By Anthony Weihofen,
With this being the last week in February one of the biggest events in sports is right around the corner. That’s right, this means that March Madness is right around the corner, so let’s review some of the conference leaders.
Though the American East conference is not exactly most known for it’s basketball teams the Stony Brook Seawolves are having a great season. They are on top of the American East with only two games left in the season.
By Shaun Odell
Earlier this month, 15-year NBA veteran, former Phoenix Suns GM, and current TNT analyst Steve Kerr(@SteveKerrTNT) tweeted the following: “Big Ten basketball = SEC football. Best conference in the country and it’s not close.”
That is coming from a former PAC-12 college standout with 5 NBA championship rings, most of those coming while playing alongside a guy named Michael Jordan. This is a man who knows good basketball when he sees it, and like it or not, Big Ten basketball is good basketball again.
Victor Oladipo, Credit Indiana
By Chris Ramirez
E. Lansing, MI – Indiana ended a 22- year winless stretch at Michigan State’s Breslin Center with a 72-68 triumph over the No. 4 Spartans. Victor Oladipo finished with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and added nine rebounds and five steals, with the well-rounded performance helping Indiana (24-3, 12-2 Big Ten) come up with its first win in East Lansing since Feb. 28, 1991. The Hoosiers had lost in each of their l7 visits to the Breslin Center. More importantly, the victory put Indiana a game ahead of the hard-charging Spartans for sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings and solidified its case for a No. 1 regional seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament — a feat the program last achieved in 1993.
By Anthony Weihofen
Now that we are in the middle of February one of the biggest topics in sports will be preparing for the NCAA March Madness Tournament. It becomes a battle of not just who has more talent, but who can handle the pressure of single-game elimination and fighting off the wild and loud taunts of fans and student sections in the crowd.
By Chris Ramirez
New York, NY – Indiana was one of the teams to lose last week, falling on a last-second shot at Illinois before coming back with a resounding win at Ohio State on Sunday. The Hoosiers received 26 first-place votes and a total of 1,559 points from a nationwide media panel to edge Duke for this week’s top spot.
Credit AP
By Chris Ramirez
Champaign, IL – An inbounds play to remember ended with Tyler Griffey putting in an uncontested layup just before the buzzer, as Illinois stole a thrilling 74-72 victory over No. 1 Indiana in an instant classic at Assembly Hall. The Fighting Illini trailed by double-digits with under 4 1/2 minutes remaining, but D.J. Richardson scored eight consecutive points during an 11-1 run to tie things coming down the stretch. Richardson came away with a steal of Victor Oladipo with time winding down, though Oladipo came from behind and blocked Richardson’s potential go-ahead layup out of bounds as the clock ticked to 0.9 seconds.
