It's happened understandably under the radar, but Northwestern has put together a couple nice wins so far in the NIT. First, in a rare postseason home game, the Wildcats used some surprising tactics--namely, offensive rebounding and solid defense--to outlast Wisconsin Milwaukee by a 70-61 score. Despite a big size advantage, Northwestern shot just 42 percent on twos, but they compensated by retrieving 45 percent of their misses and making a third of their numerous three point attempts. The result was a solid 1.15 points per possession.

At the other end, the Panthers shot well but couldn't hold onto the ball. Their 26 percent turnover rate was the fifth highest forced by Northwestern all season, and it kept Milwaukee from getting above a point per trip. 

John Shurna

Purdue's NCAA Tournament started out well enough with a 65-43 win over an outmatched St. Peter's squad. As could have been expected, the Pea**** struggled mightily at the offensive end, shooting 32 percent on twos and 24 percent on threes. The resulting 0.65 efficiency was among the lowest allowed by Purdue all season.

Still, even in this blowout win, things just didn't feel quite right for the Boilermakers. Purdue struggled a bit against St. Peter's solid defense, posting their second highest turnover rate of the season (24 percent). The Boilermakers didn't shoot all that well either (46 percent on twos, 33 percent on threes), resulting in a pedestrian 0.99 points per possession. Sure, St. Peter's has defended very well this season, but that's still a low output. For reference,

In a thrilling back-and-forth game that could have gone either way, Penn State saw their season come to an end with a 66-64 loss to Temple. The Nittany Lions got off to an ideal start, scoring 20 points on their first 13 possessions and taking an early nine point lead. Talor Battle was on a roll in his first ever NCAA Tournament appearance, hitting three of four from downtown, and his running mate Jeff Brooks had six points and two assists. The Nittany Lions were looking unstoppable.

Less than two minutes later, Brooks drew his second foul and was relegated to the bench. From there, things turned sour for Penn State, as Temple outscored them 22-13 the rest of the half. The Nittany Lions were down two points at the break, but Ed Dechellis probably figured he'd be able to use Brooks

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

It's not like they were in a great position anyway, but any lingering Minnesota hopes for an at-large bid were dashed last night in a 68-57 loss at Northwestern. The Gophers defended well in the first half, as they forced turnovers on 22 percent of Northwestern's possessions and limited the Wildcats to 20 percent shooting from three. That staunch defense was enough to provide Minnesota a six point lead at the break, and the Gophers were able to push that advantage up to double digits a couple times early in the second half.

After two Trevor Mbakwe free throws, Minnesota held a nine point lead with just over 12 minutes remaining. From there, Northwestern would go on a 15-2 run spanning just eight possessions to surge into a lead they would never relinquish. Alex Marcotullio was

In the college coaching community, there's almost no idea that is more deeply ingrained than the following formula:

2 fouls + first half = bench

This is so commonly accepted as the correct move that any variance from its wisdom is certain to prompt TV commentators to focus intently on it, with terms like "rolling the dice" being the norm. But is this always the correct move, regardless of the player?

Take last night's 75-67 Purdue win over Illinois. Bruce Weber's team was on fire out of the gates, passing and cutting their way to easy looks against the normally stingy Purdue defense. After 18 possessions, the Illini held a 31-18 lead and had the Boilers back on their heels. This was the good Illinois offense that we haven't seen much of in conference play, and

Forgive the terrible pun, but Penn State sliced up the Northwestern defense last night in a 66-52 road win. We like to get into a lot of different numbers here, but this game can be summed up with this chart of Penn State shots:

Northwestern got killed by giving up dunks and layups, plain and simple. Driven by those easy shots, Penn State made 69 percent of their twos, which compensated for a slightly high turnover rate and some poor perimeter shooting. Sure, the Wildcat defense could have been worse--they did hold Penn State to a lower efficiency than Wisconsin just did--but there were still too many breakdowns.

The normally efficient Northwestern

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