Big 12 & Big Ten Races Tighten Up
The Big 12 & Big Ten races got tighter this weekend, with Kansas & Purdue able to close their respective gaps on Texas and Ohio State. Both leagues are now within one game with two weeks to go in the regular season and both will be in the ESPN spotlight on Monday and Tuesday.
Kansas hosts Oklahoma State tonight as a part of Big Monday (9 ET, ESPN). The Jayhawks steamrolled Colorado on Saturday 89-63 thanks to another dominating performance by the Morris twins. Markieff and Marcus just own the blocks and they combined for 42 points and 24 rebounds against the Buffaloes. The loss was a blow to Colorado's NCAA hopes and dropped them to 16-11. Kansas draws a similar opponent tonight. Okie State is 16-10 and coming off a big win over Texas A&M to keep their own March hopes alive. A key to the Cowboy win was rebounding, as they held a 29-21 edge on the glass and they will be considerably challenged in that area tonight. Matt Pilgrim has to be in double-digits for rebounds and Oklahoma State will need to get some threes. It all adds up to the fact that winning this one is going to be a big longshot for the Cowboys. The Morris' are just too consistent and Kansas is too much at home.
It was Texas' 70-67 loss to Nebraska that re-opened this conference race, a game the Longhorns just didn't shoot the ball well on the road. The Cornhuskers are a good team at 18-8, and they needed the win, so the loss itself isn't all that alarming. Where I do have concerns is that Jordan Hamilton seems to be just losing just a step from his early dominance. I hope I'm not succumbing to unrealistic expectations, since he did score 18 on Saturday, but the combination of both big points and big rebounds that carried this team through January hasn't been there of late. A home game with Iowa State (1-11 in the Big 12) is the way to get that back.
The Big Ten moves into action on Tuesday night when Ohio State hosts Illinois (7 ET, ESPN). Ohio State fell to Purdue yesterday in West Lafayette, as E'Twaun Moore put on a one-man show with 38 points, while Jared Sullinger was apparently the only Buckeye to make the trip, scoring 25. This race is still Ohio State's to lose--not only are they in the lead by a game, but their only losses are at Wisconsin and at Purdue, so as long as they continue the pattern of winning the games they should, they'll close out a repeat conference title. Tuesday's game falls in that category. Illinois' season is rapidly slipping away, as they lost at Michigan State on Saturday night to fall to 17-10. The Illini's frontline duo of Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale has really fallen flat and while the backcourt, led by Demetri McCamey is decent, it can't make up for it. If both Davis and Tisdale had big games tonight--say, 15 points and 10 rebounds apiece--Bruce Weber's team could get a badly needed road win. The big men are capable of that, but after a season that's seen things get worse, rather than better, there's no point in expecting it. Ohio State gets the win in a bounceback spot in Columbus.
Purdue will try and keep it going on Wednesday at Indiana. The Hoosiers will bring maximum effort here, as they try and derail their archrival. Verdell Jones and Jordan Hulls are coming off a nice game in the backcourt, even though IU lost to Northwestern this weekend. The Boilermakers rely almost exclusively on Moore and JaJuan Johnson, and its not unthinkable that they could be flat after the emotional win on Sunday. Johnson can render that moot if he comes prepared to dominate down low, where Indiana is not strong--Christian Watford is a decent scorer, but a mediocre rebounder. But I'm going to step out on a limb here and say Indiana pulls a shocker--at the very least it'll be closer than the number Las Vegas experts put on the board Wednesday morning.
Image from kansas.com
Dan Flaherty is the editor of the Sports Notebook Family, published through the Real Clear Sports Blog Network, offering coverage of college basketball.
