There have been eight Big Ten games in the 2012-13 basketball season and the home team has won six of them, including: Purdue beating No. 11 Illinois 68-61 in West Lafayette, followed by the Illini beating No. 8 Ohio State 74-55 in Champaign (the Buckeyes had beaten Nebraska by 36 in their opener in Columbus). […]

Bad Spartan. Bad.  

Tom Crean is the undisputed Twitter king of Big Ten coaches. The frenetic Hoosier coach has more Twitter followers and has Tweeted more than the rest of the Big Ten coaches combined: Coach Followers Following Tweets Tom Crean 98,740 120 5,312 Tim Miles 37,025 59 2,571 John Beilein 14,895 27 314 Tubby Smith 12,487 45 […]

Michael Pointer of the Indianapolis Star on what is expected to heavily Indiana crowd at this weekend’s Crossroads Classic involving the Hoosiers, Purdue, Notre Dame and Butler: Officials from IU, Purdue and Notre Dame said their schools sold their entire allotment of tickets. Butler returned “several hundred” upper-level tickets, a school spokesman said. Peduto said […]

The Big Ten is deeper and stronger than ever: Three unbeatens. Six teams in the Top 25. A handful of the best players in the country. But which team is best so far? We take a look below at where they’ve been, what they have done well, what hasn’t gone well and what is ahead. […]

A special Saturday edition of the Daily Big Tidbits … Gene Keady is coming back to the Purdue sideline! (NBC Sports) It looks like Indiana will get an official visit from BeeJay Anya. (Inside The Hall) Tom Dienhart ranks the biggest football games in the Big Ten this year. Michigan and Michigan State are involved in […]

Today, the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association voted on the  the six person core team of juniors for the Indiana All-Star team. Inexplicably, 2013 Purdue recruit Bryson Scott was left off the team.  Scott is widely considered to be the best junior in the state of Indiana, so his exclusion from the core group is a […]

Well, that was something. I realize that a lot of other fan sites post immediate reactions after sporting events, whether their team wins or loses.  In the 24 hour news cycle that we now enjoy in this day and age, that’s probably the smart thing to do.  Instant gratification, and all that. For me, sometimes […]

In reaction to this Tweet from WTMJ in Milwaukee: I responded, “So? Different fan bases” – which during my time in Wisconsin and since then I have found to be the case (though this is largely based on friendships with Wisconsin alums). WTMJ responded by saying “Multiple polls we’ve taken show a majority of the […]

Who: #10 Purdue Boilermakers (21-12, 10-8 Big Ten)  vs. #7 Saint Mary’s Gaels (27-5, 14-2 WCC) When: Friday, March 16, 7:27 EST on TruTV Where: Omaha, Nebraska Favorite: Virtually a PK. The line opened at Purdue (-1), and has since shifted to Saint Mary’s (-1/2). Looking ahead:  The winner will face the winner of #2 Kansas […]

Based on this interactive map, here’s a look at how many NCAA tournament players each of the Big Ten states produced – and what percentage of those players play on home state teams: State Number Home % Illinois 29 0% Indiana 28 32% Ohio 23 43% Michigan 19 69% Pennsylvania 15 20% Minnesota 13 0% Iowa […]

Where‘s the money headed are the lines moving in second first-round games involving Big Ten games in the NCAA tournament? Mostly toward Big Ten teams. The line has gotten at least a half-point bigger in all but the Michigan-Ohio game, with the Michigan State line moving by 2.5 points: Game Open Current Indiana/New Mexico St IU-5.5 […]

Here are the key facts about Purdue opponent Saint Mary’s (Calif.) in the first round of the NCAA tournament (we refuse to call them second-round games): Hometown: Moraga, Calif. Conference: West Coast Record: 27-5 (14-2) Nickname: Gaels Tournament Record: 3-6 in six NCAA appearances (1959, 1989, 1997, 2005, 2008, 2010). Sweet 16 in 2010. Most notable NBA player: Tom Meschery averaged […]

Here are the early lines for games involving Big Ten games in this week’s first round tournament games: Ohio State (-17) over Loyola (Md.) Indiana (-7.5) over New Mexico State Wisconsin (-8.5) over Montana Michigan State (-17.5) over LIU Brooklyn Michigan (-6) over Ohio Purdue vs Saint Mary’s (Calif.) PK Bet wisely.

Thursday, 2:10 p.m.: Wisconsin vs Montana, TNT Thursday, 9:45 p.m.: Indiana vs New Mexico State, CBS Thursday, 9:55 p.m.: Ohio State vs Loyola (Maryland), TNT Friday, 7:20 p.m.: Michigan vs Ohio, TNT Friday, 7:27 p.m.: Purdue vs Saint Mary’s, truTV Friday, 9:30 p.m.: Michigan State vs LIU Brooklyn, TBS

Curious. All four games Friday feature teams that only played once during the regular season – and three of the games were quite close. Should make for an entertaining day in Indianapolis. Here are your game-by-game previews (and betting tips, after we went 3-1 against the spread yesterday because we didn’t stick to our bracket […]