute rock fight for about 30 minutes, but the Spartans led by nine with five minutes and 25 seconds left. A triumphant comeback from the Terps led to a crazy final 30 seconds, where this happened…
First order of business here, what a terrible shot from Ja’Kobi Gillespe. A bad shot all around, but If he takes the shot three seconds later, overtime.
The game saw a familiar theme from Michigan State, great rebounding, incredible defense, and Jase Richardson leading the offensive prowl.
The Spartans won the rebounding battle 45-33, 13-4 on offense. Defensively, the Spartans dominated the Crab Five. Maryland scored 82.1 points per game, Michigan State allowed just 55. In what was a sluggish offensive performance for both teams, Jase Richardson stepped up leading the Spartans with 15 points. More on him later.
Real quick on Maryland, the Crab Five is very real. When all five of them are clicking, they can beat anybody. But it’s also real in the sense that Maryland has nothing going offensively outside of its starters, with zero bench points against the Spartans.
Back to Michigan State… the Wisconsin game was seemingly competitive for 35 minutes until the Spartans pulled away late. Again, phenomenal defense from Sparty (I like to believe that Breslin’s home court advantage did a lot for the MSU, but that’s the name of the game), holding Wisconsin to just 5-for-32 from beyond the arc. The Badgers found other ways to score, but the Badgers make most of their money from 3. State did a great job of stopping the main form of attack.
Jaden Aikens led Sparty with 19 points, one of the longest tenured Spartans with one of his best performances of his career (given the leverage of a top-11 game in a crucial conference title race). He was six for a whopping 18 from the floor — but had four 3-pointers. Another player for Michigan State who has stepped up HUGE is Jaxon Kohler. Kohler had 16 rebounds against the Badgers, seven of them coming offensively.
Michigan State has seemingly run away with the regular-season title, and will probably not end up sharing it. It has a struggling Iowa team in Iowa City and then Michigan in East Lansing. I see no world where Michigan State loses the latter half of the remaining schedule.
Illinois grasps its potential and dominates Michigan in Ann Arbor. UI is 9-0 against the Wolverines this decade
I’ve said it a couple times this season, especially from mid-January to late-February, Illinois is a team with a bunch of guys trying to play hero-ball. But what's the upside of having 10 guys that want to play hero ball? You have an abundance of all-conference level scorers.
Illinois needed this win and seemingly nobody wanted it more than Kylan Boswell, who out hustled every Wolverine on Sunday. Even with the 19 points that Tre White had to lead the team, Boswell was amazing from start to finish and did so many things well, netting 17 points and nine (!) rebounds at just 6-foot-2.
Illinois came into this game as one of the best rebounding teams in the country and acted the part with 43 boards. Where Michigan lost the game was giving up 24 offensive rebounds to UI, en route to 30 second-chance points.
We might as well just transition to what is going wrong with Michigan, and it starts on the glass. Since giving up 14 offensive rebounds and 15 second-chance points to Michigan State, it gave up nine offensive rebounds and 12 second-chance points to Rutgers.
A stinker like this was in the cards for Michigan for about two games now. It got lucky against Nebraska and got extremely lucky against Rutgers. What went wrong in both of those games were apparent in the Illinois loss — inefficient shooting and rebounding as a whole.
Michigan will play Maryland on Wednesday and it better learn how to rebound by then because you cannot give the Terrapins second chance opportunities.
Michigan’s playmakers not named Vlad Goldin need to look themselves in the mirror and figure out how they can be better. Roddy Gayle is a walking turnover and misses twice as many layups than he makes, Danny Wolf seems to have been compromised and also can’t make layups.
For the Wolverines to get a share of the title, they will need to beat Michigan State. At this rate, with how Michigan’s offense has looked very one-dimensional and State’s suffocating defense, it does not look good for Michigan.
Minnesota survives a tremendous Husker comeback and is now back over .500
If there was a conference end-of-year award for best in season turnaround by a coach, it would go to Ben Johnson. Before the win against Michigan, Minnesota’s only heartbeat was Dawson Garcia, other than No. 3, the team was dead. But it has found life.
Minnesota had a comfortable 19-point lead but Nebraska came all the way back. But an unsung hero, Brennan Rigsby had a go-ahead 3-pointer with four seconds to go. Rigsby, a transfer from Oregon, had a career-high 20 points in the win.
Minnesota is currently 11th in the Big Ten standings.
We will have a BTT Bracket this time next week!
The Big Ten Tournament (and all of Champ Week) is one of my favorite weeks of this calendar year. It takes place in the nation's best host city, and there are going to be so many great matchups and chances for teams to steal bids (Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska), all at one of the NBA’s best arenas. I cannot wait!
Team of the Week
Kylan Boswell (ILL)
Tre White (ILL)
Luke Goode (IU)
Tre Holloman (MSU)
Nick Martinelli (NU)
HM:
Brennan Rigsby (MINN)
Freshman of the Week
Jase Richardson (MSU)
Games to Watch - March 4-9
Tuesday, March 4
Rutgers @ No. 18 Purdue, 7 p.m., Peacock
Indiana @ Oregon, 9 p.m., FS1
Nebraska @ Ohio State, 9 p.m., Peacock
Wednesday, March 5
No. 13 Maryland @ No. 17 Michigan, 6:30 p.m., BTN
No. 12 Wisconsin @ Minnesota, 8:30 p.m., BTN
Washington @ USC, 10:30 p.m., BTN
Thursday, March 6
No. 8 Michigan State @ Iowa, 8 p.m., FS1
Friday, March 7
No. 18 Purdue @ Illinois 8 p.m., FOX
Saturday, March 8
Ohio State @ Indiana, 3:45 p.m., CBS
USC @ UCLA, 8 p.m., FOX
Sunday, March 9
No. 17 Michigan @ No. 8 Michigan State, noon, CBS
Iowa @ Nebraska, 12:30 p.m., FOX
Minnesota @ Rutgers, 1 p.m., BTN
Oregon @ Washington, 3 p.m., BTN
Power Rankings
1. Michigan State
2. Michigan
3. Wisconsin
4. Maryland
5. Purdue
6. UCLA
7. Illinois
8. Indiana
9. Oregon
10. Minnesota
11. Ohio State
12. Rutgers
13. Nebraska
14. Northwestern
15. USC
16. Iowa
17. Penn State
18. Washington
