Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Living in North Carolina has spoiled me with basketball riches in the form of the ACC. This is the greatest basketball conference in the land, no one denies this, and if you do, you better not be arguing in favor the Big Ten. ‘Cause good god, that conference is insufferable to watch.
Case in point, last night’s barn-burner between Penn State and Illinois. The former is a bubble team, the latter is probably a lock and both played like they’d be lucky to make the NIT. The final score: 38, 33 in favor of Penn State. Yes, there was a shot clock in use. Some highlowlights:
Penn State’s leading scorer was Talor Battle, who was 3-11 (27%) from the field, 4-4 from the line for a total of 11 points.
The four free throws Battle attempted were four more than Illinois tried all game. That’s right: they had a total of zero FTs.
Illinois’ Demetri McCamey attempted 12 shots. He made two.
The two teams shot a combined 28.5% from the field.
There were 14 assists in the game. Total.
The first five minutes of the game played out like this: 11 missed shots in a row, one made 13-foot jumper. Official timeout. 2-0, Illinois.
UNC and NC State both scored more points each last night than the total points scored by both Penn State and Illinois.
So yeah, thrilling stuff out there in the heartland. All of which was really summed up best by The Big Picture, which wrote this in reference to the photo you see in the upper right: “The caption of that photo would tell you that Penn State's Andrew Jones is fighting for a rebound. Could be. But he most likely just missed a shot, got the rebound, and then missed the put-back.”
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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I agree that the game was a collasal stinker but why is everyone banging on the Big Ten. When they get to the tournament Big Ten teams always score considerably higher against out of conference competition. I don’t know whether the refs call the games tighter or opposing defenses are just unfamiliar with some of the Big Tens players but statistics show they put up higher average scores in the tournament. Though the Big Ten is lower scoring in comparison to other conferences, this game was an anomoly filled with errors by both sides. Take it easy Mr. Mottram. The Big Ten takes enough grief.
by clr5000 on Feb 19, 2009 5:06 PM EST reply actions
Don’t hate the Big Ten. This is still one of the powerhouse conferences that is going to make an impact in the tourney. Purdue is really a contender not only in the Big Ten tourney, but they have a good shot in the big dance.
I’m a real boilermaker junkie and I’m glad to see this team back in form. If you love this team, you might also like a site I stumbled on which has Purdue and other big ten highlights in HD— http://win.comcast.net. The HD games are eye-popping. Go Boilermakers!
by jackspade on Feb 19, 2009 7:22 PM EST reply actions
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