A tie for first, with one team a half game back and two more teams a full game back. Two games separate first from seventh place. Three games separate first from 11th place. One more game back is a team that at one time was ranked in the top ten and won a big early season tournament.
Welcome to the 2019-20 Big Ten as of Wednesday morning.
The Big Ten has been tremendous all season, especially the top 12 teams as Northwestern and Nebraska are clearly a cut below the rest. Tuesday night’s action just jumbled the picture a little more.
First, we’ll go to the top. Maryland won their fifth straight game, knocking off Rutgers 56-51 in College Park. Jalen Smith had his fourth straight double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds, and when you notice the Terrapins are 18-4 overall and 8-3 in Big Ten play, tied with Illinois, you can start to wonder why a lot of people aren’t talking about them. Their four losses came in a pair of two-game skids, with all four coming on the road and none of them bad losses. And on Friday night, they go to Illinois with first place on the line.
Right behind those two teams is Michigan State, but the Spartans had a chance to be ahead of them. Instead, they were just a little short at home, falling 75-70 to Penn State. Down by three late, Cassius Winston scored and was fouled, but missed the free throw that would have tied it. The Nittany Lions closed it out with four more free throws sandwiched around one more stop to win at Michigan State for just the second time ever. During their current five-game winning streak, three of the wins have come away from State College.
Then let’s get to the team one more game back that we mentioned earlier. Michigan won the Battle 4 Atlantis in impressive fashion back in November, which got them ranked high in the polls. They had a win over Creighton before that in the Gavitt Games as well. But Big Ten play has proven to be a little different for them, as they fell to 4-7 with a 61-58 home loss to an Ohio State team that has likewise has some big ups and downs. In all, the Wolverines have lost seven of nine, including three straight in Ann Arbor.
There is still a month left of the grind in the Big Ten, and the conference tournament should be as wide open as the regular season has been. It’s anyone’s race at this point, and it would seem surprising if anyone suddenly developed a lot of separation with the way this season has gone.
Side Dishes
In SEC action, Kentucky held off Mississippi State 80-72 as Nick Richards came up big again with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Also, Tennessee bounced back after some recent struggles to pick up a 69-68 come-from-behind win at Alabama after trailing by as many as 15 points.
At the end of Rhode Island‘s 73-67 win over visiting UMass, there was a scuffle after the handshake line. It’s not clear what happened, and no punches appeared to be thrown, but police who were in the Ryan Center had to come in and help separate players and coaches who had some animated exchanges. The Rams remain a game back of first-place Dayton.
Other results of note: Duke made a late run to get past Boston College 63-55 in Chestnut Hill; Georgia Tech dumped Virginia Tech 76-57; Central Michigan took out Bowling Green 92-82 in a key MAC game; Xavier beat DePaul 67-59, getting 12 points and 18 rebounds from Tyrique Jones and dropping the Blue Demons to 1-9 in Big East play; and Texas Tech beat Oklahoma 69-61 in Lubbock.
Malcolm Turner didn’t last long as athletic director at Vanderbilt, as he resigned a year after taking over. In his place is former basketball star Candice Lee, the first black woman to lead an athletic department at an SEC school. Turner cited outside reasons for moving on, but reports suggest there was some tension in Nashville. Turner was not there long, but in that time he fired Bryce Drew after a winless SEC season and replaced him with Jerry Stackhouse.
Staying in the SEC, Arkansas lost a tough one in overtime to visiting Auburn 79-76 on Tuesday, but they had a bigger loss before that. Star guard Isaiah Joe underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Tuesday and will be out for an unknown amount of time. The sophomore is second on the team in scoring and has been a big part of their success. Mason Jones, also dealing with an injury, had 40 points on 12-24 shooting in the losing effort on Tuesday night.
At the end of this month, Loyola Marymount will debut a statue of Hank Gathers as the 30th anniversary of his sudden death approaches. It will also be right before the Lions’ last home game of this season. Gathers collapsed during a West Coast Conference Tournament game on March 4, 1990, and died at age 23 due to a heart muscle disorder. The Lions made a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament after that, ultimately losing to eventual national champion UNLV.
Tonight’s Menu
The action picks up some on the evening, though the night isn’t loaded with big games. Here are some important ones to watch.
- The first game of the night is a key Missouri Valley game as Indiana State hosts Loyola-Chicago (6 p.m.), while later on Drake hosts Bradley (9 p.m.)
- A key Big East battle starts a bit later as Villanova visits Butler (6:30 p.m.), then Creighton visits Providence (7 p.m.) and Seton Hall goes to Georgetown (8:30 p.m.)
- A nice Big Ten battle to start their slate is on tap as Iowa visits Purdue (7 p.m.), and later on Minnesota hosts Wisconsin (9 p.m.)
- In the Atlantic 10, Duquesne visits Saint Louis (7 p.m.)
- Clemson tries to get back to .500 in ACC play at Virginia (7 p.m.)
- SEC games of note include Georgia visiting Florida and South Carolina visiting Ole Miss (7 p.m.)
- There’s a big game in the Southland Conference on tap as Stephen F. Austin hosts Nicholls (7:30 p.m.)
- In the Big 12, Oklahoma State will try again for their first win as they host TCU (8 p.m.)
- The lone Mountain West game on the slate is Utah State hosting UNLV (10 p.m.)
