Northwestern put on an offensive clinic against a pretty decent Georgia Tech defense in a 91-71 blowout. The Wildcats were absolutely spectacular in the first half, posting 1.66 points per possession on a 93.1 (!) eFG percentage. That's not a typo--Northwestern barely missed in the first 20 minutes, and they turned it over just 4 times to boot. This was offensive basketball in its purest form, as the Wildcats shared the ball and knocked down shot after shot.

It was basically more of the same in the second half, if not as otherworldly, as the lead swelled to 26 points before Bill Carmody called off the hounds (er, Cats). Happily, Northwestern also played fairly well at the defensive end--they held the Yellow Jackets just under a point per possession, something Syracuse was unable to do on Saturday.

Northwestern had six guys in double figures, and other than a late Reggie Hearn hoist, nobody else outside of that well-oiled machine bothered to take a shot. You can't accuse Northwestern's bench of not knowing their place. John Shurna had 21 points on just 8 shots, while Drew Crawford chipped in 19 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Luka Mirkovic had a fantastic game with 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists (just 1 turnover). 

Iowa played a schizophrenic game at Wake Forest and lost a heartbreaker, 76-73. The Hawkeyes played great defense to start the game, forcing turnovers on a third of Wake's possessions to build a 12 point halftime lead. Iowa's offense was pedestrian, but that was seemingly ok with the defense locking the Deacons down. After intermission, however, Wake Forest went absolutely bonkers, missing only six field goals and committing only three turnovers for the entire half. It was a complete reversal on that end of the floor, while Iowa's offense remained perfectly pedestrian.

Amazingly, despite this defensive collapse, the Hawkeyes still had opportunities to win this game down the stretch. After multiple Iowa misses that could have broken the tie, Wake's J.T. Terrell buried an ill-advised three from well beyond the arc with 4 seconds left. After a timeout, Iowa's inbounds pass was deflected and the Hawkeyes didn't get a final shot off. This is a game Iowa should have won--Wake Forest had already lost home games to the likes of Stetson and Winthrop, and a slightly better second half would have kept it from coming down to a final shot. Fran McCaffery has plenty of work to do to get his troops to be more consistent.

Ohio State showed that they can win ugly in a 58-44 road triumph over Florida State. The Seminoles figure to be one of the nation's best defensive teams, so the Buckeyes went ahead and beat them at their own game, locking up Florida State to just 0.65 points per possession. That's the type of figure we Geeks have praised against teams like Toledo and Yale; to post it against a solid opponent, on their home court, is extremely impressive, and it is yet another indicator of Ohio State being an elite defensive team.

The Buckeyes weren't shooting well themselves, so they scraped their points together by maximizing possessions. Ohio State dominated the glass and forced bundles of possessions, resulting in 11 more field goal attempts than the Seminoles. That and a healthy free throw rate gave the Buckeyes enough offense to win comfortably. Jared Sullinger put up an 11-13 double-double, while Jon Diebler had 12 points and 4 steals.

Michigan served notice that their early season defensive prowess might not be an aberration after all. The young Wolverines went on the road and shut down a solid Clemson team for a 69-61 win. John Beilein's changing defenses (2-3 zone, 1-3-1 zone, and even some man-to-man) kept the normally foul-drawing Tigers off the stripe and baited them into taking nearly half of their shots from three. Clemson isn't a great outside shooting team, and it showed, with the Tigers connecting on just 24 percent of those frequent bombs. All told, Michigan held Clemson to their second-worst output of the season, 0.91 points per possession.

On offense, Michigan used ball movement and frequent backcuts to shoot 55 percent on twos, a hallmark of a functioning Beilein offense. Freshmen Evan Smotrycz and Tim Hardaway, Jr. combined for 33 points on 15 shots, while Darius Morris provided 13 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 steals.

Illinois had a surprisingly easy time with a reeling North Carolina squad, winning 79-67 in 73 possessions. The impressive work was done at the offensive end, as the Illini's 1.07 efficiency marked the first time anybody scored over a point per possession on these Tarheels. A big part of that performance was Illinois' shooting from three (8 for 12), covering for some mediocre two-point shooting (47 percent). This is still not an ideally designed Illinois offense, with too many shots dedicated to the mid-range, but perhaps the team's early season three-point accuracy (nearly 40 percent) will encourage them to take more shots from behind the line instead of just inside it.

Illinois did a good job on the defensive glass against the athletic North Carolina front line, holding them to their lowest offensive rebounding percentage of the season. UNC turning it over on a quarter of their possessions certainly helped as well.

Mike Davis had perhaps the best game of his career: 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists (1 turnover), and 3 steals. Demetri McCamey ran the show with 17 points and 8 assists.

With four Tuesday night wins, the Big Ten now leads the Challenge 4-2, needing just two wins tonight to make it back-to-back triumphs over their East Coast brethren. It's a good thing, as the slate tonight is much less favorable to the good guys. Indiana and Michigan State are underdogs, while Purdue and Penn State's games look like toss-ups. Wisconsin seems like a safe bet at home against NC State, but unlikelier things have happened (like Virginia and Michigan winning, for instance). Big Ten supporters around the country should send thanks to John Beilein's team, as their win covers for the Minnesota loss and sets up a much more navigable path to Challenge supremacy.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller