In their first game since the heartbreaking loss at Purdue, Penn State came out very sloppy at home against Iowa. With three minutes remaining before halftime, the Nittany Lions had turned it over on a third of their possessions and trailed the visiting Hawkeyes by nine. Suddenly, the Penn State offense figured things out and went on a quick 10-0 spurt to lead by the slimmest of margins at the break. The Nittany Lions had rebounded over half their misses and had shot well inside, so they had to feel like they could break this one open if they'd simply stop throwing the ball away.

Penn State never really broke it open, but they steadily built their lead throughout the second half for a workmanlike 65-51 victory. For the game, the Nittany Lions scored 1.14 points per possessions, thanks largely to a fantastic 65 percent conversion rate on twos and a sizable advantage on the glass. It marked the fourth time in five games that Penn State eclipsed the 1.10 efficiency level, including games against Ohio State and Purdue. Needless to say, Penn State's offense is not the thing standing between them and a winning conference record. Talor Battle and Jeff Brooks took care of business with 45 points on 30 shots; the rest of the team scored 20 on 17.

The Penn State defense had been porous in conference play, even allowing Michigan to score 1.27 points per trip, so this stingy effort against Iowa (0.89 ppp) is a welcome sight. Granted, the Hawkeyes aren't exactly a scoring machine, but the only defense to hold them to a lower efficiency were Alabama, Purdue, and Ohio State--fantastic company for any defense to keep. If Penn State can start to slow teams down while maintaining their offensive efficiency, they might get to nine or ten conference wins.

For Iowa, this was yet another setback after playing so well against Indiana the last time out. The Hawkeye defense has been suspect in conference play, but it would help if opponents would start missing a free throw now and again--Iowa came into the game with the nation's eighth-worst "free throw defense" at 74.0 percent, and Penn State knocked down 10 of 11 to make that number even worse. Eventually, the Hawkeyes should see some reversion to the mean in that area, but they'd need to keep the game close for it to matter. Matt Gatens and Jarryd Cole combined for 21 points on 17 shots, while Bryce Cartwright put up 9 points, 8 assists, and 3 turnovers.

Minnesota coach Tubby Smith responded to guard Al Nolen's injury by going big--very big. The Gophers started Trevor Mbakwe, Colton Iverson, and Ralph Sampson across their frontline for their home matchup with Northwestern, a trio of players that can each be truly called "big men." It didn't result in the most expected consequence, which would have been gobs of offensive rebounds, but it did bring the Gophers a huge advantage on two-pointers. Minnesota shot 65 percent from the inside the arc, while holding Northwestern to 48 percent accuracy on twos. That, coupled with a big advantage at the free throw line, propelled Minnesota to an 81-70 victory.

The aforementioned Minnesota frontline combined for 47 points on 24 shots, with nary a three-pointer in sight. Mbakwe combined his scoring with total control of the glass, as evidenced by his 14 rebounds. Blake Hoffarber scored 20 points on 10 shots, while freshman Austin Hollins chipped in with 10 points on just 4 shots. Coach Smith did not go very deep at all, with all five starters playing at least 30 minutes apiece, and this figures to be the pattern going forward.

Northwestern just couldn't get their offense going against all that Minnesota size. The Wildcats resorted to long shot after long shot, as they ended up taking 61 percent of their shots from three. They only went in at a 31 percent clip. Northwestern even turned it over on 20 percent of their possessions, which is a high number for Bill Carmody's squad. The resulting point per possession is almost never going to be enough for Northwestern to get a victory. John Shurna, Michael Thompson, and Drew Crawford combined for 49 points on 41 shots.

Tonight, Michigan visits Lucious-free rival Michigan State (6pm CT, ESPN), followed by Illinois at Indiana (8pm CT, BTN). These are both big rivalries, so there figures to be no lack of intensity, regardless of the records coming in.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller