For the blogger interview with Corn Nation, I sat down with hastily sent an email to Brian, one of the fine contributors at Corn Nation, SB Nation's excellent blog dedicated to all things Cornhusker.

While the guys at CN are mostly focusing on Husker players getting drafted to the NFL and counting down the days to the upcoming football season as a new member of the Big Ten, there is still a little time to chat about the orange ball sport.

Brian gave us some great analysis and opinions on the state of Husker basketball, which has looked to be showing signs of very slight but noticeable improvement in the recent years under Doc Sadler.

How will Nebraska transition to the Big Ten? Could they fit in immediately with the style of basketball that they play (which could be considered very "Big Ten-esque")? Will we be seeing the Huskers in the NCAA tournament anytime soon? Click after the jump to see the answers to those questions and more.

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BT Powerhouse is reviewing the 2010-11 season for each team, one team each week. This week is Northwestern week.

Go up to a big fan of college basketball, any fan at all, and ask them what they think of the Northwestern Wildcats, and the chances are good that the first thing to come up will be that no Northwestern team has ever been to the NCAA Tournament.

Yes, the other purple Wildcats have never, ever, ever, ever... ever (OK, I'll stop) been to the Big Dance, and even though a 9-1 start to the season got the Wildcats some praise from people around the college basketball world, they once again were exposed in Big Ten play, and finished the regular season at 7-11 in the conference. 

An overtime loss to eventual Big Ten Champion Ohio State would effectively end the Wildcats' bid for a spot in the field of 68, but they would, however, get two wins in the NIT before losing a close game to Washington St. in the quarterfinals.

Now it's time to look at the Wildcats season by the numbers. All stats are obtained from Statsheet and Ken Pomeroy. Check them out after the jump!

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8-1.

That is the combined record of a tiny university in Indianapolis in the NCAA Tournament over the last two years.

7-31.

That was the combined FGM/ FGA for the two best players on a Wisconsin team that had taken pride in so many things over the season, and with very good reason to do so. Then they ran into that tiny private university and, for around thirty-five minutes, everything went horribly wrong.

Ball control? The Badgers were harassed into 11 turnovers for the game, mostly in a first half while Butler began building their lead (the Bulldogs had 13 turnovers, and most of them came in the final minutes when they faced something that they probably have not seen very much of in a full court press).

Three point shooting? Wisconsin finished the game slightly better from behind the arc than expected after a late flurry by Jordan Taylor, but finished 7-29 from three, good for 24%. Taylor and John Leuer combined for 4-16, and both appeared to be lulled into taking deep jumpers by the Bulldogs.

But what about the superstars? While Leuer and Taylor were putting up numbers they might never want to be reminded of again, Matt Howard was forcing the issue and getting to the charity stripe (9-10 FT's), grabbing some tough rebounds (12 total for him. which doubled Wisconsin's game high rebounder, Leuer), and hitting some timely three pointers to help swell Butler's lead to as much as 20 points.

Shelvin Mack, although harassed into a 4-12 shooting night himself, hit the de facto dagger for the Bulldogs on a tough fallaway jumper in the final minute. In the end, Butler's guys played like winners, and Wisconsin's guys, despite giving a heck of an effort towards the end of the game, looked confused, lost against a team that is far more tough and physical than it looks.

Wisconsin now will go home and take their break before getting ready for another grind in the Big Ten, and Butler will make their second straight Elite Eight appearance against 2-seed Florida, who has beaten the Bulldogs twice in the Tournament since the turn of the century.

For those interested in seeing the stats from this game, as well as more thoughts on the Bulldogs and Badgers, follow me after the jump!

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This is not your grandpa's everyday, 2006 George Mason team... or is it?

The Patriots of yore (the basketball team, not the guys who fought the Red Coats) were a sneaky-good CAA team that got into the field of 64 via a controversial at-large bid after losing to Hofstra in their conference tournament. So, in honor of Billy Packer's blasting of mid-majors in 2006, George Mason pulled off four straight wins and got to the Final Four, where they would lose to eventual National Champion Florida.

