1 Purdue vs. 16 Texas Southern/Fairleigh Dickinson - Columbus
4 Indiana vs. 13 Kent State - Albany
7 Michigan State vs. 10 USC - Columbus
8 Iowa vs 9 Auburn - Birmingham
8 Maryland vs. 9 West Virginia - Birmingham
9 Illinois vs. 8 Arkansas - Des Moines
10 Penn State vs. 7 Texas A&M - Des Moines

8 teams in this year's men's tournament.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Rutgers made the 2022 NCAA Tournament
Minnesota last made the NCAA Tournament in 2019.

And back to being the dead weight of the conference, Nebraska hasn't made it since 2014, made one NCAAT appearance since 2000, and NEVER won one game. Glad Penn State isn't behind them anymore.

I was starting to think Maryland might only score 4 first half points. Terps settled in and an entertaining first half.

Maryland- game could have went either way, but hard fought. Solid effort from both squads! Congratulations, Terps!

Didn't get to see much of the Illinois and Iowa games.

Illinois: I was actually thinking this may be a victory for the Illini, but the turnovers and poor free throw shooting did you in. Congratulations to Arkansas, who actually could have really laid it on if they could shoot a little better.

Iowa: I never liked this matchup and was definitely expecting the Hawkeyes to go down in defeat. I think the committee jacked this bracket up with the location; but at the end of the day, Auburn is simply better and that's all that really matters.

Penn State: America got to see what a lot of us in BIG country have seen this year. They are loaded with talent and if they're clicking, look out, these boys can ball.

Northwestern: I love this team! How can you not root for them? They really need to find their groove and start shooting a touch better as they move forward. Defense looked solid.

Michigan State: What can you say? Typical Izzo team that looks really good come March.

Games vs a #2, #2 and #1 on Saturday...yikes!!!

Purdue: When u get punched in the mouth, have the balls to swing back!

Congratulations, FDU!

Congratulations to Maryland, Northwestern, Penn State, Michigan State, and Indiana. Best of luck in the 2nd round!

Did I forget anyone? Hello???? Oh yeah. You're a DISGRACE to the Big Ten! We should dump you to the MAC. What's more embarrassing, you losing or the fact that the rest of us can't beat you in conference play (well except Indiana). You couldn't beat Wilkes University in a 1st round game. FDU only got to the Big Dance because the real Northeast Conference champion was ineligible. They needed a First Four game just to make it to the Round of 64 and they beat the worst team in NCAA history to get there (20 losses). Their head coach was in his first year coaching NCAA Division 1, he was coaching Division 2 a year ago. He was stupid enough to say he could beat you on Wednesday and you didn't use that to motivate your team. If I were coaching, I'd show them that video and they wouldn't have let FDU beat them. And it's not like this is a fluke, you lost to a #15 seed in 2022 and a #13 seed in 2021! Matt Painter needs to be fired. It would be nice if Indiana, Maryland, or Michigan State could have a #1 seed once in a while, maybe they could make a Final Four. Instead we waste our #1 and high seeds on this joke of a school so they can get bounced to joke schools and our other schools get tough no win and 50-50 matchups.

Looking at the 2nd round,

The only team that isn't a decided underdog by seed is Indiana. They have a 50-50 by seed, a slight favorite over Miami in a 4-5 matchup. The game's in Albany so not much a home court advantage for either. Indiana's by far the Big Ten's best chance to do anything in this tournament. The one glimmer of hope I can see is maybe Auburn can upset Houston in Birmingham and that would open up the draw for Indiana in the next round. Auburn vs. Indiana would be in Kansas City and wouldn't be as tough to beat there. Houston would be a really tough matchup for Indiana, assuming they get that far. The tough thing is for me to cheer for a team from that conference down south though.

Michigan State has Marquette, probably the best Marquette team since Dwayne Wade was there and they made the Final Four. Shaka Smart made the Final Four with VCU but hasn't made the Sweet 16 yet. If it was based on coaching, MSU would go and it's no coincidence that the three biggest upset victims this year were three of the biggest choke artists in men's basketball recently so I might have a glimmer of hope. The game is in Columbus so that would slightly favor MSU geographically.

