Iowa scored the biggest upset of the season when it took down Purdue 67-65 in a 71 possession game.  The Hawkeyes dominated the glass, limiting the Boilermakers to grabbing just 25 percent of their misses.  Iowa also hounded Purdue on the perimeter, limiting the Boilers to a 5-25 performance from behind the arc.  E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson were both rather pedestrian as well, needing 34 shots to get to 33 points.  Purdue also didn’t help themselves with their 59 percent accuracy from the free throw line.  
 
But give the Hawkeyes credit.  They took down a top-10 team that was playing for a share of the conference crown.  Fran McCaffrey’s squad denied them that banner, and there’s Jarryd Cole to thank for that.  The

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

Michigan has really thrown a wrench into the at-large picture in the Big Ten.  Just a week ago, I thought Minnesota was in relatively good shape.  Sure, the Gophers were sitting at 6-8 in conference play, but with 3 of the 4 remaining games at home--none of which against Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, or Illinois--as well as a road game at Northwestern, 9 or 10 wins certainly seemed possible.  Well, two home losses later, now it looks like Minnesota has work to do in the Big Ten Tournament.  The latest loss came at the hands of a surging Michigan team, who prevailed 70-63 thanks to some hot outside shooting.  The Wolverines made 12 of 28 three pointers, and when Michigan makes their threes, they’re very difficult to stop.  Of course, if Michigan is making

The stage was set. Michigan had fought hard all game and held Wisconsin, the nation's most efficient offense, to just 50 points in 54 possessions. With a two point lead, the Wolverines were a couple free throws away from a huge win that could propel them into a surprise NCAA Tournament bid. Michigan's best player, Darius Morris, stepped to the free throw line for a one-and-one opportunity...

What happened next will live on in Michigan basketball infamy. Morris missed the front end, and Wisconsin grabbed the rebound with just under 30 seconds left. The Wolverines still had four fouls to give, and they wisely gave them one after another, milking the clock down to 6 seconds without Wisconsin getting a shot off. One last stop, one last possession, and even the missed free throws wouldn't

Well, it looks like we have a real title race, after Purdue knocked off Ohio State 76-63 in West Lafayette.  Defensively, the Boilermakers pressured OSU into committing a turnover on over a quarter of their possessions and an effective field goal percentage of 42.6, each the second-worst marks posted by the Buckeyes this season.  The resulting 0.93 points per possession was likewise the second-worst mark for Thad Matta’s team on the year.  Offensively, Matt Painter just made sure E’Twaun Moore ate his Wheaties.  The senior guard lit up the Buckeyes for a career-high 38 points (that’s half the team’s total, mind you), on just 18 shots.  Moore scored his points all over the place--21 were on threes, 12 on twos, and another 5 at the free throw

The game of the year did not disappoint, as Wisconsin overcame a 15-point second half deficit to defeat Ohio State 71-67 in a 57 possession game.  I have to admit--this is my favorite matchup in the Big Ten.  For one, these two teams have been the class of the Big Ten (by an efficiency margin standpoint) since 2006.  Second, Bo Ryan and Thad Matta have as two divergent styles as you’ll see, both in terms of Xs and Os and Jimmies and Joes.  Ohio State tends to shoot lights-out en route to a powerful offense (5th in the nation in effective field goal percentage), while Wisconsin all but eliminates turnovers altogether (lowest turnover percentage in the country this year).  Matta also builds his teams with blue-chip recruits (the annual over/under on McDonald’s

It's been awhile since we've seen it, but Purdue got back to their defensive roots in a 67-53 smothering of Indiana. The Hoosiers had their worst shooting night of the season, connecting on just 41 percent of their twos and 15 percent of their threes. To make matters worse, the Boilermakers managed this great field goal defense without fouling, as Indiana shot just seven free throws against 62 field goal attempts--a season-low 11.3 free throw rate. Interestingly, the only other time Indiana got to the foul line so infrequently over the past five seasons was the last time they played at Purdue. There's something about these Boilers in Mackey Arena that keeps Indiana off the foul line.

All told, the Hoosiers were held to 0.79 points per possession--easily their worst output of the

By all accounts the Big Ten is a good conference, some would say it's the best conference this season.  Yet, there only seem to be three locks for the Tournament at the moment, as each of the teams in the next tier lost this weekend.

Illinois lost yet another close game, a 71-70 loss to Northwestern.  The Illini are now 0-5 in games that went to overtime or were decided by three points or less. This has been especially apparent in Big Ten play, where Bruce Weber’s team has won by an average of about 14 points, but lost by an average of about 4 points.  We’ve covered the close game/luck debate extensively, so I won’t rehash it here, except to say that Weber needs to load up his team on platitudes, find a rabbit’s foot, or something to start winning