The up-and-down nature of Iowa’s season continued as the Hawkeyes lost a close one to Iowa State 75-72 in a 73 possession game.  Iowa seemed to have this thing in control early, sporting a 9-point lead at halftime.  Indeed, the win probability graph looks a bit like the Dow Jones in the fall of 2007.  But give Iowa some credit here--ISU was up by double digits with under four minutes to play, and Iowa was a controversial call away from getting the ball with a chance to tie.  Instead, Iowa State buried a three pointer and that was the ballgame.  

Both of these squads are sporting new coaches this season (opposite of McCaffrey is the Mayor, Fred Hoiberg), and it was apparent in the fact that ISU attempted 30 three pointers to Iowa’s 17.  The Cyclones’ POTdom proved to be the difference, as it kept the turnovers in check.  ISU coughed it up on just 13.6 percent of their possessions, while Iowa nearly doubled that number with 18 giveaways.  The turnover story eclipsed a rather dominating performance on the boards by McCaffrey’s squad, especially from Melsahn Basabe, who pulled down 14 rebounds.  Basabe was also one of four Hawkeyes in double figures, led by Matt Gatens’ 15.  

Wisconsin picked up a nice road win in a 69-64 victory over in-state rival Marquette.  The Badgers actually made this game closer than it was for most of the 2nd half by missing some late free throws, but this was a pretty comfortable win for Bo Ryan’s team.  Ryan’s rotation is actually pretty interesting this season--last year, there were three guards on the floor most of the time (and more than that after Leuer went out with an injury).  Now that Mike Bruesewitz appears to have worked his way into the starting lineup, Wisconsin is putting three post players on the floor at once.  Granted, each of those three has the ability to step out and hit outside shots, but the bigger question is whether the Badgers can maintain their low-turnover ways despite having only two real ballhandlers on the floor.  So far, so good, but that story might change in Big Ten play.

Indiana fell apart at the end of its 81-62 loss to Kentucky.  The Hoosiers were actually winning this game with about 8 minutes to play, but the Wildcats finished the game with a 25-5 run to provide the game’s final margin.  I’m certain that the 44-16 FTA discrepancy doesn’t sit well with IU fans, and the sad truth is that this is nothing new--Indiana has been hacking teams all season.  Really, it’s been the last two seasons.  What made this particular display especially maddening is the fact that the Hoosiers weren’t able to parlay any of that over-aggressive defense into turnovers.  UK coughed it up just 6 times in the 70 possession game, the lowest figure posted against Indiana this season.  Watford led Indiana in the scoring department, with 19 points on 19 shots to go along with 9 boards.

Michigan State won a dogfight of a game against Oakland 77-76 on Saturday, though the Golden Grizzlies hit a 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining to pull within 1.  And it’s also worth mentioning that Oakland played Illinois tough last week as well.  And considering the recent Maui/Durham/New York travels of the Spartans, it’s no great shock that this was a close game.  Kalin Lucas had a nice 25 points, but a less nice 5 turnovers.  Over the past two games, Lucas has 11 turnovers--not something Tom Izzo wants to see out of his senior guard.  Frankly, Lucas’ offense has only faltered in two areas from last season: assists and turnovers.  I have no idea if this has anything to do with his recovering foot injury, but ballhandling is something that these Spartans don’t exactly have in abundance.  The good news is that despite Lucas’ giveaways, the rest of the team was very careful with the basketball, which allowed MSU to score over a point per possession despite a thoroughly un-Spartanlike performance on the boards.  

Penn State got destroyed on the inside by Virginia Tech in a 79-69 loss in Blacksburg.  The game was played at 64 possessions, meaning the Hokies scored early and often.  VaTech shot 58 percent on twos and 47 percent on threes, didn’t turn it over, outrebounded the Nittany Lions, and got to the free throw line more often.  In short, the game really wasn’t as close as the final margin.  Talor Battle played every minute and had 26 points to show for it, but David Jackson was the only other Lion in double figures.  

Michigan looked impressive in its win over Utah 75-64 in a 68 possession game.  Once again, the Wolverines held their opponent to under 1.0 points per possession (for the 8th time in 9 games this season).  On offense, it was more Beilein Ball, as UM’s perimeter game minimized turnovers (11.8 turnover percentage), and, even better, Michigan actually made some threes (36.4 percent from range).  Darius Morris led the way with 19 points to go with 10 assists, and it’s hard to ignore his play so far this season.  A role player last year, Morris has become much more assertive in running the offense.  This is actually somewhat of an exception--role players don’t suddenly start consuming possessions over an offseason in general--but one should keep in mind that with Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims monopolizing the offense last season, there wasn’t much of an opportunity for Morris.  It’s been a different story in his sophomore season, as Morris is quickly becoming one of the Big Ten’s best floor generals.  He’s shooting an amazing (for a 6-4 guard) 61 percent from 2-point range, along with one of the best assist rates in the country.  Morris’ apparent arrival puts the inventory of outstanding Big Ten point guards at ridiculous levels.  Between McCamey, Lucas, Taylor, Battle, Thompson, and now Morris, this conference is loaded.

Now, onto the cupcakes!

Minnesota took care of business in a sloppy 71-58 win over Eastern Kentucky.  Both teams turned it over on about a quarter of their possessions, but the Gophers just had too much bulk inside for EKU to handle.  Ralph Sampson III and Trevor Mbakwe combined for 33 points on 16 shots, and The Hoff continued to pretend he’s a point guard by dishing 6 assists to go with his 14 points.

Purdue beat up on North Florida from the tipoff of the 77-57 win, and it would have been even worse had Purdue not turned it over 19 times.  E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson combined for 46 points, and no other Boilermaker had more than 6.  

Ohio State beat the snot out of Western Carolina 85-60, with another balanced performance as five players scored in double figures.  Jared Sullinger led that group with 17 points on just 8 shots.  

Finally, Illinois sleepwalked through an 86-76 win over Northern Colorado.  This game really shouldn’t have been that close, and in the first half, it wasn’t.  But Illinois’ defense went missing in the second half, and Northern Colorado nearly made a game of it.  If you’re going to have off nights, I suppose it’s preferable to have them against teams from the Big Sky.  D.J. Richardson led the way with 14 points to go with 5 assists.

This week is finals week, which tends to be somewhat of a snoozefest as coaches schedule light and easy in order to deal with distracted players.  I’ll watch the games anyways--the whole Huddy plotline on House just isn’t pulling me in.