The top of the Big Ten passed their big tests this weekend, and the spotlight in almost all of the games was on the freshmen.  

Ohio State survived another tough road matchup, this time outlasting Illinois 73-68 in a game that, on paper, Illinois should have won.  The teams were evenly matched in terms of shooting, and OSU’s slight turnover edge was matched by Illinois’ slight edge on the boards.  But Ohio State went to the line 27 times, while the Illini attempted just 10 free throws.  And lest you think that this was because Illinois was content to hoist jumpers, Bruce Weber’s team actually dedicated less of their attempts to threes than the Buckeyes.  And frankly, I didn’t see a lot of the Illini’s typical mid-range stuff, either.  Most of their buckets came close to the hoop (credit to Jereme Richmond for much of that--18 points and 10 rebounds for the freshman).  

And this is the part where views can diverge.  If there’s a large collection of orange shirts in your closet, you are likely to grumble about the officiating.  If, on the other hand, your football season annually lasts into January, you’d point out that Illinois’ big men aren’t particularly good at drawing fouls.  And that’s definitely true--the most skilled foul drawer on the Illini is Demetri McCamey, and he doesn’t exactly live at the stripe.  And no team in the country is better at not committing fouls than Ohio State.  Whatever the case, free throws were the difference in this game.  But give the Buckeyes some credit for making them (24 of 27).  Or rather, chastise the Orange Krush: on the conference season, Illinois foes are shooting over 80 percent from the stripe.  

The orange and blue’s bad luck doesn’t stop with free throw defense, either.  Illinois is now 1-4 in games where 5 points or less separate the teams at the end of regulation.  The sharpest divide between the tempo free school of thought and The Establishment is probably with respect to the role of luck.  The tempo free position is that luck has a far greater impact on the result of a tight game than any other variable, while The Establishment throws around words like “toughness,” “heart,” and “clutch.”  I won’t get into the whole thesis now, but I’ll just mention that those characteristics matter as much in the first 35 minutes as they do in the last 5.  In any event, I think Illinois’ record in close games explains the general perplexity about these Illini.  But efficiency margins don’t seem to matter much to the Selection Committee, so Illinois is still searching for a signature win to justify a high seed.  

As for the Buckeyes, the fact that this game was close is not concerning at all.  Illinois is a tough team, and road games are never easy.  But outside of a couple of DeShaun Thomas three pointers (who entered the game shooting 24% from downtown), OSU’s primary offense in the second half was throwing the ball to Jared Sullinger, and watching him create offense.  Now, Sullinger had a great game (27 points, 16 rebounds), but the Buckeyes are a much better team when defenses can’t key on him.  

Purdue posted an impressive 86-76 win over Michigan State on Saturday.  Throughout the game, I found myself shocked that the Spartans were only down by whatever the margin was.  Indeed, this game didn’t seem that close, as the Boilermaker offense was clicking from start to finish.  Purdue dominated MSU on the interior, shooting 61 percent on two pointers.  Obviously, a big part of that was JaJuan Johnson (20 points), but the diminutive Lewis Jackson scored all 19 of his points inside the arc as well.  But the real player of the game was E’Twaun Moore, who finished with 26 points.  The last time Purdue scored this well (1.30 points per possession), Robbie Hummel was on the court.  Purdue obviously is still in the Big Ten title hunt, but the meat of the schedule is still to come--8 of Purdue’s final 11 games come against Ohio State, MSU, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois.  

Despite the fact that Michigan State scored 1.15 points per possession against a tough Purdue defense, all anyone wanted to talk about was how Michigan State couldn’t make shots, or how they settled for jump shots.  That’s just malarkey.  Only one team has scored more points per possession against Purdue than Michigan State did, and that was Minnesota (who won).  There was nothing wrong with the Spartans’ offense on Saturday, and in reality, the offense hasn’t been the issue in MSU’s Big Ten losses.  In each one, the opponent has scored at least 1.1 points per possession.  Plain and simple--when the Spartans defend, they win.  What’s puzzling, though, is how bipolar that defense is.  In each win, Michigan State has given up under 1.0 PPP, averaging just 0.95.  In losses, opponents are averaging 1.2 PPP.   There’s no middle ground.

Wisconsin pasted Northwestern 78-46 in a snail-paced affair on Sunday.  This game was fifty possessions, so in that light Wisconsin’s 78 points was a thing of beauty.  Even without considering pace, 78 points is a lot in a Big Ten game, and considering this will probably be the slowest game of the season, it’s likely to be the best offensive outburst you’ll see in Big Ten hoops.  The Badgers ran the perimeter-oriented offense to perfection.  They turned it over just 3 times, shot 46 percent from three point range, and they rebounded forty percent of their infrequent misses for good measure.  Five Badgers ended up in double figures, but the hero of the box score was freshman Josh Gasser, who recorded the first triple-double in school history.  Considering how much Bo Ryan leans on upperclassmen, that feat isn’t likely to be repeated anytime soon.

