In true Geek jinx fashion, our Big Ten heroes have started losing nonconference games left and right after we proclaimed the first semester a smashing success. Last night was a particularly bad one for the Big Ten, with the Big 12 pulling itself much closer in the race for top Pomeroy conference with two wins.

First, Michigan State had all kinds of offensive issues in a 67-55 home loss to Texas. The Spartans turned it over on 23 percent of their possessions, but the bigger problem was simply not being able to throw it in the ocean. Michigan State shot 33 percent on twos (!) and 19 percent on threes, easily their worst shooting game of the season. In fact, Tom Izzo's squad hasn't shot this poorly in at least 8 seasons - I don't have an easy reference for games before 2002-03, so it's probably been longer than that. It's safe to say that this was about as bad it gets in terms of shooting accuracy, and the result was a paltry 0.78 points per possession. Michigan State's defense wasn't bad, holding Texas to 0.95 points per possession, but it hardly mattered.

Kalin Lucas was the only Spartan with a modicum of success as he scored 17 points on 13 shots. The rest of the team clanked to 38 points on 49 shots. Delvon Roe, Draymond Green, Keith Appling, and Korie Lucious combined to shoot 4 for 28 from the field--just an awful performance all around. Lucious in particular was very bad, with 3 silly turnovers to go with his poor shooting. I still maintain that Izzo would be better off not using Lucious any more--the guy is 85 games into his career and has shown little sign of reducing his astronomical turnover rate. I know the options are a bit limited when Green fouls out like he did last night, but Appling could probably handle more minutes than he gets. Of course, knowing Izzo's track record, Lucious will probably end up making some big plays in the Tournament to fuel another surprising run--there's a reason Izzo is where he is and I'm writing a blog as a self-labelled Geek.

The night was no kinder to Illinois in their annual matchup with Missouri. The Illini played reasonably well for most of the game, even leading by 3, with the ball, with under 4 minutes remaining. From there, the meltdown ensued. First, the Illinois offense tightened up--the next 5 possessions contained two turnovers, two missed jumpers, and 1 of 4 shooting from the foul line (by two pretty good shooters). It's crunch time, with a team on the ropes, and the Illini get 1 point on 5 possessions. Meanwhile, Missouri was hitting four straight shots, giving them a 4 point lead with under a minute remaining.

Still, the Illini weren't dead yet. With Illinois pressing full court, Mike Davis got a steal that he tossed out to D.J. Richardson for a wide open three, cutting the lead to one with 41 seconds left. On a heady play, Missouri inbounded quickly and found Laurence Bowers ahead of the pack. As Bowers went up for the layup, Mike Tisdale inexplicably gave him the lightest two-hand shove in the back you'll ever see, resulting in a made layup and a questionable intentional foul call that effectively ended the game. With the two free throws and the ball, Missouri scored six points on that one possession; in 1:15 of clock time, Missouri had turned a tie game into a seven point lead. From there, it was garbage catch-up time, with a Bruce Weber technical foul thrown in for good measure, and Illinois came away with a frustrating 75-64 loss.

Much will be made of the intentional foul call (it certainly didn't look like a necessary call to me), but the bottom line is that it was a bad play by Tisdale any way you slice it. If you're going to foul a player going up for a shot, you need to have some chance of stopping him from making it. Otherwise, just let him go--even with the layup, Illinois would have been down three with the ball with 37 seconds left. A generous ref with a standard foul call likely makes it a two possession game anyway, and it still would have been an awful move by Tisdale.

The frantic ending aside, Illinois did a pretty good job handling Missouri's pressure defense, as they turned it over on just 17 percent of their possessions. Unfortunately, Illinois had their second straight game of awful shooting, and it wasn't just good Missouri defense. The Illini had plenty of high percentage looks that they couldn't convert, with freshman Jereme Richmond being a notable example (2 for 7 on twos).

Mike Tisdale finished with 9 points and 13 rebounds (8 offensive), while Mike Davis had a nice night (17 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists). Demetri McCamey wasn't his usual self, scoring 14 points on 14 shots and committing 4 turnovers with his 6 assists.

So, pretty bad night for the conference, right? Wait, there's more. Indiana took their slim NCAA Tournament hope to Las Vegas and--like so many fortunes taken to Sin City with great hope--probably lost it in a 67-61 defeat to Northern Iowa. The Hoosier defense that had previously looked pretty solid gave up 1.07 points per possession to a mediocre Northern Iowa offense, mostly due to the Panthers hitting 39 percent on their many three-point attempts. The Indiana offense couldn't keep up, making just 2 of 13 from deep (15 percent).

Christian Watford had a productive night with 23 points (13 shots) and 10 rebounds, while Derek Elston broke out with 19 points on 8 of 9 shooting. Those two guys got almost no help, with the rest of the team scoring 19 points on 25 shots.

It's a full slate today and tonight for the conference, with the first game tipping off at 2pm CT. The Big Ten should be favored in every matchup, but I should probably learn my lesson about speaking too soon.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller