Updated Big Ten Tournament Seeding Predictions

Nothing too exciting happened last night.  Nebraska beat Penn State, while Michigan State trounced Purdue behind 17 3-pointers.  

IU had a similar shooting night against Illinois back in IU's Final Four season in 2002, hitting 17 3s themselves, en route to an 88-57 victory over the 9th-ranked Illini.  The IU campus bookstore and official IU appearal stores in Bloomington used to have a special sale the day after an IU basketball victory, where they would take 3% off on all IU apparel for every 3-pointer the Hoosiers made.  After biting the bullet and taking 51% off the day after that game, they changed their policy so that 30% was the limit.  Nice work, Hoosiers.

In other news, the IU/Iowa game that was postponed Tuesday night due to a falling metal beam in Assembly Hall has been rescheduled to Thursday February 27 at 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

Also, there are a few big games this weekend.  On Saturday, at Noon Eastern (ESPN2), #16 Wisconsin travels to #15 Iowa.  At 6 p.m. Eastern (BTN), Minnesota goes to #24 Ohio State, with a chance for a huge road win to boost their NCAA tournament resume.  At 8:15 p.m. Eastern (BTN), IU plays at Northwestern in what is essentially IU's last chance to right the ship.  A loss there may doom the Hoosiers to a losing record, but a win is needed to keep alive whatever very faint NCAA tournament hopes the Hoosiers still have.

Then Sunday, #13 Michigan State travels to #20 Michigan (Noon EST, CBS), looking for some revenge after the Wolverines came into the Breslin Center earlier this year and beat the Spartans.  The winner here has the inside track to the regular season conference championship, which we all know is more important than the Big Ten Tournament championship.

Here are the current standings, with the conference record, each team's remaining games, and my predictions.

1.  Michigan State (11-3):  at Michigan (L), Illinois (W), Iowa (W), at OSU (L)

2.  Michigan (10-3):  MSU (W), at Purdue (W), Minnesota (W), at Illinois (W), IU (W)

3.  Iowa (8-4):  Wisconsin (W), at Minnesota (L), at IU (L), Purdue (W), at MSU (L), Illinois (W)

4.  Wisconsin (8-5):  at Iowa (L), IU (W), at PSU (W), Purdue (W), Nebraska (W)

5.  Ohio State (8-6):  Minnesota (W), at PSU (W), at IU (L), MSU (W)

6.  Nebraska (7-6):  Purdue (W), at Illinois (L), Northwestern (W), at IU (L), Wisconsin (L)

7.  Minnesota (6-8):  Illinois (W), at OSU (L), Iowa (W), at Michigan (W), PSU (W)

8.  Purdue (5-8):  at Nebraska (L), Michigan (L), at Iowa (L), at Wisconsin (L), Northwestern (W)

9.  Northwestern (5-9):  IU (L), at Nebraska (L), PSU (W), at Purdue (L)

10.  Indiana (4-8):  at Northwestern (W), at Wisconsin (L), Iowa (W), OSU (W), Nebraska (W), at Michigan (L)

11.  Penn State (4-10):  OSU (L), Wisconsin (L), at Northwestern (L), at Minnesota (L)

12.  Illinois (4-10):  Nebraska (W), at MSU (L), Michigan (L), at Iowa (L)

Given my predictions and Big Ten tiebreaking rules, here is how the Big Ten Tournament seeds should fall into place and how the Big Ten Tournament will play out (all times are Central):

1.  Michigan (15-3)

2.  Michigan State (13-5)

3.  Wisconsin (12-6)

4.  Iowa (11-7) (Iowa will have tiebreaker over Ohio State based on 1-1 record vs. Michigan, while OSU has 0-1 record vs. Michigan)

5.  Ohio State (11-7)

6.  Nebraska (9-9) (Nebraska has tiebreaker over Minnesota based on 1-0 head-to-head record)

7.  Minnesota (9-9)

8.  Indiana (8-10)

9.  Northwestern (6-12) (Northwestern will have tiebreaker over Purdue based on 1-1 record vs. Wisconsin, while Purdue will have 0-2 record vs. Wisconsin)

10.  Purdue (6-12)

11.  Illinois (5-13)

12.  Penn State (4-14)

I usually also include far-too-premature predictions for every game of the Big Ten Tournament, but I'm not even going to try to do that this year until the seeds are announced, since it would be an even more futile exercise than usual.  However, here are the dates/times/TV schedule for the Big Ten Tournament (and a link to the bracket), which will be in Indianapolis.  All times are Central.

Thursday March 13 – First Round

(8) vs. (9) (11 a.m., BTN)

(5) vs. (12) (1:30 p.m., BTN)

(7) vs. (10) (5:30 p.m., ESPN2)

(6) vs. (11) (8 p.m., ESPN2)

Friday March 14 - Quarterfinals

(1) vs. (8)/(9) (11 a.m., ESPN/EPSN2)

(4) vs. (5)/(12) (1:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2)

(2) vs. (7)/(10) (5:30 p.m., BTN)

(3) vs. (6)/(11) (8 p.m., BTN)

Saturday March 15 - Semifinals

(1)/(8)/(9) vs. (4)/(5)/(12) (12:40 p.m., CBS)

(2)/(7)/(10) vs. (3)/(6)/(11) (3 p.m., CBS)

Sunday March 16 - Finals

(1)/(4)/(5)/(8)/(9)/(12) vs. (2)/(3)/(6)/(7)/(10)/(11) (2:30 p.m., CBS)