The best conference in America started to show some chinks in the armor down the stretch, as teams like Minnesota, Northwestern, and especially Illinois, were revealed to be rather fraudulent. But, that doesn’t change how good the top of this league is. And, now we’ve got a championship game that may easily be recreated in the Final Four in a couple of weeks.
Rikey is the current Big Ten leader and will clinch the 2012 CTC title here with an Ohio St. win. If the Spartans come through today, Gersh and Scoot will split the 2012 crown.
#1 Michigan St. vs. #3 Ohio St.
One of the best 3-seeds in a conference tournament I can remember is taking on the conference’s #1-seed in a game that could determine a #1-seed in the Big Tournament (though, more likely, a #2 is the ceiling for the Buckeyes). OSU seems to have found that extra gear at just the right time, as they have two blowouts of sure-fire tournament teams, beating Purdue by 17 on Friday night and Michigan by 22 yesterday. Michigan St. won a weird game yesterday against Wisconsin, but Tom Izzo might be the best ever at coaching in a tournament setting.
Gersh, Scoot, Stri, and Waters are the only 4 with #1 Michigan St. here. KA, Lil Lohse, and Lynch have already lost this game with Purdue, Michigan, and Indiana. The other 13 have Ohio St.