GMU's 2006 run (along with Sweet Sixteen teams Wichita State and Bradley) was one of the most captivating in the history of college basketball, and now Jim Larranaga has a new batch of kids itching to top the famous 2006 squad. They'll have their chance at getting one step closer to their goal today against the number one overall seed, Ohio State.

Ohio State came out of the gate flat against first round opponent UTSA, but they quickly got hot and took out the Roadrunners with ease. Now they'll be getting a test against another mid-major, but one with triple the talent and drive to win. And after seeing what the Bulldogs of Butler did to fellow one-seed Pitt, the Buckeyes had better not put their guard down.

Follow me after the jump to see how these teams match up statistically, and get more thoughts from yours truly on whether or not the Patriots can ruin even more brackets by topping Sullinger and Co...

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William Buford led Ohio State with 18 points, and three other Buckeyes scored in double figures as they won easy over Texas-San Antonio. The Buckeyes got off to a slow start in the first half but eventually pulled away with good defense and even better three point shooting, mainly from Buford and shooting specialist Jon Diebler. OSU finished the day 12-24 from behind the arc.

UTSA beat the Alabam State Hornets in the final set of games for the First Four, the new first round for the 68-team tournament, before facing off against the number one overall seed Buckeyes. The Roadrunners got a big game from Devin Gibson, who scored 24 points on 9-17 shooting and grabbed four steals; he has been one of the few opposing guards to actually outplay the Big Ten 6th Man of the Year in Aaron Craft, who had zero points, three fouls, and four turnovers to go along with his seven assists. Outside of Gibson, however, the Roadrunners second leading scorer only had six points.

Sophomore Melvin Johnson III, UTSA's second leading scorer, was 1-9 from the field and only scored five points on the day after scoring a career high 29 points against Alabama State.

Ohio State will now face the George Mason Patriots in the third round. GMU got to the third round by the way of a dramatic comeback victory against the disappointing Wildcats of Villanova. It was the Patriots's first win in the Big Dance since Jim Larranaga led them to the Final Four in 2006. George Mason will now look to pull the upset on Sunday against the Buckeyes, who should go into the game expecting a fight.

Gametime --- 11:40 AM CT/ 12:40 PM ET

TV --- Tru TV

This year's tournament bracket hasn't just caused controversy with some of the teams included and omitted; many people are questioning the seeding of numerous teams, and some conspiracy theorists are pointing fingers at the interesting seeds for the bubble teams of the Big Ten.

Penn State and Michigan State are 10-seeds, Illinois is a 9-seed, and Michigan, perhaps the most surprising, is an 8-seed. Although many are arguing these teams deserved to be lower, the seeding for these teams actually might be a bad thing for them, as the potential 2nd round opponents are now San Diego State, Florida, Kansas, and Duke. And that's if they can get past their 1st round match-ups, who are clearly capable of ending any of the mentioned teams's seasons quickly.

Many people may be upset, but what's done is done, and now the Wolverines are looking to beat a Tennessee team that at one point looked like a Top 5 powerhouse. Of course, after beating Pittsburgh on the road, the Vols then dropped three games in a row to two mid majors and USC. The Vols were 12-11 from that point onward, making their selection as a 9-seed equally questionable.

This game will be a match-up of two teams that aren't very deep, aren't very experienced, and are very evenly matched in terms of just about everything. People may not like where they stand, and they may just be playing for an opportunity to get blown out by Duke, but Michigan vs. Tennessee should be an exciting, down-to-the-wire game, which is what everyone should want from their first round games in the end.

[UPDATE: While it appears Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl will coach for the tournament, signs are pointing towards his firing when the season ends for the Vols. We'll see how his team responds mentally to the situation at hand.]

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At then end of the first half, Ohio State had shot only 38% from the field and held a six point advantage over the upstart Nittany Lions of Penn State. For the final 20 minutes, however, Ohio State's offense woke up and scored 42 points and rose their field goal percentage to 51% as the Buckeyes won their second straight Big Ten Tournament.

