CTC Day Eleven Preview: The Best Conference in America Might Be the Worst to Watch

Don’t get me wrong, I love watching great defensive basketball.  I also really like hard, physical styles of play.  Hell, I grew up rooting for John Chaney defenses and, well, John Chaney offenses, so I am no stranger to slow, ugly, methodical basketball.  But, this Big Ten is, at times, nearly unwatchable.  We’ll see how the atmosphere of the conference tournament affects what was a great, but ugly Big Ten season.

A testament to the depth of this conference is that there are 5 different championship choices.

Championship Picks
4 for #1 Michigan St. (Gersh, Scoot, Stri, Waters)
1 for #2 Michigan (Lil Lohse)
12 for #3 Ohio St.
0 for #4 Wisconsin
2 for #5 Indiana (Lynch, RSmith)
1 for #6 Purdue (KA)

Biggest Upsets
R1 – #12 Penn St. (Bry, Waters)
QF – #10 Minnesota (J)
SF – #6 Purdue (KA, Stri)

Previous CTC Champions
2011 – Primm
2010 – Waters
2009 – Bry
2008 – Bry

#8 Iowa vs. #9 Illinois
The Bruce Weber swan song begins today at 11:30 am.  As for the other side of this one, can we please start talking about how great of a coach Fran McCaffery is?  With all due respect to Tom Izzo (who, I have always said is clearly the second-best coach in the country), who did another great job, why can’t the coach of the 8th-place team win the Coach of the Year?  Considering what was expected of this Hawkeye team, I think McCaffery did, clearly, the best job in the conference.  There is even some at-large talk surrounding the Hawkeyes.  Incredible!  The winner of this game will get #1 Michigan St. in the quarters.

The majority of the field (12) have Illinois in this mild upset, as only 8 took Iowa (Alexi, Doogan, Gersh, KA, Lil Lohse, Lohse, Scoot, Teddy).  No one has either of these teams beating MSU next round.

#5 Indiana vs. #12 Penn St.
College basketball is a coach’s game, and Tom Crean can flat-out coach, so the only surprise about this Indiana resurgence is how deep the Kelvin Sampson problems ran and how long it took one of the nation’s best head men to return this team to prominence.  Now, they are heading for the Dance and a probable protected seed.  If you haven’t heard of Tim Frazier, it might be a good idea to tune into this one because he’s the real deal.  #4 Wisconsin awaits the winner of this one.

This is a pretty huge CTC game.  Bry and Waters are the only two to take PSU in this huge upset.  15 people actually have Indiana beating Wisconsin next round, so the 5 that don’t (Bry, Gross, Rikey, RDoc, and Waters) might be rooting for PSU here.  7 people have IU in the finals (Dave, Doogan, Lil Lohse, Lynch, Mac, Primm, RSmith).  Lynch and RSmith have the Hoosiers cutting down the nets.

#7 Northwestern vs. #10 Minnesota
A lot has been written about the long history of Northwestern without a tournament appearance.  Well, this might be their best chance, but they cannot afford to lose this game or they’re probably NIT-bound again.  The Gophers have had a decent season, considering they weren’t immensely talented to begin with and they lost their best player, Trevor Mbakwe in November.  They shouldn’t be taken lightly.  The winner here gets #2 Ohio St. in the quarters.

This is another huge CTC game.  9 people actually have Minnesota in this upset (Bry, Gersh, Lil Lohse, Lynch, Mac, Rikey, RDoc, Scoot). J has the Gophers in the semis.  6 people have NW winning again tomorrow (Alexi, Dave, Gross, Lohse, RSmith, Waters).

#6 Purdue vs. #11 Nebraska
It was a tough first season in the Big Ten for the ‘Huskers, as they went 4-14 in their inaugural season here.  Purdue finally gets Robbie Hummel through a full season and should go on to another tournament, thanks in most part to Hummel himself.  Now, we’ll see what they’ve got.  The winner here gets Michigan tomorrow.

Primm is the only one that took Nebraska here, so he’ll get a quick 60 points if they can pull off the upset.  Stri and KA are the only two that have Purdue winning again tomorrow, and they actually both have Purdue going to the finals.  KA has them winning it.