No one wins in the Kohl Center except the Badgers. Except for tonight.
Tubby's Gophers snatched a huge OT win from Wisconsin in a true validation game for Minnesota. The road doesn't get any easier, as they get a visit from Purdue (also dramtatic victors tonight) on Saturday, but at 3-1 in conference and 15-1 overall, the Gophers lookd primed to end their tourney drought (and possibly play into week two).
Most fellow hoops aficionados disagree with me, but I still think top to bottom, the Big Ten in on par with any conference in the nation, except perhaps the ACC. Yes, the Big East is better at the top, but their bottom seven (six if you give Cincinnati or Providence a pass) are terrible.
Here is how I see the Big Ten right now from a national perspective (meaning Big Dance):
LOCKS: Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue, Illinois
SHOULD: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan,
NOT IMPOSSIBLE: Penn State
NIT LIKELY: Iowa, Northwestern
NO WAY: Indiana
Do the same with other conferences, and tell me how it shakes out? Big East? Six locks, three likely with one possibly getting shafted. Two possible NIT'ers. Five no way in hells. Yes, the power is there up top, but they have 16 freaking teams!
The only conference on par is the ACC (My vote for best in America)
LOCKS: Duke, Wake, UNC, Clemson
SHOULD: Miami, Florida State, Maryland,
NIT'ers: NC State, Va Tech, Boston College (ANY of these three has postential to jump up)
NOPE: Georgia Tech, Virginia
Grab the bottom 25% of each league. Who would you rather play? Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia... OR, South Florida, DePaul, St. Johns, Rutgers. Easy choice, right? How about Northwestern, Iowa and Indiana? IU sucks, but NW or Iowa would be favored by 4-8 over each of the previous four listed.
It is going to be a great finish to the year, and best of all, we will get to find out -
ON THE COURT!
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