Penn State had the top two scorers of the game with Talor Battle (24) and Jeff Brooks (19), but the rest of the Nittany Lions team only had 17 points combined on 6-22 shooting. Tim Frazier, who was a major factor in PSU's run at the BTT Title, only scored 5 points on 2-8 shooting; Frazier was plagued by foul trouble throughout the game, and was forced to platoon with Jermaine Marshall, who only scored 4 points.

Ohio State now sits at 32-2 overall and is everyone's favorite to get the Number 1 overall seed today on Selection Sunday (Update: Yeah, they are the overall #1). Meanwhile, Penn State will likely nab a spot in the field of 68; their wins over Wisconsin and Michigan State in the conference tournament made them a lock in the eyes of many bracketologists. (Update: PSU is in, playing the Temple Owls in the first round.)

It's now officially time to gear up for the best tournament in sports. Can the Buckeyes stay hot and get to the Final Four? Can Talor Battle and Co. pull off a shocking upset or two if they indeed make the tournament? The nation will find out soon enough, as the road to the Final Four begins now.

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22 field goals.

Four 3-pointers.

When the game clock hit double zeros, Michigan State and Iowa both had those two numbers, and it wasn't the only thing that was pretty similar. The Spartans and Hawkeyes had 12 and 11 assists, respectively. The Fighting Izzos had 15 turnovers and 14 personal fouls to the.... Hawkeyes' 13 turnovers and 16 personal fouls. In many aspects of the game, Iowa played MSU to a draw, and as a result stayed close to the final minutes. The difference maker in the end, at least in terms of points, was the four more free throw makes by the Spartans, which were a symbolic difference between winning and overtime for Izzo and Co (I'm and on fire with these cheesy nicknames!)

The real difference between ugly victory and uglier defeat for MSU was a combination of good defense and an Iowa team that went cold in the closing minutes of the game. Bryce Cartwright and Matt Gattens, who provided early scoring as Iowa kept it close in the first half, did not score for the final 13 minutes of the game, and would finish with a combined 10-25 from the floor. As the Hawkeyes leading scorers faded down the stretch, they got spirited efforts from Melsahn Basabe, Eric May, and Zack McCabe, the latter of which hit a 3-pointer with 1:37 left to pull Iowa within one. From that point on Iowa would miss their last five shots and turn it over twice, while Durrell Summers iced the game with from the charity stripe. 

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Gametime---- 3:30 CT

TV---- ESPN2

The 2011 Big Ten Tournament begins today, but this year Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans are playing from the start. MSU (17-14, 9-9 Big Ten) is the 7-seed in the conference tournament this year, something a little different from the last two years, in which Sparty received a first round bye. The Spartans, who have had an up and down season, will face an Iowa team far away from the bubble but still feeling good after ending the regular season with an upset over Purdue.

While it would take a magical and improbable tournament run for the Hawkeyes (11-19, 4-14 Big Ten) to make it to the Big Dance, they should come out tomorrow with some renewed energy after their last win. Meanwhile, Michigan State is projected to be in the NCAA's at the moment, despite only being four games over .500. This is mostly due to a strong SOS and a great deal of parity in the Big Ten this year.

Both teams traded blow-out wins at home over the regular season, and now the two teams meet with (possibly) the whole season on the line. If Iowa loses, they will be done for the year. As for Michigan State, a loss would severely hurt their chances at making the tournament; strength of schedule and RPI are great, and a soft bubble gives the Spartans even more help, but they should consider today's game to be a must-win.

Prediction: I think Iowa will compete with the Spartans for at least the first half, possibly more than that, but ultimately Michigan State should pull away to avoid the crushing upset. I'm calling this a must-win for the fighting Izzo's, and he usually manages to rally his boys for those type of games. I'm calling a 65-57 Spartan win.