On the other end, Northwestern obviously has a lot of questions about its defense.  Coming into this game, the Wildcats were giving up 1.14 points per possession.  Now that figure sits at 1.18.  The good news is that Northwestern doesn’t have a lot of games remaining against the top of the conference.  The bad news is that Northwestern doesn’t have a lot of games remaining against the top of the conference.  For a team still searching for signature wins, the chances for an at-large berth for Bill Carmody’s team are shrinking.  Right now, Northwestern’s best win is probably over Indiana.  At home.  It’s hard to see that factoring in very much on Selection Sunday.

Rebound margin might be a unicorn stat, but sometimes the margin is so lopsided it doesn’t matter.  Such was the case with Minnesota’s 69-64 win over Michigan.  The Gophers outboarded the Wolverines 38-13, which in tempo free terms means Minnesota rebounded 55% of their misses, while Michigan captured just 13 percent of theirs.  The Gophers were also on fire from the field (68.3 effective field goal percentage) and lived at the line (23 free throw attempts).  That’s how you score 1.17 points per possession despite giving the ball up on thirty percent of your possessions, folks.  Trevor Mbakwe led a balanced attack with 13 points on 7 shots, while Tim Hardaway, Jr. led Michigan with 20 points on 14 shots.  

This game was a real contrast in styles.  Minnesota attempted just eight three pointers, while the Wolverines attempted 35 from deep.  Frankly, I expect more of the same as conference play continues.  That’s obviously in part by design, as Beilein Ball requires liberal use of the three pointer, but it’s also due to the fact that Michigan is not very big inside.  Jordan Morgan is really the only true post threat on the team, as Evan Smotrycz prefers to hang out on the perimeter.  And there’s a bevy of large frontcourts in the Big Ten--Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin all have at least a couple of bigger post players in the rotation (and that’s not even considering JaJuan Johnson).  So there’s bound to be more games like this in Michigan’s future.  

The win wasn’t all gravy for Minnesota, as Al Nolen sat out the second half after hurting his foot.  Nolen already missed some time this season from a stree fracture on this same foot, so there’s a real concern that this could be an injury that causes him to miss more games.  And point guard is not exactly a position of depth for the Gophers, having already lost Devoe Joseph to transfer this season.  If Nolen does miss time, expect Blake Hoffarber to slide over to the point, and Chip Armelin to log more minutes.  That’s obviously going to affect Minnesota, probably moreso on defense.  

Finally, as tough as the top of the conference is to figure out right now, the bottom is actually more of a mystery after Iowa took Indiana behind the woodshed in a 91-77 home win.  The Hawkeyes relentless pounded the ball inside against the Hoosiers, and were rewarded with 39 trips to the free throw line.  Though this has also been a theme with Indiana’s defense this season.  The Hoosiers really haven’t found a way to guard teams without fouling them, and if it wasn’t for that, IU might actually have something approaching an average defense.  Thing is, there’s no one or two players in the regular rotation that struggle mightily with fouls.  So there’s no quick fix for Tom Crean to just change his minutes distribution.  The problem seems to be systematic, and that’s not likely to get fixed anytime soon. This loss comes right after Indiana delivered similar hospitality to Michigan.  I’m pretty sure one of those three is the Big Ten’s worst team, but I can’t figure out which right now.  Offensively, Christian Watford had a big game with 30 points on 20 shots to go with 8 rebounds.

Iowa’s win ensures that no team will go winless in the Big Ten, and the Hawkeyes got a big effort from Melsahn Basabe.  Quietly, this guy is having a monster freshman season.  The 6-9 center shoots 55 percent from two point range, draws fouls, and he’s probably one of the five best rebounding freshman in the country.  And keep in mind, this was the guy that was all set to go to Siena until Fran McCaffrey got the job at Iowa.  If Basabe keeps progressing, he might make the McCaffrey hire a home run on his own.  I have to say, compared to last season, this year’s crop of Big Ten freshmen is incredible.  Obviously, there’s Jared Sullinger, but the bench is pretty deep too (Victor Oladipo, Jereme Richmond, Melsahn Basabe, DeShaun Thomas, Aaron Craft, Josh Gasser, JerShon Cobb, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jordan Morgan, Keith Appling).  It’s actually kind of a shame that Jared Sullinger is so good, otherwise we’d have a really tight (and good) Freshman of the Year race.

There’s a lot of good games this week, but none matter’s more than Tuesday’s Purdue/Ohio State tilt.  Frankly, neither team has really separated itself entirely from the pack, but whoever wins on Tuesday probably will.