Tonight I will be attendance for the first round of the Big Ten Tournament at Target Center. We have the 12th Seed Maryland Terrapins and the 13 seed Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Game 1. In Game 2 we have a classic big ten matchup when the 11th Seed Penn State takes on 14th Seed Michigan.
When looking at game 1 of this tournament we have two teams who had the exact same conference and overall record this season so far (15-16, 7-13 Big Ten). While the best player in this game will easily be Maryland’s Jahmir Young he will have to deal with Rutger’s great defense. The reason why Rutgers has needed to have a great defense is because they have little to no shooting. The Scarlet Knights own a 28.9% 3-point percentage and 43.9% 2-point percentage. They also only shoot 66% percent from the line so expect this game to be a low scoring rock fight. Something to watch prior to the game is if Maryland’s Julian Reese will be available he is questionable with an injury. As for a betting pick I like Rutgers +3.5. This should be a great start to the tournament in a competitive game between two teams that have kind of built their own big ten rivalry as the east coast teams of the conference. The winner of this game takes on Wisconsin tomorrow.
Following that game we have Michigan Vs Penn State. Michigan comes in on a eight game losing streak and as 7.5 point underdogs to a Penn State squad that almost hit .500 in the Big Ten at 9-11. Michigan has been terrible against the spread and similar to what we saw from Louisville yesterday in the ACC tournament they could be looking for a new coach after a awful year from Juwan Howard. For that reason I would take Penn State -7.5. Penn State won the only meeting between these two teams in the regular season by six and I expect them to advance to play Indiana tomorrow.
I will be back tomorrow to recap these games and preview round 2 of the Tournament. If you are looking for live updates for the game follow me on X @Johnny_Jaguar21.
West Coast Hoops 