After another thrilling regular season of watching Zach Eady crush everyone the Big Ten Basketball Tournament is back. For the very first time the tournament is being held in my backyard in Minnesota at the Target Center. Being a Gopher fan myself I naturally immediately bought tickets for Round 1 or “Weakling Wednesday” because I assumed that is where our program who finished last in the Big Ten last year would be in the final standings. Instead the Golden Gophers have the nine seed and won’t be playing in any of the four sessions I am attending (Wednesday/Thursday night, Semifnal Saturday, Championship Sunday). I am excited however to cover this tournament for West Coast Hoops to help anyone learn more about the underachieving tournament teams that make up the Big Ten.
When looking at the bracket Purdue is the overwhelming favorite as realistically I believe they are the only team that has a chance of winning the national championship. (100% of teams who lose to 16 seeds as a 1 have won the National Championship the next year) Their biggest competition to get to the final I believe comes in Northwestern as a semifinalist who beat Purdue back on 12/1. Northwestern has an absolute star in the big ten in Boo Buie even if he is twenty-four. Purdue will want to hope that Michigan State loses to Minnesota but with the Gophers dropping four of the last five I think they will be in for a battle Friday morning. Either way Purdue projects as a one seed regardless of finish this weekend.
On the other side of the bracket I think it is a lot more wide open. Illinois is probably the best team but Nebraska has been a sleeping giant all year in the conference. Indiana, Ohio State, and Iowa all are on the wrong side of the bubble right now but could play their way into the tournament by making a deep run out of this group. I think this side has a lot of intrigue especially nationally among teams who are looking to see how many bids the Big Ten will get this season.
As I mentioned previously I will have a blog previewing and recapping games for each day of the tournament. This will include betting picks if you want to try to make some money during champ week which is one of the best weeks of the year. I will also be tweeting live updates from the Target Center @johnny_jaguar21 if you would like to follow along. I will see you back for a preview of weakling Wednesday with Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, and Michigan.
West Coast Hoops 