Jordan Taylor completely dominated last night in Wisconsin's 77-67 win at Indiana. When running mate Jon Leuer picked up his fourth foul with 11:37 remaining, the Badgers held a narrow one point lead and a Hoosier upset looked within reach. Taylor had already scored 20 points, but he'd have to carry his team down the stretch in a hostile environment without his all-conference teammate.

Carry them he did, as Taylor erupted for 17 points over the next seven possessions to stake claim to a 13 point lead. Indiana, to their credit, kept chipping away after that barrage, but they never got closer than six points the rest of the way.

Taylor finished with 39 points in a very slow 55 possession game--that is simply phenomenal production. In tempo-equivalent terms, that's like scoring 51 points in a game played at the average pace of a fast team like BYU. We Geeks were already saying it, but this performance just about ices it--Jordan Taylor should be your Big Ten Player of the Year. Here's a quick and dirty comparison of the conference-only stats of the main contenders (courtesy of StatSheet.com):

One of these things is not like the others. Taylor's otherwordly efficiency is just unreal at his level of usage. It's been a season of fantastic performances in the Big Ten, but Jordan Taylor stands above the rest. I haven't seen much early entry talk associated with Taylor, but I don't see how he wouldn't be a productive NBA player next season. Yes, this performance came against Indiana's mediocre defense, but Taylor had to create almost all of his opportunities himself, and he still scored 39 points while turning it over just once. If you wanted to create the perfect point guard statline, Jordan Taylor has done it this season. (As an aside, note that the six players in the table includes four seniors and a possible early-entry freshman--the Big Ten could see a sizeable dropoff next season.)

Back to this game, Indiana actually scored extremely well by taking a page out of Wisconsin's book--the Hoosiers turned it over on just 9.2 percent of their possessions. Paired with even mediocre shooting, it was enough for Indiana to score 1.23 points per possession, the most surrendered by the Badgers all season. Unfortunately, the Hoosiers gave up 1.41 points per trip and consequently weren't in the game at the end.

Keaton Nankivil scored 16 points on 11 shots, while Leuer was held to 10 points and 7 rebounds in 29 minutes. Verdell Jones led the Hoosiers with 18 points and 5 rebounds.

Wisconsin can now focus on their big season finale at Ohio State (3pm CT Sunday, CBS). That will be the cherry on top of a Big Ten hoops sundae full of important games:

Illinois hosts Indiana in another must-win for the Illini (11am CT Saturday, BTN), while Michigan State and Michigan square off in Ann Arbor with an NCAA Tournament bid possibly on the line (1pm CT Saturday, CBS).  

Purdue looks to keep their chances for the Big Ten Tournament's top seed alive at Iowa (3pm CT Saturday, ESPN), while Penn State visits Minnesota in search of a .500 conference finish (12pm CT Sunday, BTN).

This is it, folks. After Sunday, every game is an elimination game. Enjoy the weekend and let the Madness begin.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller