2/9/07 - Saturday's Slate
Purdue at Ohio State Last time these two squared off in West Lafayette Buckeye's super frosh Greg Oden has his way inside with Purdue's Carl Landry. The Boilers will need a monster game from Landry to pull off the upset, and it wouldn't hurt their cause to see Oden get into some early foul trouble. The likeliness of that happening however...not so great. OSU continues to roll on their way to what I believe will be a #1 seed in the Big Dance come March. Ohio State 75 Purdue 61 Illinois at Indiana Illinois offense has been more than ugly on the road this season in Big 10 play. Sure they got their Offensive Efficiency over 100 last time out, but games against Northwestern don't really count in my book. I expect the Hoosiers defense to put the clamps down after their week off and get a much needed home victory. Indiana 66 Illinois 57 Iowa at Wisconsin The Hawkeyes just might be the hottest team in the conference right now as they take their 3 game winning streak into the weekend. However, as many in the Big 10 know, nothing stops a winning streak faster than a trip to Madison. For Iowa to pull off a shocker, they are going to need better shooting than they got from their stars in the matchup in Iowa City. The Badgers held Adam Haluska to just 3 of 18 shooting and Freshman Tyler Smith shot just 3 for 17 last time out. Iowa will get better shooting tomorrow and keep it close, but it still won't be enough to give the Badger's their first home loss of the season. Wisconsin 70 Iowa 62 Penn State at Northwestern Outside of player's families will there really be anyone else watching this game? The winner gets themselves into sole possession of 10th place! In all seriousness though, this should be quite an intriguing matchup. Penn State and Northwestern are by far the worst 2 defenses in the conference. Rebounds will be hard to come by in this one! For the sole reason that this game is being played in Welsch-Ryan Arena, I will pick the Wildcats. Northwestern 60 Penn State 57 Minnesota at Michigan Minnesota is coming off their best offensive performance of the year at home against Iowa on Wednesday. And they still lost by double digits! Having Spencer Tollackson back is a positive addition, but this Gopher team is still very bad. Michigan has lost 4 straight games, and if they make it 5 straight, the Wolverines had better fire Tommy Amaker Sunday! Michigan 67 Minnesota 60 |
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