Friday Skull Session

By Jason Priestas on March 9, 2012 at 6:00 am
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The first day of the 2012 Big Ten Tournament is in the books... and it was largely uneventful.

In the opener, Matt Gatens led #8 Iowa to 64-61 win over #9 Illinois, which means the Hawkeyes will soon be the answer to the following trivia question: Who did Bruce Weber lose to in his last game at Illinois.

Just how hard did Weber's troops fight for him in the end? They launched 26 three-point attempts instead of getting to the rim, which led to a grand total of zero free throw attempts for the Illini.  Iowa advances to face top-seeded Michigan State at noon today (ESPN).

#5 Indiana hammered #12 Penn State 75-58 in the second half of the early double-header, setting up a 2:30pm matchup (ESPN) with #4 Wisconsin. Cody Zeller put up 19 and 10 in a game that was never really close after Penn State came out ice cold for the second half (28.6 percent). The win gives the Hoosiers their first in the B1G tourney since the Mike Davis era.

There are certain truths in life: the sky is blue, Bret Bielema is a stain on humanity and Northwestern will not be participating in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats -- the only school from a BCS conference still waiting on an invite to the dance (as in ever) -- will have to wait another year after twice blowing opportunities to put #10 Minnesota away1, ultimately going down in overtime, 75-68.

The Wildcats made just one basket in the final 9:53 which led to much consternation from the many Northwestern grads in the sports media world2. On a personal level, I live a couple of miles from Evanston and have many friends, co-workers and neighbors with Northwestern degrees, so I'll typical cheer on the Wildcats when they aren't playing the Buckeyes. With the overtime loss to Minnesota, I'm denied an opportunity to cheer Northwestern on against Michigan. Oh well. Go Gophers!

In Thursday's final game, #6 Purdue throttled #11 Nebraska 79-61, advancing to take on your beloved Buckeyes tonight at 9pm-ish on BTN3.

On his 23rd birthday, Robbie Hummel watched his teammates do most of the heavy lifting, with Anthony Johnson scoring a career-high 17 points and Terone Johnson chipping in 16 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Boilermakers.

Willie Bu dropped 29 on Purdue in the two teams only meeting of the season, an 87-84 Ohio State home win in early February. When asked about that game, Hummel had the following to say:

I thought we did a pretty good job on the glass at Ohio State. I was just they've got so many weapons. They could be hard to guard when you have guys like Jared Sullinger, Aaron Craft and William Buford, and the list goes on and on.

Deshaun Thomas sees your slight, Robbie, and he's looking forward to this evening.

 THAT'S NOT VERY OPRAH OF YOU. The Columbus Dispatch is reporting on the elimination of courtesy cars for Ohio State coaches and other members of the athletic department.

In recent years, as many as 65 Ohio auto dealers provided courtesy cars to 80 to 85 members of OSU’s athletic department: head coaches of all 36 varsity sports; select assistants and support personnel; and upper-level athletic-department administrators.

At the same time that officials were receiving free vehicles, internal auditors were warning the athletic department to keep a closer eye on where and how athletes were getting autos to avoid violating NCAA rules that prohibit gifts or special favors for athletes.

Don't weep for the staff just yet. They'll receive a new monthly stipend of $600 instead.

AUBURN BASKETBALL: IT'S RIVETINGAuburn hoops summed up in one photo.

JOE PATERNO FIELD AT BEAVER STADIUM. The name has a nice ring to it and up until a few months ago, adding the name of the school's legendary coach was a foregone conclusion.

But that was before Jerry Sandusky's sick deeds (alleged, at this point) surfaced.

That hasn't stopped a local high school student from collecting more than 57,000 signatures on a petition to rename the stadium, including the entire Beaver family.

For it's part, the school is doing the smart thing and waiting until the investigation into Sandusky runs its course.

CHARLES ROBINSON, STILL CREEPIN'. Exposing Syracuse for potential drug test violations wasn't enough for Yahoo's Charles Robinson this week, so he topped things off by blowing the lid off an FBI investigation into point-shaving within the Auburn basketball program.

Suspended Auburn University point guard Varez Ward is under investigation by federal authorities in an ongoing point-shaving probe, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

Three sources with knowledge of the case said the FBI has been investigating Ward since late February after he and guard Chris Denson were suspended by the Tigers prior to a Feb. 25 home game against Arkansas. Two sources said Denson was also questioned as part of the point-shaving investigation, but he was cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to the team after sitting out the loss to the Razorbacks. The sources said additional players have been questioned in the case about whether Ward – who has not been with the team since being suspended – attempted to enlist them in a possible scheme.

I know, collect yourself from the shock4 over the realization that someone in the state of Alabama was conducting unethical activities and focus on what's important: Charles Robinson is a) truly a national treasure in the world of sports journalism and b) the black angel of death when his name is associated with your program.

DIVERSIONS: Michigan provides social media seminars to its student-athletes... Could Oregon be deemed repeat violators? Is this the most underrated city in America? THIS IS STANFORD... Jim Carey in 20 years... This should be an easy choice... Neil deGrasse Tyson in 1980 (we've got a real badass over here)... I'd try it... I don't even... 

  • 1 Mind you, this is the same Gopher squad that completely melted down the stretch at home against Sparty a couple of weeks ago, so any semblance of clutch is rather unexpected.
  • 2 Having Medill Men dominate the sports media world is generally a good thing as the Wildcats are often not relevant, keeping homerism to a minimum. But things are changing. Shortly after the NCAA notified Ohio State that it would not receive additional charges last July, CBS trotted out USC partisan and troll extraordinaire Bryan Fischer to hammer the NCAA and Mark Emmert.
  • 3 We have you covered tonight. We'll be live-blogging here on 11W and Chris will be covering the event live from Indy on press row. Be sure to follow him at @Chris11W.
  • 4 Upon reflection, I suppose the real shock here is that someone out there is betting on Auburn basketball games.
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