OSU’s last win in the NCAA tournament was as an 8-seed in 2009 with a 77-75 win over Tennessee.
The Badgers seek their second Big Ten title in three years.
Minnesota made its move following Wagner’s departure from the game with two fouls with a little over 7 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Wilson added 17 and Irvin had 15 for MI, which had lost 17 of its previous 20 games against Wisconsin.
Wisconsin will vie for its fourth Big Ten title Sunday against No. 8 seed MI, which will be playing its fourth game in four days.
For the Spartans, who are the second-smallest power-five conference team in college basketball, size of foes matters.
But that tremendous defense for which Wisconsin is known could not quite stifle MI enough to overcome some shaky shooting by the Badgers, who finished at 39.3 percent on field-goal tries.
“We overcame a lot”, Walton said.
Senior guard Bronson Koenig finished with just eight points but they all came in the first 7 minutes 1 second as UW built a 15-3 lead it never lost. The game before that, Evans poured in 29 points at Iowa State.
Greg Gard’s players reminded the Wildcats and the rest of the Big Ten that UW can be a formidable foe when it marries defensive intensity with offensive efficiency. The Canes have the potential to make some noise in the NCAA tournament, if they play their A game. Michigan State has guys like Miles Bridges and Nick Ward who can take over games and Josh Langford and Cassius Winston who are just waiting to get hot.
I’m on board with MI as this Wolverines squad is playing some of the best basketball in the country right now. This will be their third NCAA Tournament appearance under Larrañaga with the Hurricanes advancing to the Sweet 16 in both 2013 and 2016. The only questions were what they’d be seeded, where they are going and their opening opponent. MI came into the Big Ten Tournament as a potential 9/10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but with this victory, MI has to move up to the No. 6 line, at least. As a first timer for the whole team we don’t really know what to do.
Both Northwestern and Wisconsin are using crisp ball movement in a team approach in the tourney.
After a 21-11 regular season and ACC tournament, the Miami Hurricanes are going dancing, having been selected to play in the 2017 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Seeding for the NCAA Tournament began on Wednesday and by Sunday morning, the Wolverines had moved up to the 8 line after three straight victories in the conference tournament.