And now the Big Ten gets very interesting once again. Along the way, one school gets a big win that should ease any tension about what they will be doing in a couple of weeks.
Rutgers’ 78-67 win over Maryland did both of those things, while also setting a school record.
Rutgers came into Tuesday night’s game against the Terrapins scuffling. They had lost three straight and six out of eight after a great start to Big Ten play that had some thinking they were on their way to being a lock for the NCAA Tournament. They had the wins and no bad losses, but now the losses were starting to mount. One other problem has been racking up the wins at home, with a lot less success away from the friendly confines of the RAC.
Well, the homecourt came to the rescue again. The Scarlet Knights set a school record by picking up their 18th home win of the season against one loss. That tells you they have only won once away from home all year, which will soon become a problem in the Big Ten Tournament and ultimately the NCAA Tournament, because those games aren’t played at home. But for a program that has struggled for so long, just going dancing will be a big deal.
Meanwhile, Michigan State went on the road and beat Penn State 79-71, evening the Spartans with the Terrapins. Maryland’s loss also means four teams are tied in the loss column at the top, with Illinois and Wisconsin each one back in the win column. And if you’re scoring at home on just how deep the conference is, just five games separate first place from twelfth, and it all got a bit tighter with Purdue winning at Iowa 77-68.
As to who could come out on top, let’s look at what each team has left. Maryland hosts Michigan, while Michigan State has Ohio State coming to East Lansing, Illinois goes to Ohio State and hosts Iowa and Wisconsin has Northwestern at home and Indiana in Bloomington. Illinois has the toughest remaining schedule with two challenging ones left, but none have it easy.
Rutgers likely secured their place in the NCAA Tournament by adding this win over Maryland to an already good resume that had been taking some hits. In the meantime, it made the race for the top of the conference very interesting for the final few days.
Side Dishes
The bank was open for Matt Coleman and Texas, and the Longhorns are very much alive and well. Coleman hit an off-balance three-pointer off the glass with 0.4 left to sneak Texas past Oklahoma 52-51 in Norman. Once left for dead, the Longhorns have now won five straight and are tied for third place with Texas Tech.
Speaking of teams that might be described as “not dead yet”, Tennessee scored a big 81-73 win at Kentucky to get back above .500. The Volunteers have now put together consecutive wins for the first time in over a month. Also in the SEC, South Carolina pulled away from Mississippi State 83-71 in Columbia despite 17 points and 16 rebounds from Reggie Perry.
Cincinnati was without Jarron Cumberland due to a foot injury, but they used a big second half to get past South Florida 79-67 in Tampa, getting 30 points from Keith Williams.
Home teams won all four games in the Atlantic Sun Tournament quarterfinals, with No. 1 Liberty beating No. 8 NJIT 55-49, No. 2 North Florida holding off No. 7 Jacksonville 91-88, No. 3 Stetson pulling away from No. 6 North Alabama 82-72 and No. 4 Lipscomb getting 40 points and 13 rebounds from Ahsan Asadullah to beat No. 5 FGCU 68-63.
Home teams also swept the first round of the Big South, as No. 6 UNC Asheville edged No. 11 Campbell 72-68, No. 7 USC Upstate used a big first half to beat No. 10 High Point 69-59 and No. 8 Charleston Southern pulling away from No. 9 Presbyterian 81-64.
The trend of home teams winning continued in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament, where No. 4 UIC blew out No. 9 IUPUI 93-59, No. 5 Youngstown State got past No. 8 Milwaukee 63-57 and No. 6 Oakland got 26 points and 12 rebounds to handle No. 7 Cleveland State 80-59.
Finally, in first round action in the Patriot League, No. 7 Bucknell held off No. 10 Holy Cross 65-62 and No. 8 Lehigh held off No. 9 Loyola (Md.) 78-75. That made home teams a perfect 12-0 on the opening night of conference tournament action.
