It was a fun weekend of hoops, but not one that featured a lot of defense.  Just one team scored less than a point per possession.  That team was Minnesota.  The good news for Minnesota in its 71-62 loss to Michigan State was that the best player on the floor was a Gopher.  The bad news is that the best player on the floor was too often not on the floor.  Trevor Mbakwe finished with a 17 and 9 line, and he did that in just under 22 minutes of playing time.  Indeed, the Gophers were +6 with him on the floor, and -15 with him off of it.  Foul trouble was the culprit, as Mbakwe picked up two quick ones to start the second half.  He went to the bench with his team leading by 4.  When he came back in about 7 minutes later, the Gophers were down by 7.  

As for the Spartans, Tom Izzo had to be pretty happy with his team at halftime.  Sure, they were down by 6 to Minnesota at the Breslin Center, but up to that point Michigan State couldn’t throw it in the ocean.  MSU shot just 25 percent in the first half, including a 1-14 performance from three point range.  In that context, being down by only six points was rather remarkable.  Surely, the Spartans would start to make some shots.  And boy, did they ever.  In the second half, MSU shot 62 percent from the field, including 7-10 from three.  That’s good for a 75.0 effective field goal percentage.  Four Spartans were in double figures, but I really like the job that Delvon Roe did--11 points on just 5 shots, 9 rebounds, and just one turnover.  Roe obviously has been battling injuries for the entirety of his time in East Lansing, so every game like this that Izzo can get out of him is gravy.  

The end result was certainly not out of the ordinary, but the game was nonetheless illuminating, especially for Minnesota.  A big part of the Gophers’ defensive troubles last year related to an inability to clear rebounds, as well as perimeter defense.  On the game, Minnesota actually did a better job on the boards than Michigan State, but it is worth noting that the team struggled when its best defensive rebounder headed to the bench.  Also, the perimeter defense clearly fell apart in the second half.  To be frank, it wasn’t all that great in the first half either--Michigan State just missed open looks.  This Gopher team has a lot of talent, but it’s still a work in progress at this point.

Northwestern navigated Purdue’s defense better than any Purdue opponent had all season--unfortunately, they also let Purdue carve them up at the other end in the Boilers’ 82-69 win at Mackey Arena.  I was really interested to see how this matchup would turn out: Purdue has an excellent defense that overshadows its relatively so-so offense.  Northwestern on the other had has an outstanding offense but also an extremely permissive defense.  So we had a matchup of good offense versus good defense, as well as mediocre offense against mediocre defense.  Well, point to the offenses on both counts.  NU scored 1.05 points per possession, which was outdone by Purdue’s 1.24 points per possession.  

And frankly, it’s starting to look like that “mediocre” Purdue offense might not be so mediocre.  Sure, Northwestern at home figures to be a great place to collect offensive highlights for the season DVD, but this comes right after Purdue put up similar numbers against a Michigan team that had looked pretty good defensively up to that point.  And that one was on the road.  I have to be honest--this is an area where the numbers tell me one thing (“Purdue’s offense is actually pretty OK”) and my eyes see something else (“there’s still no one to score after Moore and Johnson--that can’t last”).  After all, the third wheel in the past two games has been Ryne Smith who scored more in the past two games against Big Ten foes than he has against conference opponents in the past two years.  How often can the Boilers count on that?  But my eyes aren’t always so trustworthy (true story, I once got thrown out of a Little League game.  I was the umpire.), so for now, I defer to the numbers.  And right now the numbers say we were very, very wrong about Purdue.  E’Twaun Moore was brilliant with 31 points for the Boilers.  

There’s certainly nothing so terrible about Northwestern’s loss on Friday.  Mackey is a tough place to play and John Shurna was clearly hobbled for much of the game.  But certainly the early evidence suggests that the adjusted defensive numbers against the cupcakes were no mirage--the Wildcats’ defense is indeed very bad.  Hopefully Shurna can get back to full strength soon, and isn’t limping throughout conference play.  Otherwise, I’ll have to start making parallels to Denard Robinson and Michigan football.

Indiana thought it was a good idea try and make Ohio State stay outside and shoot jumpers.  On its surface, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea against a team featuring Jared Sullinger.  But then again, Thad Matta’s teams are almost always one of the most accurate shooting teams in the country.  Last year the Buckeyes shot 39 percent from three point range, and they’re over 40 percent this season.  So OSU’s 13-19 effort in Friday’s 85-67 win over IU shouldn’t be that surprising.  What is surprising, however, is that the Hoosiers still managed to fit in karate practice while Ohio State was bombing away.  The Buckeyes shot 38 free throws (against 38 field goal attempts--half of which were three pointers), good for a free throw rate of 1.0.  Indiana has been hacktastic ever since Sampson’s Implosion, but that’s the highest mark for IU opponents I can find (with stats going back through the 2002-03 season).  If it was the highest mark in school history, that wouldn’t surprise me. Derek Elston somehow managed to foul 5 times in just 7 minutes of action.  Tom Pritchard got his 5 in 9 minutes.  

