In or Out? Big Ten postseason breakdown

More often than not during this tournament run of winning three games in three days, Beilein has had to settle the Wolverines down from being too excited. And they can spend Selection Sunday with their fans and fellow students at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Cats will take on No. 9 seed Vanderbilt on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

Wisconsin will enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed in the East Region and will first face Virginia Tech. They don’t seem to care who is scoring or who is in the game.

Their spread offense should work out well against this Wisconsin defense and the Badgers will struggle to keep pace.

MSU is playing without starting senior guard Eron Harris, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in a loss at Purdue on February 18.

The Badgers, who dropped a 71-56 decision to MI on Sunday in the Big Ten tournament title game at the Verizon Center, have made it to the Sweet 16 in five of the past six seasons. They have won a program-record 23 games, a number that could get even bigger in the NCAA tournament. It was more a matter of seeding and site for the Big Dance.

NU’s 28-point margin of defeat was the third-largest since coach Chris Collins took over the program in 2013, and its 46 points scored represented the team’s fewest since January of past year.

For the best mobile experience, use the mobile web version. “There weren’t any radical changes, anything outside the box”, said Wisconsin Coach Greg Gard of his team’s late-season slump, which included a 64-58 loss to MI on February 16.

“That’s kind of the benefit for doing semi-decent in the regular season and conference play, ” Hayes said. MI advanced to the Big Ten Tournament final with a 75-55 second-round win over Illinois (March 9), a 74-70 overtime victory over top-seeded Purdue in the quarterfinals (March 10), and an 84-77 triumph over Minnesota in the semifinals (March 11).

MI was already bound for the NCAA Tournament, but the impressive run through the Big Ten boosts its resume and improves its seeding.

If you were told to predict the Big Ten Tournament championship match-up before the season started, my guess is that you wouldn’t have chosen MI vs. Wisconsin.

Let’s take a brief look at the teams either sure to play in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. The Spartans have seemingly been on the bubble, albeit on the right side of it, for a couple months it seems. In the semi-finals, on Saturday, the team staved off a second half surge by Minnesota and punched their ticket to the championship game. And teams always want to play well on national TV.

Playing its third game in less than 48 hours, worn-down Northwestern couldn’t match No. 24 Wisconsin in any phase of Saturday’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal.

The Big Ten had a weird, mostly bad year.