Big Ten Championship: Wisconsin Vs

The only thing the Badgers wanted – or claimed to desire – was delivering another solid performance that could serve as a postseason building block. “We’ve got one more standing in front of us”.

During that stretch, the third-seeded Terps self-destructed with a series of turnovers, including successive shot clock violations.

Just hours after athletic director Gene Smith gave head coach Thad Matta a vote of confidence by stating that he believes in the coaching staff and will keep them around for another season, Matta’s Buckeyes lost, 66-57, to Rutgers, the dregs of the Big Ten, in the opening round of the conference tournament.

Wisconsin (25-8) will met No. 8 seed MI on Sunday for the title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It’s easy to forget, but Wisconsin was 10-1 and a legitimate Big Ten title contender at 10-1. The conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament will be on the line. They put it on us today.

The Badgers opened the game with a 7-0 run, striking a balance between attacking the paint, hitting from the perimeter and bottling up Northwestern.

Wisconsin point guard Bronson Koenig didn’t play in that second matchup, sitting out with an injury.

They closed the first half on a 15-5 run, hitting 6 of their final 10 shots and limiting the Wildcats (22-10, 10-8) to a 1-for-8 clip in the five minutes prior to the break. We know on this stage, they want to win a championship, too.

“They guarded us pretty well, they took a lot of our stuff away, pushed us out on the floor, and we didn’t do a very good job of sharing the ball either”, said McIntosh, who scored 8 points of 4-of-12 shooting.

Maryland started the second half by scoring eight unanswered points to extend its lead to 10. “We will continue to build on it”. However, getting bounced early in conference play by an inferior Northwestern team will not impress the selection committee.

“Obviously limiting second-chance points, that took them out of it mentally”, said Brown, who had eight points and eight rebounds in 27 minutes as a starter. While tonight’s result was very disappointing, to say the least, as playing in the most important game Rutgers has had in several years was still a mark of progress. The championship game will be held Monday, April 3.

“With their crowd going insane, we could have easily just said, ‘Oh, let’s just pack it in”. Trimble also paced the Terps on the glass with six boards and notched his 500 career made free throw in the second half.

“After this one, we’ll definitely be fired up”, forward Vic Law said. Before we get there let’s cover each Saturday game. “Iowa we played more recently”.

An All-Freshman Team pick in 2015 and a consensus honorable mention all-league pick a year ago, McIntosh leads the Wildcats with averages of 14.6 points and 5.4 assists per game.

As Northwestern scored basket after basket, guard Bryant McIntosh kept looking at the scoreboard and saw Rutgers was stuck on nine points.

“They took us out of our offense the whole game”, Trimble said.

The No. 6-seeded Northwestern University Wildcats have advanced to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, after defeating No. 3 Maryland at the Verizon Center, 72-64. Doing against a team that contributed to their downfall would just be an added bonus. “We talked about step one”. “It’s about effort. We didn’t have enough of either today. If they’re going to be a little exhausted, we’ll definitely take it”, Nigel Hayes said on Saturday.