If you follow the main West Coast Hoops page on X you would know that Max and I gave you Indiana and Ohio State as two good future bets for this tournament. Yesterday I was in attendance for both of their wins and I feel really good about those bets as we go into the weekend. Ohio State looks like a completely different team under Jake Diebler as they ended Iowa’s NCAA hopes yesterday. Indiana I was worried they may drop as Penn State covered (Moved me to 3-3 on picks this tournament) but that live to fight on into a winnable game vs Nebraska today. Minnesota led most of the game and then MSU remembered they wanted to make the NCAA tournament for win. While Wisconsin proved me totally wrong and whooped Maryland badly.
In the first quarterfinal we have the championship favorite Purdue (-7.5) taking on Michigan State. State will have to play a lot better today then they did yesterday against Minnesota in order to make this a game but I feel fairly confident that Purdue will take care of business and cover. Purdue has so much on their mind as they try to be playing their best ball by next Thursday and Friday.
The second quarterfinal I believe will be a lot more interesting as Wisconsin (-3) takes on Northwestern. Boo Buie is an electric college basketball player and he has carried Northwestern to the double bye in this tournament along with Wisconsin’s late season struggles. I see this being a classic big ten tournament game where if Wisconsin can shoot they will probably move forward into the next round. That being said for betting I am going to take Northwestern +3 because I believe in Boo Buie.
The first night quarterfinal we get Ohio State in a must win game vs Illinois (-5). Illinois has been amazing and the second best team in a relatively weak Big Ten this year. Led by controversial guard Terrance Shannon Jr this Illinois team is deep and will be sneaky good in March if they get the right draw. However I am going to ride with former Gopher Jamison Battle and the Buckeyes until they bow out. Give me OSU +5 with the ML being a sneaky good play.
The final quarterfinal is Nebraska (-3.5) VS Indiana. Indiana last night played at an incredibly slow pace and I am interested if that will continue against Nebraska. Nebraska is the darlings of the Big Ten as Fred Hoiberg has totally turned the program around. Both of these teams have great stories but I am gonna go with my gut and say take Nebraska with the points.
West Coast Hoops 