The first day of the men's Big 14 conference tournament in Indianapolis went as expected, with Illinois blowing out Minnesota 85-52 and Nebraska beating Rutgers 89-72. They will advance to meet Iowa and Wisconsin respectively as Day 2 action begins with the early session on BTN starting at noon; the late session will be shown on ESPN2 starting at 6:30.
AJ Hammons, Raphael Davis, Vince Edwards and Caleb Swanigan pick up some Big Ten season awards.
The Boilers are one of a select few teams to be ranked all season long. A nice accomplishment, but now on to the postseason. (Which Aneesh doesn't care about.)
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough scored 19 points and was one of three Terrapins with 10 or more rebounds, earning Most Outstanding Player honors, as Maryland held Michigan State to a tournament-final record-low 44 points, winning their second straight Big 14 tournament 60-44 Sunday in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The Boilermaker underclassmen worked hard to send the seniors off in style. AJ, RayDay, Johnny and Toyra are done playing in Mackey Arena in an official capacity. *sniffle*
In the Big 14 semifinals on Saturday, Maryland and Michigan State advanced with ease, setting up a rematch almost exactly a month after their first meeting, won by Maryland 85-76 in College Park. Northwestern's Cinderella run ended after three wins; they and Ohio State are left to wait for the WNIT and NCAA tournament, respectively.
Day 3 of conference tournament play featured one surprise, as Northwestern won their third game in three days without leading scorer Maggie Lyon, and one close finish, as a potential game-tying three from April Wilson was off the mark and a Bree Horrocks putback left the Boilers one point short in a 65-64 loss to Michigan State.
Boilerdowd joins Andy and Aneesh on the Purdue Basketball Beat immediately after the win at Nebraska to talk about the difference between Purdue's great record and some frustrations we still have with the team, Vince Edwards and Dakota "Larry Bird" Mathias hitting their strides, Kendall Stephens being dropped from the rotation, smallball vs Nebraska, AJ Hammons' fantastic year, the inability of Matt Painter's teams to beat a press, and our expectations for Senior Night vs Wisconsin, and matchups we'd like to see in the Big Ten and March Madness tournaments.
All that, plus drawers in hotel rooms, Tricep Talk, and our favorite Stephen Toyra memories.
The Boilers beat their second top ten opponent in Mackey this month. And there was joy again in Mudville.
Boilerdowd opines on Purdue's odd current situation -- a healthy overall record, a ranked team, some good wins....yet in the bottom half of the conference in terms of conference seeding.
Zach Osterman (@ZachOsterman), the IndyStar's IU Insider, joins the Purdue Basketball Beat to talk about Purdue's matchup at Indiana this Saturday.