[No Stat Breakdown this time, sorry. I spent my Wednesday evening at the Sprint Center for the Mizzou/ Texas Tech Big 12 Tourney game. Even sports nerds need sleep, and it is currently 1 AM as I type this.]

In a new recurring feature here at BT Powerhouse, I introduce to you the BT Powerhouse Roundtable. Click the jump to see the answers from the various contributors to BT Powerhouse, and be sure to provide your own answers in comments section!

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Fran McCaffery has had a long first year as the head coach of Iowa, but today he got a great feather to put in his cap as the formerly last place Hawkeyes stunned #6 Purdue in Iowa. In his final home game as a Hawkeye, Jarryd Cole scored 16 points on 7-12 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Along with Cole, three other Hawkeye starters scored at least 11 points. Bryce Cartwright, who was fantastic running the point for Iowa, finished the day with 13 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds.  

Purdue (25-6, 14-4 Big Ten) was dealt a huge blow in terms of seeding and pride. Before today's loss, the Boilermakers had visions of a share of the Big Ten title and a possible 1-seed in the NCAA tournament dancing in their heads; unfortunately, the Boilers got caught looking too far into the future, and were subsequently out-hustled and generally out-played by an inferior Hawkeye squad.

Purdue now heads into the Big Ten Tournament as the likely 2-seed (which will be wrapped up if Ohio State beats Wisconsin), and will have to bounce back in their next game lest they get in danger of possibly falling all the way to a 3-seed in the Big Dance.

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Gametime:  4:00 ET - - - - TV:  ESPN

It's the month of March once again, and the Purdue Boilermakers have made a pretty good case for a 2-seed, and possibly even a 1-seed, in the NCAA Tournament  up to this point. What's surprising to many people isn't that the Boilers have been the second best team in the Big Ten this season (behind top-ranked Ohio State), it's that they have managed to do so without the help of All-American forward Robbie Hummel, who as we all know re-tore his ACL before the start of the season. 

Despite Hummel's season-ending injury, Purdue has so far posted a record of 25-5 (14-3 in conference play) behind the solid play of their other superstar seniors, JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore, a cast of colorful-yet-reliable role players, and Matt Painter, who should be one of the frontrunners for Big Ten and National Coach of the Year.

With all of the 'what-if's and 'should-have-been's cast aside, Purdue looks like a solid choice to make the second weekend of the tourney, but they'll have to take care of business in the waning days of the Big Ten season if they want to make a case for one of the four one-seeds available. That task starts today against an Iowa team looking to end a disappointing season on a high note. 

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Ohio State won it's second game in a row and their fourteenth conference game of the season by the way of thrashing Indiana 82-61; they will likely return to the top spot in both national polls. This occurred in a game in which foul trouble was rampant on both sides, including two quick fouls on Jared Sullinger, who would end the day with only five points, all from the free throw line (0-2 FG). The difference maker for the Buckeyes would turn out to be their streaky freshman, Deshaun Thomas.

With 8:16 left to go in the first half, Thomas went wild for the next four minutes, scoring 14 straight points for the Buckeyes to Indiana's 3 during that stretch. Thomas made five straight shots (including two straight three-pointers) and two free throws as the Buckeyes' lead ballooned to 30-13.

OSU wouldn't look back from that point on, and Thomas would finish the day with 22 points on 7-9 shooting from the field, 6-7 from the free throw line, and 2-3 from behind the arc. The highly touted freshman broke out of a seven-game scoring drought in which he only scored 13 points total after scoring 13 in OSU's home win against Purdue.

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When: February 27, 2011 (Sunday) 

Gametime: 4 PM ET/ 3 PM CT

TV: CBS

Ohio State (26-2, 13-2 Big Ten) has, for all intents and purposes, had a stellar season up to this point. The Buckeyes started off the season with 24 straight wins and held the top spot in the AP and USA Today/ Coaches polls for four weeks. They have one of the most consistent and effective offenses in the nation (even with a considerably short bench), and boast one of the best starting lineups in college basketball.

