No. 6 North Carolina comes back, outlasts Maryland
No. 5 North Carolina rallied from a nine-point deficit in the second half to squeeze past Maryland 83-74 Saturday.
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No. 3 Buckeyes get rare win at Wisconsin (AP)
Jared Sullinger wore out Wisconsin. Then William Buford put the Badgers away. No. 3 Ohio State wasn’t going to give No. 19 Wisconsin a shot at another comeback. Sullinger scored 24 points and Buford hit a critical 3-pointer down the stretch, helping the Buckeyes beat the Badgers 58-52 on Saturday. Sullinger was shocked when he wasn’t double-teamed on defense to start the game, and he pounced…
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Ohio State vs. Wisconsin: Jared Sullinger Leads Buckeyes, Breaks Madison Curse
Ohio State finally got off its Wisconsin snide, besting the Badgers in their home dome 58-52.
If there was a time to do it in Madison, it would be this year, as the 20th-ranked Badgers seem to have lost their Kohl Center mojo.
The Buckeyes leveraged solid play from blue-chip big man Jared Sullinger, who finished with 24 points and three steals while pulling down 10 huge boards for his squad. Flat-top forward Ryan Evans finished with a Badger-high 14 points, but no combination of players could truly neutralize Ohio State’s front line.
Wisconsin suffered its fourth loss at the Kohl Center, a citadel for the Badgers in recent years. They looked to extend their win streak against the Thad Matta-led Buckeyes to 10 straight, but instead saw their season record drop to 18-6, 7-4 in the Big Ten.
Five of the Badgers’ last six games have been decided by three buckets or less, and the Buckeyes have been unable to overcome Wisconsin teams, often overmatched on paper, in Madison. First place was up for grabs, with the Badgers ranked second behind Big Ten leader Ohio State, but the Buckeyes maintained their dominance over the conference with the hard-scrabbled win.
The Badgers followed their traditional slow-and-low tendencies, but the Buckeyes seemed better prepared to deal with the their one-dimensional attack. Wisconsin was haggard from behind the arc, shooting 5-for-25 in a cold first-half effort.
The battle of the Jareds didn’t live up to the hype, but was solid nonetheless. The Buckeyes’ Jared had the better day, but Badger Jared Berggren finished with a respectable 10 points and three rebounds. The Badgers showed their normal penchant for stifling defense, limiting the Buckeyes to 21 points below their 77.3 season average.
Either way, the Buckeyes were happy to exit Madison with their first win since 2000.
Buckeye point guard Aaron Craft kept Jordan Taylor in check most of the game with Taylor only delivering 12 points. He was unable to pull off his late-game heroics of last year that saw him bring the then-No. 1 Buckeyes to their knees. Taylor protected the ball against the pickpocketing savant in Craft, but couldn’t convert his selfish ways into many points for his team.
Taylor tried to rekindle the fire he displayed in besting the Buckeyes last season when he hit a running bank shot to start a rally that pulled Wisconsin within four with 6:09 left in the game. A bonus free-throw point precipitated a blocking foul by Sullinger, his third foul of the game, but the Badgers couldn’t take advantage of his precarious situation and get him off the floor.
Mike Bruesewitz had a big block on Sullinger with four minutes and followed it up with a three-pointer to bring the Badgers within one. That’s the closest they would get, though, as the Buckeyes held off the Badger surge.
Sullinger had 16 points and five boards in the first half, and Bo Ryan couldn’t find a proportionate response for his dominance after the break. Ohio State’s big man had a measure of revenge, accusing Badger fans of spitting on him after his team’s loss last year in Wisconsin.
The loss is Wisconsin’s first in seven games, which still keeps them in the top third of the conference.
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Big Ten Basketball: No. 22 Michigan vs. No. 10 Michigan State
The Michigan Wolverines (17-6, 7-3 Big Ten) will head to East Lansing on Sunday for a key game against the Michigan State Spartans (17-5, 6-3 Big Ten).
These two Big Ten rivals faced each other a few weeks ago, with the Wolverines beating the Spartans 60-59 on an exciting defensive stand.
