>Michigan State at Minnesota

   Talk about battle of the teams on the bubble for an NCAA tournament bid.  Minnesota was expected to be at this point, Michigan State was not.  The Spartans got a HUGE win Saturday against Illinois and will look to get another one, this time on the road when they face off with the Gophers.  Tom Izzo even said himself that “this game (vs. Illinois) was bigger for us than for them.  We needed this one.”  But if they are going to end up getting the win, Kalin Lucas is going to need help.  He was the only one with more than nine points in the win vs. the Illini.

   Minnesota has lost five of six and this one proves to eb just as vital for their tournament hopes, as it does for the Spartans.  Turnovers and shaky shooting have been downfalls for the Gophers and they will need Blake Hoffarber and Trevor Mbakwe to keep up their stellar play.  Prediction: Spartans win 80-70

>Raise your hand if at the beginning of the season you thought Penn State and Michigan State would have identical 5-6 conference records and MSU with only one more win overall.  Ok, you’re a liar so put your hand down, but that has been the craziness of this year’s college basketball season.  Michigan State has been struggling like nobody’s business the last six games, losing five of them and eeking out a one-point overtime win at Indiana.

Michigan State is led by three players who are averaging double digits this year.  Kalin Lucas leads the team with 16 ppg and is averaging 3.5 assists per game.  Durrell Summers is putting up 13.4 ppg and over four rebounds per game.  Draymond Green is averaging 13 points per game and leads the team in rebounding, with just over eight per contest.

Penn State has been the definition of a cardiac-kid.  It seems like almost every game they play is within 3-7 points.  This game starts a stretch of games which could decide whether or not the Lions make the NCAA Tournament.  After MSU, Penn State still has to Wisconsin, Northwestern and Minnesota, while hosting Northwestern, Minnesota and Ohio State.  It seems as though the two teams in this preview might be ready for an exciting stretch run.

Penn State is led by Mr. Do-Everything Talor Battle, who seems to have been around for 10 years now.  Battle is averaging 20.5 points a game, seven more than the next teammate, five rebounds and three assists.  Jeff Brooks is pouring in 13.5 points a game and leads the team with seven boards a game.  David Jackson rounds out the three double digit scorers with 10.5 ppg and almost five rebounds per game.

>This is a crucial game for Illinois.  Losing five of their last seven is putting them at great risk of not making the NCAA Tournament, a far cry from lofty expectations the team received early in the season.  It’s been a variety of things that has worked out for the Illini, including inconsistent play from its senior leaders, notably Demetri McCamey.  Yes, he leads the team in scoring with over 14 per game, but in three of those five losses, he has not managed to score more than 10 points, twice finishing with five or six points, respectively.  But the struggles don’t all fall on his shoulders.  D.J. Richardson, last year’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year has struggled as well and of the highly regarded recruiting class, Jereme Richmond is the only one getting a lot of playing time and that has started recently, after Bruce Weber inserted him into the lineup.

The Illini still have a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament, but they will have to start playing up to the expectations placed upon them at the beginning of the season.  Of their eight remaining games, four are at home and four on the road.  Unfortunately, the toughest games (MSU, Minnesota, OSU, Purdue) are the four road games.  They will need to lean on the experience of the seniors (McCamey, Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis).  Davis and Tisdale will be especially crucial, because many of the remaining teams on the schedule have good big men, including this Minnesota team.  Davis is second on the team with 12 ppg and is getting 6.7 boards per game.  Tisdale is averaging nearly 10 ppg and 6.8 rpg.

Minnesota has been on a tough stretch as well, losing their last three games, two of which were on the road.  Good news for the Gophers is that point guard Blake Hoffarber will play against Illinois.  He had been struggling with a sore knee.  He leads the team in three catehories, including points, assists and three-point field goal percentage.  The Gophers’ next top players are their two big men, Trevor Mbakwe and Ralph Sampson III.  Mbakwe is averaging a double-double at 13 ppg and 10 rpg, while Sampson pours in 11 and grabs five boards.

>The 14th-ranked Boilermakers look to remain undefeated at Mackey Arena and extend the Hoosiers’ road losing streak to 14 on Tuesday night.

Allowing 58.0 points per game while going 12-0 at Mackey Arena, Purdue has won three straight at home versus Indiana by an average of 15.4 points. The Hoosiers last won in West Lafayette, 70-59 on March 1, 2006.

The Boilermakers have been on a bit of a skid lately, dropping four of their last seven.  JaJuan Johnson continues to be a beast for them inside, averaging nearl 21 ppg and eight rebounds per game.  Johnson has scored 20 points or more in his last seven games.  He is supported by guard E’Twaun Moore, who is averaging 18 ppg.  No other Purdue player is averaging over six points per game. 

The Hoosiers, however, have not been playing like a team tied for last place.  Over the last four games, Indiana beat then-No. 20 Illinois and then-No. 18 Minnesota at home and fell in overtime at previously ranked Michigan State before failing to secure a 10-point lead in Saturday’s 64-63 home loss to Iowa.

The Hoosiers have stepped up on the defensive end during that four-game span, holding opponents to 63.5 points on 39.5 percent shooting.

Coach Tom Crean hopes his squad can remain stingy while trying to snap a 23-game road losing streak against Top 25 opponents since a 77-66 win over No. 13 Iowa on Jan. 13, 2002.
The Hoosiers are playing without their best player, Christian Watford, who is out after having wrist surgery.  Watford was leading the team ins coring and rebounding at the time of his injury.  Two players, Verdell Jones III and Jordan Hulls have stepped up.  Jones is averaging 12.4 points per game, while Hulls is  coming off of a game where he had a season-high 24 points.

