Big Ten Bracket Challenge Winner!

After a great weekend of basketball it’s time to declare a winner for Mine and Fodor’s bracket challenge. To the surprise to no one who saw Fodor pick Indiana over Northwestern in the championship, I rolled to victory. I double his score and won 12-6.

Here is the break down.


Round 1 2 3 4 Total
Noffke 2 6 4 0 12
Fodor 2 4 0 0 6


Amazingly, there was only 1 time a lower ranked team defeated the higher ranked team which was when Ohio State beat Michigan in the semi-finals. I picked this right and got the lone bonus point for the tourney. According to CBS’ broadcast, this was the first time in Big Ten Tourney history that the 4 top teams all made it to the semi-finals.

Indianapolis Day One

Dearest Readers,

I write to you as a (partially) broken man. The Northwestern Wildcats could have punched their ticket to the schools' FIRST EVER NCAA Tournament today by beating Minnesota. Granted, Minnesota had the advantage of missing Ralph Sampson III (secretly, that dude is terrible), and getting Julian Welch back from injury (secretly, that dude is good). But this was the game for John Shurna to make himself a legend. This was the goddamned game for Northwestern to make The Leap.

Of course, it didn't happen. To quote some of my own text messages, being a Wildcats basketball fan is like being in an abusive relationship; every time the thing goes wrong, you know it's coming, you expect it, and yet you keep coming back for one more shot. You think this time, the f'ing thing will go right, everything will be okay, you'll get over the hump...

Northwestern made ONE field goal in the last NINE minutes of this game, including overtime. I don't blame Dave Sobelewski for missing his runner at the buzzer that would have won the game. It was a decent shot. I can't even really blame John Shurna for looking absolutely exhausted for the last twelve to fifteen minutes, because the whole game was on his shoulders and Rodney Williams is an extremely athletic defender who did a great job on the Big Ten's leading scorer today.

I don't even know what to do or say with this team. The NU part of my heart is broken tonight. Lucky for me, I'm a duplicitous bastard, and there are several other heart-parts to report on. So, enough Cat angst for the moment. To quote another text message: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck."

How 'bout them Hoosiers? I think the first and most important thing is Verdell Jones. VJ3 has been a touchy subject for a lot of IU fans, including myself. His tendency to turn it over has been well documented. But then again, so has his ability to be a calming influence on this young team. So has his tendency, down the stretch, to hit huge shots and salt away big games.

Tom Crean in tears says a lot. This is a big loss for Indiana and we all wish the best for Verdell. He deserves to experience the tournament. He's been a huge part of the rebuilding process.

That being said, Indiana played really well today. Huge games from Christian Watford and Cody Zeller, who combined for twenty rebounds and over thirty points. If they can do that with regularity, IU is going to go deep in both this conference tournament and the NCAA's.

Jordan Hulls absolutely carried IU through a bad dry spell in the first and matched Tim Frazier, who is first team All Big Ten, shot for shot. That's also awesome. Oh, and Vic played fine. And the bench played well.

Tomorrow's slate of games is looking good. We start out with Michigan State vs. Iowa at noon. I'm a huge Draymond Green fan, but I've also been impressed with Iowa's improvement over the course of the season. They lost to Campbell in November. Uh, who? Campbell? Northern Iowa beat Iowa by twenty in December. They're not even making the NIT.

Yet Iowa pulled themselves together down the stretch and beat Indiana and Wisconsin at home, adding to a win over Michigan. 8-10 isn't bad at all in the Big Ten. Ask Northwestern how hard it is to have that kind of record this year. I think MSU is going to win tomorrow, but I would not be shocked if Matt Gatens, Aaron White, and the Hawkeyes made things extremely interesting.

Indiana-Wisconsin is a matter of pacing. If Wisconsin dictates the pace, expect a boring game with Cody Zeller contained. If Indiana can do their thing, they absolutely outclass the Badgers at this point in the season. Better offense, better depth, almost a wash on D, and Indiana is way hotter. I'm obviously hoping for an Indiana win and will be doing my best to be just a small part of The Sixth Man. Go Hoosiers. This game will kind of make or break our Big Tens experience this year as fans.

Michigan-Minnesota shoulda been Michigan-NU Round III. Damn it. I don't even want to talk about this. I'll watch the game. These teams are well coached and have good players. Yeah.

Ohio State-Purdue will draw almost as big of a crowd as IU-Wisco. I expect Conseco to be rowdy for this one, with OSU also adding the advantage of a loud and possibly drunken IU fanbase rooting for them for once. We tried to will Nebraska to victory today. It was like adopting a crippled puppy. Bo Spencer made things cute, for a little bit. Ultimately it was hopeless.

I rather expect that Purdue will be in the hopeless puppy role tomorrow against a motivated Ohio State team. William Buford needs to act like a senior, because he IS a senior. Sullinger doesn't have a lot of challenges in the post against the Boilers.