Now sure, Jared Sullinger draws a lot of fouls, but on the whole, Ohio State generally does not.  This is, for the most part, a jump shooting team mixed with one uber-efficient rebounding machine big man.  So the Hoosiers’ fouling really isn’t excusable.  But there were some bright spots--most notably freshman Victor Oladipo (14 points, 6 rebounds).  Besides just being fun to say (“Oladipo!” sounds like something you say at a surprise party), the 6-5 wing player has a really intriguing style of play.  He’s not a very good shooter (he’s below 50 percent on free throws), so he doesn’t have a lot of value far from the hoop.  But he’s athletic and has long arms, and most importantly, seems to understand his strengths.  As a result, he’s an incredible rebounder for someone playing on the wing, and he takes (and makes) a lot of high-percentage shots.  He’s also a great on-ball defender.  Now, before you just write him off as an effective undersized power forward, realize that Oladipo is a better ballhandler than your run-of-the-mill DeJuan Blair.  Frankly, Oladipo’s numbers look a lot like freshman Draymond Green.  Sure, Oladipo is a good 30 pounds lighter, an inch shorter, and has several inches of vertical leaping ability on the MSU forward, but that might be the upside here (with a little Al Nolen defense mixed in).  I know Hoosier fans are probably sick of being told about the potential and upside of their young players, but hey, check out the potential and upside of this guy.  Already one of my favorite players, and I look forward to his progress.

Sunday was Point Guard Day in the Big Ten, as we got a couple of matchups between some of the Big Ten’s best floor generals.  First up was Michigan against Penn State, and Darius Morris and Talor Battle did not disappoint in Michigan’s 76-69 win.  The former went for 20 points and 10 assists, while Battle paced the Nittany Lions with 31 points.  Those gaudy individual numbers were par for the course, as there wasn’t a lot of defense being played in this one.  PSU put up 1.15 points per possession and lost, after all.  The Wolverines bested them with their shooting, however, posting a 66.0 effective field goal percentage.  And they made every single one of their 14 free throw attempts.  It would appear that defense is still a bugaboo for Ed DeChellis’ team.

And though Penn State scored at a pretty nice clip, the offense is disturbingly lopsided.  On Sunday, Battle, Jeff Brooks, and David Jackson combined for 62 of PSU’s 69 points.  Three strong scorers is plenty, the real issue is the lack of any scoring from anyone else.  The good news is that those guys rarely find themselves in foul trouble, the bad news is that they’re still susceptible to the off-shooting night.  

As for Michigan, this was a very good bounce back win for the Wolverines, but it’s also the second consecutive lackluster defensive effort by John Beilein’s team.  Was the improved non-conference defense a mere mirage?  Well, the defense will certainly be tested over the next three games: first they head to Kohl, and then they host Kansas and Ohio State.  Hold any of those to around 1.0 points per possession or less, and it would be a very good showing.  

The final game of the weekend featured Demetri McCamey matched up against Jordan Taylor.  There’s been some chatter about who the Big Ten’s best point guard is, and most have centered on these two.  Well, round one went to McCamey in Illinois’ 69-61 win over Wisconsin.  Taylor posted a nice line of 19 points and 5 assists, and turned it over all of zero times.  But McCamey was even better with 21 points on just 8 shots, to go with 7 assists.  While the race is far from over, right now I’m sticking with my vote--McCamey is the Big Ten’s best floor general.  

Wisconsin obviously didn’t lose because of Jordan Taylor, but rather because the shooting went ice cold in the second half.  The Badgers shot 20 percent on threes and 42 percent on twos in the second half, and it wasn’t simply Illinois’ defense at work.  Indeed, Wisconsin really settled for jumpers in this one, and that’s a really odd thing for a team that starts three post players to do.  Sure, Keaton Nankivil and Jon Leuer definitely have the ability to step back and hit three pointers, but it doesn’t follow that they should become one dimensional marksmen.  The duo combined for 14 three point attempts, and that’s a few too many.  Indeed, all of the Badgers were too infatuated with the outside shot against the Illini, as nearly sixty percent of their field goal attempts were three pointers.  That’s a big part of why Illinois shot 10 more free throws than Wisconsin.  But even though they didn’t get to the line, and they didn’t shoot very well, the Badgers still finished well over a point per possession.  Again, it was because of their refusal to turn the ball over--just 3 times in the game.  That means in 80 minutes of Big Ten basketball, Wisconsin has turned it over 5 times.  Incredible.

After limping through the finish of the non-conference season, the Illini rebounded nicely with two wins to start out the conference slate.  They’ve accomplished this with hot shooting, so I’m still not sold on them as a title contender, but it’s encouraging to see players other than Demetri McCamey step up.  While McCamey will always be the maestro of the offense, when his teammates can be efficient scorers as well, Illinois looks good.  Mike Davis was especially effective today with 11 points and 14 rebounds.  Now, they just need to figure out that defense...

A full slate of conference games is on tap this week, and Michigan State’s visit to Northwestern starts us off tomorrow night (6:30 CST, Big Ten Network).  While not a “must win” for the Wildcats, it really is a “it would be really really big if they won this game” game.  If Northwestern fans aren’t holding an “Ankle Vigil” for John Shurna, maybe they should be.