As the Big Ten’s regular season came to a conclusion on Sunday, the conference tournament became the immediate focus for all of its teams.
For the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (2-14 Big Ten, 9-20 overall), it will look to get a win against Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten tournament and pick up a conference tournament win for the second consecutive year in the process.
For four other teams, the conference will present and opportunity to make a run or get their signature win to lock up their NCAA berths come Selection Monday. Those teams are the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Purdue Boilermakers, Rutgers Scarlett Knights and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
For two of those teams they will face each other Thursday afternoon, as Rutgers will look to use its lead-leaguing defense to stifle the Boilermakers, the winner most likely securing a bid for the NCAA tournament.
For the Gophers and the Cornhuskers, they will have to wait until Friday to see whom they will face as both of them secured a top-4 seed guaranteeing them a double-bye in the tournament.
For the Gophers, they will hope that it is the Iowa Hawkeyes that will advance to face them on Friday, as they will look to avenge a loss from about a month ago.
For the Cornhuskers they are looking to win at least two games over the course of the conference tournament to make up for their poor RPI (65). They will be looking to avenge a overtime loss to Michigan and play Maryland in the semifinals Saturday night to secure their signature win for selection Monday.
Four teams have already essentially secured berths in the NCAA tourney they are the Ohio State Buckeyes, Maryland Terrapins, Michigan Wolverines and Iowa.
Some people might think Michigan might be on the bubble but when you look at its RPI (38) and its signature wins against Ohio State and Maryland, the Wolverines seem to be in, though a win over Penn State would further punch its ticket.
For Iowa, Ohio State and Maryland, their dominant regular season performances along with their strong RPI’s should guarantee their entrance into the tourney no matter what transpires throughout conference week.
Come Sunday night look for the potential matchup of Ohio State and Maryland to take place in the Championship. As both teams for the majority of the season have put on cruise control throughout their non-conference and conference schedules to both secure the number one and two seeds respectively.
