When historians look back on this season, they’ll be puzzled by Wisconsin’s loss to Rutgers. I know Frank Kaminsky missed the game and Traevon Jackson got hurt in the middle of it, but that doesn’t come close to explaining the outcome. Even without those two, the Badgers should have been able to preserve a 12-point lead that they owned with 17:30 left. Wisconsin has better than a 1-in-2 chance of winning the Big Ten tournament. Rutgers has a 1-in-97478 chance of doing so. And that includes the result of Rutgers beating Wisconsin.
Since then, Rutgers has played 14 games and lost them all. Normally, the narrative is about an upset like that giving a team confidence or noting how much the players battle. But Rutgers flipped the script, apparently deciding that they had reached the pinnacle and there was nothing left to play for. Part of the reason Rutgers stinks is that they are one of the worst shooting teams in the land. They’ve hit an ugly 43% of their 2’s (326th) and 29% of their 3’s (329th). But on that stupendous night they made 57% and 45%, respectively.
Purdue and Illinois appear to be playing for bids. And Indiana might want to take down Northwestern or they risk going to Dayton (or conceivably, being invited to host an NIT game). Both Ohio State and Michigan State are listed as eight-seeds by the consensus, and each would provide a challenging match-up for one-seed in the second round.
Big Ten
All-kenpom.com: Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin (kPOY); D’Angelo Russell, Ohio State; Nigel Hayes, Wisconsin; Sam Dekker, Wisconsin; Aaron White, Iowa.
March 11-15 at Chicago.
Rd1 Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1 Wisconsin 100 100 88.8 72.7 58.5 3 Michigan St. 100 100 55.0 34.5 11.1 5 Iowa 100 80.8 52.3 14.7 8.2 6 Ohio St. 100 72.7 36.7 23.2 7.5 2 Maryland 100 100 64.0 27.4 7.1 4 Purdue 100 100 41.8 7.8 3.2 7 Indiana 100 67.7 27.9 9.7 2.0 8 Illinois 100 63.4 8.3 3.4 1.3 11 Minnesota 82.7 25.8 8.1 3.6 0.7 9 Michigan 100 36.6 2.9 0.9 0.2 10 Northwestern 100 32.3 8.1 1.6 0.2 13 Penn St. 58.4 12.5 4.1 0.5 0.1 12 Nebraska 41.6 6.7 1.8 0.1 0.03 14 Rutgers 17.3 1.5 0.1 0.02 0.001