Penn State is now of course my adopted home team after Illinois lost. They face Texas in Des Moines. PSU is hot now and beat a decent Texas A&M team in the first round. Texas won the Big 12 Tournament. They currently have an interim coach without a lot of NCAA Tournament experience but then again neither does Shrewsberry. The game is in Des Moines, a wash geographically.

Northwestern is out in the West Coast playing UCLA in their home state. Pretty unlikely win.

Finally Maryland is playing Alabama, the #1 overall seed, in their home state. I think FDU has better odds of winning in the 2nd round.

If all five of us lose, I'm claiming UCLA as ours in the Sweet 16.

(03-17-2023 08:11 PM)cubucks Wrote:  Purdue: When u get punched in the mouth, have the balls to swing back!

Congratulations, FDU!

Purdue had to pay a blood sacrifice with their MBB to satisfy the sports gods after what happened during NCAA wrestling semis

(03-18-2023 09:36 AM)ThompsonCreekTiger Wrote:  

(03-17-2023 08:11 PM)cubucks Wrote:  Purdue: When u get punched in the mouth, have the balls to swing back!

Congratulations, FDU!

Purdue had to pay a blood sacrifice with their MBB to satisfy the sports gods after what happened during NCAA wrestling semis

The Lee upset?

(03-18-2023 12:00 PM)cubucks Wrote:  

(03-18-2023 09:36 AM)ThompsonCreekTiger Wrote:  

(03-17-2023 08:11 PM)cubucks Wrote:  Purdue: When u get punched in the mouth, have the balls to swing back!

Congratulations, FDU!

Purdue had to pay a blood sacrifice with their MBB to satisfy the sports gods after what happened during NCAA wrestling semis

The Lee upset?

Ding ding ding

Ramos shocked the world, then fell short in the finals to Glory from Princeton

(03-18-2023 08:27 PM)ThompsonCreekTiger Wrote:  

(03-18-2023 12:00 PM)cubucks Wrote:  

(03-18-2023 09:36 AM)ThompsonCreekTiger Wrote:  

(03-17-2023 08:11 PM)cubucks Wrote:  Purdue: When u get punched in the mouth, have the balls to swing back!

Congratulations, FDU!

Purdue had to pay a blood sacrifice with their MBB to satisfy the sports gods after what happened during NCAA wrestling semis

The Lee upset?

Ding ding ding

Ramos shocked the world, then fell short in the finals to Glory from Princeton

Ha!

Princeton > Purdue and I don't mean academics.

Thank you Michigan State in saving the Big Ten from total humiliation in this tournament. We have a Sweet 16 team! Leave it to Tom Izzo! I don't want to jinx him but it looks like a winnable East Regional although I thought Kentucky was going to beat Kansas State and Duke was going to beat Tennessee (actually I thought Louisiana was going to beat Tennessee!)

Heard some stat that Izzo was really good in the 2nd game of the tournament weekend (so that would be the round of 32, Elite 8, national championship). So the Sweet 16 would be the danger zone.

Great job, Sparty!

(03-20-2023 06:43 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Thank you Michigan State in saving the Big Ten from total humiliation in this tournament. We have a Sweet 16 team! Leave it to Tom Izzo! I don't want to jinx him but it looks like a winnable East Regional although I thought Kentucky was going to beat Kansas State and Duke was going to beat Tennessee (actually I thought Louisiana was going to beat Tennessee!)

Heard some stat that Izzo was really good in the 2nd game of the tournament weekend (so that would be the round of 32, Elite 8, national championship). So the Sweet 16 would be the danger zone.

Yep, definitely jinxed them? Kansas freaking State? They're not even Kansas!

I knew our conference was f'ed when Purdue was our best team. I didn't think we'd f'k up THIS bad. Back to the drawing board. When does football season start?