That said, OSU has finally felt some heat in it's last four games; the Buckeyes have gone 2-2 during this stretch, with wins against Michigan State and Illinois and losses on the road to their counterparts in the Big Ten's upper tier, Wisconsin and Purdue. After alternating between wins and losses for the past two weeks, Ohio State looks to start a new winning streak against a reeling Indiana team that is currently riding a five game losing streak.

This appears to be a great opportunity for the Buckeyes to start a new win streak; if you may recall, William Buford, Jared Sullinger, and Jon Diebler led the Buckeyes as they embarrassed IU at Assembly Hall by a score of 85-67. OSU shot a ridiculous 60.5% from the field (68.4% from behind the arc!) and averaged 2.24 points per shot, an absolutely staggering number (OSU has averaged 1.37 PPS for the year, which is already good) in their rout of the Hoosiers. This would mark the start of OSU's 11-0 start in Big Ten play, and would also mark the fourth loss in a six game losing streak for IU, their longest of the season thus far. 

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For as long as I can remember in my 18 years of living, my parents have raised me to love the black and gold and despise the crimson and blue. Also throughout my life, I've always been way more into Mizzou basketball than football, more than likely because of the fact that I'm way better at shooting an orange ball than trying to not get killed by a linebacker.

That said, up until yesterday I had been to around five football games and zero basketball games at MU. What's up with that? After pestering my dad more months, he finally broke down and got tickets to the Iowa State and Oklahoma games, along with a promise that we'll try to get seats for the KU game. After yesterday's game, I'm really glad that I'm so damn annoying.

Anyways, my dad has taken up amateur photography, and sent me a total of 35 shots from the pregame, halftime, and 2nd half of Mizzou dismantling of the Cyclones. I think he's pretty good at this photo-shooting hobby, so I'm sharing his photos with the friendly folks at Rock M.

So without further word rambling, a bunch of pictures after the jump.

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via media.columbiamissourian.com

I'm not the greatest artist in the world, not in Missouri, not in the town where I live. That said, I've learned quite a bit about drawing and painting for my grandmother; I'm no slouch with a pen or pencil. After not touching a utensil with the thought of making artwork for about three years now, I've picked the hobby back up, and am looking to make something big: A color match mural of pictures from around the country of College Basketball.

The process is so simple that one of you guys could probably do a better job than me. I simply take a picture from a magazine page/ photo paper, cut out a section or two, replicate the drawing with pencil, and then match the colors of the picture with colored pencil. Here are some examples of the process, which happen to be parts of the mural/ collage/ whatever the heck it is.

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Pay whatever respects you may have to now former-Royal Alberto Callaspo, I guess. I don't have much to say. He was a pretty average player, pretty decent on offense, pretty God awful on defense. On RR he was mostly the target of wife-beating jokes and lots, and lots, and lots of gifs. But all the barbs aside, I never harbored any sort of hatred towards Bert. Even though he has had a few personal troubles, he will be remembered by me as a dude who never complained, always tried to help his team win, on a slew of horrible teams, which might actually be a hard thing to do (like I know anything about professional athletes) I shall unofficially retire all the Bert gifs (gif haters rejoice!)

Gif retirement after El Jumpo

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William Steel Bloomquist was born in a spaceship hovering over an active volcano on November 27, 1949 (Fun Fact: November 27 is the same date in which the First Crusade was declared, Jimi Hendrix was born, and Baby Face Nelson died guns blazing against the FBI.) Maxwell Bloomquist immediately placed his son under the care of a pack of gray wolves somewhere in Canada, signaling the beginning of Willie's eventual rise to fulfill the prophecy of his ancestors.

[Disclaimer - If you think Willie was born in 1977, you are sadly mistaken. He changed his year of birth from 1949 to 1977 so that he wouldn't have to hear about Dave Niehaus calling him an "old man" during Mariner games.]

Fact: This was the original idea for the shirt, but Willie was ultimately taken out because every women who looked at the design instantly became pregnant.

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