Other results of note: Richmond took care of Davidson 80-63; Duquesne handed VCU another damaging loss, dropping the Rams below .500 in Atlantic 10 play with an 80-77 win in Richmond; Kent State took care of Bowling Green 83-69, and that along with Akron rallying to beat Ohio 74-67 puts the Zips alone in first place in the MAC East; DePaul edged Marquette 69-68 to keep the Golden Eagles sliding with their fifth loss in six games; Vanderbilt surprised Alabama 87-79 in Tuscaloosa behind 38 points from Saben Lee; and West Virginia held off Iowa State 77-71 in Ames.
Chicago State has canceled its final two games for both men’s and women’s basketball due to concerns with the coronavirus, and the school is evaluating whether or not to participate in the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas next week. The men’s team is due to travel to Seattle University and Utah Valley, while the women were due to host those two schools later this week. The teams have combined for just five wins on the season, with the men being winless in WAC play.
As the season comes to an end for teams, the coaching changes will pick up, and on Tuesday, Southeast Missouri State fired Rick Ray after five seasons at the school, and Western Illinois did the same to Billy Wright after six seasons. A former head coach at Mississippi State, Ray was 51-104 in his five seasons at SEMO, while Wright was 53-115, with the highlight coming last season when they knocked off top seed South Dakota State in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Tournament, the first time a No. 8 seed beat a No. 1 seed in that tournament and spoiling the last go-round for Mike Daum & Co.
Finally, we’ll close this on a very positive note. Vermont handled Albany 85-62 in the regular season finale for both teams, but seconds into the game, Vermont’s Josh Speidel scored the first points of his career. Speidel then embraced his teammates and shared a moment with Albany head coach Will Brown before heading to the bench and having a big moment with Vermont head coach John Becker. After he committed to the school as a high school senior, Speidel suffered a serious brain injury in a car accident and was in a coma for five weeks. His prognosis was not good to even stay alive, much less have any real quality of life, but he is set to graduate with a 3.4 GPA. And he got this big moment as well.
Tonight’s Menu
Three more conference tournaments get going alongside a few more regular season games.
- The Mountain West Tournament gets going with three first round games in Las Vegas. It starts with No. 8 Fresno State taking on No. 9 Air Force (3 p.m.), then No. 7 New Mexico takes on No. 10 San Jose State (5:30 p.m.) and No. 6 Colorado State battles No. 11 Wyoming (8 p.m.)
- The Northeast Conference Tournament has quarterfinal action on the slate, with No. 1 Robert Morris hosting No. 8 St. Francis Brooklyn, No. 2 Saint Francis U hosting No. 7 Bryant, No. 3 Sacred Heart hosting No. 6 Mount St. Mary’s and No. 4 LIU hosting No. 5 Fairleigh Dickinson, all tipping at 7 p.m.
- The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament gets going with two first round games at the Ford Center in Evansville as No. 5 Tennessee State takes on No. 8 Morehead State (7 p.m.), then No. 6 Eastern Illinois battles No. 7 Jacksonville State (9:30 p.m.)
- A good one in the Big East starts off the non-tournament slate as Xavier visits Providence (6:30 p.m.), then Butler hosts St. John’s (7 p.m.), Creighton hosts Georgetown (8 p.m.) and Villanova travels to Seton Hall (8:30 p.m.)
- The ACC slate is highlighted by Clemson visiting Virginia Tech (7 p.m.), Florida State visiting Notre Dame and Miami hosting Virginia (9 p.m.)
- In the Big Ten, Indiana hosts Minnesota (7 p.m.) and Wisconsin hosts Northwestern (9 p.m.)
- A full slate of MAAC action that has teams jockeying for seeding is highlighted by Niagara at Siena, Manhattan at Rider and Quinnipiac at Iona, all tipping at 7 p.m.
- In the SEC, Auburn hosts Texas A&M, Arkansas hosts LSU and Florida travels to Georgia (7 p.m.)
- TCU tries to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a tough one as they visit Kansas (8 p.m.), and in the other Big 12 game on the night, Oklahoma State hosts Kansas State (9 p.m.)
- The later games are highlighted by a big one in the Atlantic 10 as Dayton visits Rhode Island (9 p.m.)