Revised picks? MSU over Iowa in OT, Indiana over Wisconsin, Minnesota over Michigan (hell, why not?), and Ohio State over Purdue. Sorry for no pictures, thanks for reading. I love you all.

Signing off from Indianapolis,

MF

The Cubs Win the World Series.....via PS3

Amazing how good CGI is, you can now make the Cubs look like a good team and actually believe it.

Big Ten Tourney Picks

Okay, I'm going to do this very quickly, because I haven't read the below article yet and I don't want it to influence my picks.

ROUND ONE:

IOWA over Illinois

INDIANA over Penn State

NORTHWESTERN over Minnesota

NEBRASKA over Purdue

ROUND TWO:

MICHIGAN STATE over Iowa

INDIANA over Wisconsin

NORTHWESTERN over Michigan

OHIO STATE over Nebraska

SEMIFINALS:

INDIANA over Michigan State

NORTHWESTERN over Ohio State

FINALS:

INDIANA over Northwestern.

...ya know, they say not to gamble on the teams you love, but screw it, it's the Big Ten Tournament! So there you have it. Hell, Snuffles, I was goanna buy a bottle for that weekend anyway.

Big Ten Tourny Bracket

I am finally making my glorious return to the Website. Why is that? It’s March Madness BABY! March is my 2nd favorite month of the year, mainly for the madness. I have already enjoyed some of the mid major brackets, 2 OT games last night and there’s a W. Kentucky blog sighting on ESPN2 right now. I am looking forward to Valparaiso Detriot tonight and pretty much any other action I can watch.

The main reason for this article though is, BIG TEN TOURNY!

Fodor and I are going head to head (If other ACSS writers want in cough Ryan cough cough Tim) we’d be down too.


Scoring is as follows.

Round 1: 1 Point
Round 2: 2 Points
Semi: 3 Points
Champions: 4 Points

1 Bonus point for correct upset picks.


Game 1.

#8 Iowa vs #9 Illinois

The Pick: Illinois

The Reason: I actually think Iowa will win this game, but I’m making this pick for 3 reasons.

1. The whole Leornard Meyers and his brother’s surprise story (http://deadspin.com/5890234/illinois-sophomore-meyers-leonard-gets-surprise-visit-from-marine-brother
2. Illinois’ campus is actually pretty close to Indy, so they should have a decent showing of support
3. This game is kind of a tossup in my mind, so I’ll take the bonus point for picking the upset.

#5 Indiana vs #12 Penn State

The Pick: Indiana

The Reason: Hoosier biased pick here. Penn State could give the Hoosiers some headaches and it is really hard to beat 1 team in the same season 3 times. Saying that, this is practically a home game and Indiana is way better.

#7 Northwestern vs #10 Minnesota

The Pick: Northwestern

The Reason: Part of me really wants to pick Minnesota, but Northwestern needs a win or two in this tourney to get their first ever ticket punched. What more motivation then that.

#6 Purdue vs #11 Nebraska

The Reason: Practically a home game for Purdue, Hummel will be motivated after fouling out in his last Big Ten regular season game. Also does anyone in Nebraska even know their team is playing? Purdue wins big


Round 2

#1 Michigan State vs #9 Illinois

The Pick: Michigan State

The Reason: Day Day is the best player in this game and won’t let his team lose their opening round game. Izzo excels in the tournaments. Just don’t see how Illinois wins

#4 Wisconsin vs #5 Indiana

The Pick:

The Reason: I actually think Indiana is the better team even though they are the lower ranked team. Wisconsin did better in the Big Ten but Indiana has the better overall resume. Indiana did lose to Wisconsin earlier in the year in Madison. Bo Ryan does get his team to play very smart and make no mistakes, but I don’t see them winning this game.

#2 Michigan vs #7 Northwestern

The Pick: Michigan

The Reason: I do feel Northwestern is a tournament team, but Michigan is the better overall team. I love watching Novak and Hardway Jr play and think they take care of business here.

#3 Ohio State vs #6 Purude

The Pick Ohio State

The Reason: Jared Sullinger. Purdue doesn’t match up well against Ohio State. They have no one who can really guard Sulligner and aren’t nearly as deep as the Buckeyes.


Round 3

#1 Michigan State vs #5 Indiana

The Pick: Indiana

The Reason: I think Indiana is going to play MSU the same way they did the last time they played each other. They will let Day Day get his, but play lock down defense on every other Michigan State player. The Hooisers have been playing with a little bit of swager lately and will use the friend neutral court crowd to advance to the Big Ten Finals

#2 Michigan vs # 3 Ohio State

The Pick: Ohio State

The Reason: Despite the fact Ohio State lost the last game of the season and finished last in the 3 way tie for first, I still think they are the most complete team in the Big Ten and that is why I’m picking them to win this game and…..

#3 Ohio State vs #5 Indiana

The Pick: Ohio Sate