Trey Burke, who has been phenomenal for the Wolverines all season, had one of his best games against Michigan State. He dropped 20 points (8-11 from the field, 3-6 from downtown), grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists. He also registered two steals and blocked two shots.
The Wolverines have won the past three matchups and will look to register their second straight season sweep of the Spartans.
Michigan is one game away from completing their most difficult stretch of the year. Four of their last five games have been on the road, and after Sunday, the Wolverines will have played three straight games against top 20 teams.
In their past four games, they lost a heartbreaker to a tough Arkansas team in Fayetteville, beat Purdue in Mackey Arena, lost to No. 3 OSU in Columbus and beat No. 20 Indiana in Ann Arbor.
After winning 15 games in a row, the Spartans have dropped three of their past five games. Last Tuesday, Draymond Green went down with a knee sprain in a loss against Illinois. The injury did not look promising, and after the game Green expressed that he could not put any pressure on his left leg.
The team insists Green will be ready to go come Sunday, but it is unclear how effective he will be.
The resurgence of the Wolverines has reinvigorated this rivalry, which had been dominated by the Spartans for the past decade. A win at the Breslin Center would be a huge confidence boost for the Wolverines, and it would put them in a great position in the Big Ten.
The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS at 1 pm.
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No. 24 Florida State holds off No. 18 Virginia 58-55
No. 24 Florida State held off 18th-ranked Virginia 58-55 to keep a share of first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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Surging Irish knock off No. 17 Marquette (AP)
Freshman Pat Connaughton had 23 points and 11 rebounds as Notre Dame made 11 3-pointers and beat No. 15 Marquette 76-59 Saturday. Connaughton shot 5 for 8 on 3s to lead the Irish (15-8, 7-3 Big East) to their fourth straight win. Notre Dame has defeated five ranked opponents this season. Eric Atkins chipped in 18 points and Jerian Grant had 12 in a strong performance by the Irish backcourt.
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Indiana Hoosiers Gameday: An Up-Close Look at the Purdue Boilermakers
Tonight, at 6:00 PM CST, the Indiana Hoosiers (17-6, 5-6 BIG) will take on the Purdue Boilermakers (15-7, 5-4 BIG) in West Lafayette.
In my game-day previews, I try to provide a thoughtful, unbiased analysis of the opponent and how Indiana matches up. For my Purdue audience, I am going to do my best to stick to that. But I don’t have editors or proofreaders, so apologies in advance if my subconscious gets the best of me.
Make no mistake, this is a significant game for both teams. Purdue is looking for their first win against a top-25 opponent this season. Meanwhile, Indiana’s Tom Crean is still looking for that elusive BIG road win against a team not named Penn State since he joined the Hoosiers. On top of that, neither team is a lock to make the NCAA Tournament at this time, though Purdue probably has more at stake from that perspective in this game.
Because it’s unclear what lineup Purdue coach Matt Painter is going to begin the game with, let’s go over the two most likely scenarios.
Earlier in the week, Painter said he was going to go small to start the game against the Hoosiers. This would mean a starting lineup of Robbie Hummel, Lewis Jackson, Ryne Smith, D.J. Byrd and Kelsey Barlow (or Terone Johnson). It appears as though this would be more for an offensive boost than it would from a defensive perspective from Purdue.
If he does go small, Painter is banking on Indiana’s Cody Zeller having to chase around a smaller opponent, thus tiring him out and making him less effective on offense. In that scenario, Tom Crean would be better off with Christian Watford on Hummel and sticking Zeller on Kelsey Barlow. Zeller can sag off Barlow 5-6 feet and dare him to shoot all night long; his 27.6 percent shooting from beyond the arc would suggest that’s a good idea.
The other line-up scenario for Purdue is starting 6’9″ sophomore Travis Carroll in place of Kelsey Barlow or Terone Johnson. This gives them a little more overall size on defense so that they can try and limit Indiana in the paint. In this scenario, Watford would remain on Hummel and Zeller would match up with Carroll.
Despite the fact that Robbie Hummel leads his team in scoring at 15.2 points per game, he’s not the biggest threat on this Purdue offense.
No disrespect to Robbie—I would actually like to see him succeed. But if you’ve watched him play this year, you would see that he’s a shell of his former self. The back-to-back knee surgeries have taken away any of the mobility and explosiveness he once had. His cuts aren’t as sharp and he can’t get the same lift on his shot that he had before the surgeries, which would help explain his lackluster 39.5% field goal percentage this season.
If Indiana is going to win this game, it starts and stops with their Achilles’ heel the entire season: keeping the point guard out of the paint. And it just so happens that Purdue’s Lewis Jackson is one of the Big Ten’s best in this regard.
Indiana’s Victor Oladipo has started the last couple of games on the bench, but I anticipate that changing tonight. Oladipo is the Hoosiers’ only chance at keeping Jackson out of the lane. If he’s not up to the challenge, Ryne Smith and D.J. Byrd are going to have a lot of open looks from three-point range, which could mean a long night for Indiana if they’re hot.
Purdue is notorious for having one of the best perimeter defenses in the BIG. That defense becomes even better in Mackey Arena, where the hand-check call is non-existent. It is not known yet if Verdell Jones III will play in this game due to a shoulder injury, but he and Jordan Hulls have had all kinds of problems with physical pressure defense (see the Michigan State game). The Hoosiers’ guards need to keep turnovers to a bare minimum. If they can do that, Purdue should struggle to score in the half-court offense.
For the Purdue fans who said they weren’t upset when Cody Zeller kept them off of his final list, suggesting that “We don’t need him because we have Travis Carroll” (yes, I’m being serious, as laughable as it is), you are going to see how ridiculous that sounded after tonight’s game. Indiana’s all-everything freshman could be poised for a career game against Purdue due to their lack of size.
The one caveat to that is his teammates need to be able to get him the ball, which has been a big problem for the Hoosiers this season. If Indiana can deal with the pressure defense and get the ball into Zeller without turning the ball over, Purdue will have no choice but to collapse extra defenders onto him, opening up the entire playbook for the Hoosiers offensively. I expect Zeller and Christian Watford to have big nights offensively for Indiana.
After the message Tom Crean sent to his team following the Michigan game on Wednesday night, calling his starting lineup “a joke” in the post-game press conference, I would be shocked if the Hoosiers had another slow start tonight. Despite the fact that it will likely be the most hostile environment Indiana plays in this season, don’t expect to see the “deer-in-the-headlights” expressions in this game.
Neither team is going to run away with this game; it’s going to go right down to the wire. Whichever team is able to make the handful of big plays down the stretch is the team that will walk away with the win. Can Indiana finally be that team tonight?
For more articles by Dan, visit Hoosier Cafe
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No. 14 Georgetown rolls to 30-point win (AP)
Henry Sims scored 13 points and nine rebounds, and No. 14 Georgetown held South Florida without a point for nearly 11 minutes in the first half Saturday in a 75-45 win over the Bulls. Otto Porter added 12 points, and Jason Clark had 11 for the Hoyas (18-4, 8-3 Big East), who led 18-5 late in the first half and spent much of the second half with a 20-point cushion.
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Without Calhoun, UConn rolls to end skid (AP)
Ryan Boatright had 19 points and Jeremy Lamb scored 17 for Connecticut, which played without coach Jim Calhoun to beat Seton Hall 69-46 on Saturday. Lamb added eight rebounds and Boatright had five assists and four steals for the Huskies (15-7, 5-5 Big East), who ended a four-game losing streak. Andre Drummond scored just seven points but had seven blocks.
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Ohio State looks to end skid in Madison (AP)
Among the hundreds of games fighting for position in Aaron Craft’s mind, one stands out. And the thing he remembers most from Ohio State’s stunning upset loss last year at Wisconsin is that runaway torrent of cardinal flowing right at him from all directions. “It was the first time I’ve ever had a court stormed on me,” the Ohio State point guard said of the then-No.
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