>Illinois vs. Baylor

   Baylor clinched its first winning season since 1995 and earned a bowl bid for the first time since losing 10-3 to Washington State in the 1994 Alamo Bowl.

   Averaging 32.6 points and ranked 12th nationally in total yards per game (478.5), Baylor has the potential to present another challenge for the Illini, who give up an average of 24 ppg, but have had Michigan score 67 on them and Minnesota score 38. 

   Bears quarterback Robert Griffin III ranks seventh in the country averaging 315.5 yards of total offense and has thrown for nearly 3,200 yards and 21 touchdowns.

  
   Senior Jay Finley’s 1,155 yards rank second on Baylor’s single-season rushing list. He ran for 250 yards on 26 caries in a 47-42 home win over Kansas State on Oct. 23.  Kendall Wright’s 66 receptions for a career-high 825 yards lead a group of four Bears receivers with at least 40 catches.
   
   Mikel Leshoure led all Big Ten running backs with 1,513 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns.  Leshoure ranks eighth in the country with 126.1 rushing yards per game.

   Nathan Scheelhaase has thrown for 1,583 yards and 17 touchdowns in his first collegiate season.  He has shown why he was one of the country’s best dual-threat quarterback recruits, as he has rushed for 815 yards and four touchdowns.

   A.J. Jenkins is Scheelhaase’s favorite target, having caught 50 balls for 694 yards and seven touchdowns.

Prediction: Baylor 35, Illinois 21

>USC-Notre Dame

   ND and USC games count for five of the ten most-watched college football games in television history. The teams play for the Jeweled Shillelagh, a trophy that goes home with the winning team each year. Notre Dame currently leads the series 42-33-5. 

   The origin of the series is quite often recounted as a “conversation between wives” of Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne and USC athletic director Gywnn Wilson. In fact, many sports writers often cite this popular story as the main reason the two schools decided to play one another. As the story goes, the rivalry began with USC looking for a national rival. USC dispatched Wilson and his wife to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Notre Dame was playing Nebraska on Thanksgiving Day.  On that day, Knute Rockne resisted the idea of a home-and-home series with USC because of the travel involved, but Mrs. Wilson was able to persuade Mrs. Rockne that a trip every two years to sunny Southern California was better than one to snowy, hostile Nebraska.  Mrs. Rockne spoke to her husband and on December 4, 1926, USC became an annual fixture on Notre Dame’s schedule.

    Notre Dame and USC played their first game in 1926, a 13-12 win for the Irish. Rockne was quoted as saying it was the greatest game he ever saw. The following year, Notre Dame and USC would play a memorable game at Soldier Field in Chicago, a slim 7-6 Irish victory. An estimated 120,000 people were in attendance, a crowd that is considered to be one of the largest attended games in NCAA history.  USC’s first win in the series also came during the same year they won their first national title in 1928. From 1928-1932, USC and Notre Dame combined to win the national title five straight years, with USC winning in 1928, 1931 and 1932, and Notre Dame winning in 1929 and 1930.  During this period, there was some talk of canceling the series, due to the long amount of travel time it took by train from South Bend to Los Angeles.  Rockne argued for the series against the Notre Dame faculty board and its chair, Father Mulcaire, countering that “he saw the day coming when most college teams will be going by air exclusively.

   Both schools combined have produced the most national titles (21), Heisman trophy winners (14), All-Americans, College Football Hall of Famers and future NFL Hall of Famers (21) than any other collegiate series.

Oklahoma-Oklahoma State

  
In 1900, in Oklahoma Territory, Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) veterinary medicine professor Dr. L.L. Lewis assembled a group of A&M students to participate in the first territorial Track and Field Meet. Held on May 4, 1900, the event included Alva Normal College, Central Normal of Edmond, Kingfisher College and the University of Oklahoma, along with OAMC. The prize of the tournament was a silver cup donated by a local jeweler named Douglas. Surprisingly, A&M won the meet and returned to Stillwater with the traveling trophy.

   In 1901, A&M won again, and a third consecutive win would mean permanent retirement of the Douglas Cup in Stillwater. The meet was held on May 23, 1902, with the Aggies amassing the most points. Oklahoma filed a protest based on the pole vault competition not having been completed due to darkness, however, Oklahoma A&M claimed the Douglas cup.

   The next day the Sooners held their own vault competition and declared themselves the victor. Several weeks later, the Douglas Cup was missing from its place in a glass case at the Oklahoma A&M chemistry lab. Suspecting that OU students had stolen the Cup, a group of A&M students retrieved the Cup from Norman, supposedly burying it under Old Central for safekeeping.

   Ten years later, when excavation was being done for A&M’s Gundersen Hall, the trophy was found.

  
   The first Bedlam game was held at Island Park in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It was a cold, and very windy day with the temperatures well below the freezing mark. At one moment in the game when the Oklahoma A&M Aggies were punting, the wind carried the ball backwards behind the kicker. If the Oklahoma A&M squad recovered the ball it would be a touchback and if the University of Oklahoma squad recovered it, it would be a touchdown. The ball kept going backwards and rolled down a hill into the half-frozen creek. Since a touchdown was at stake, members of both teams dove into the icy waters to recover the ball. A member of the OU team came out with the ball and downed it for a touchdown, eventually winning the game 75-0. Thus was the beginning of Bedlam.

   Author Steve Budin, whose father was a New York bookie, has recently publicized the claim that the 1954 Bedlam Game was fixed by mobsters in his book Bets, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. Allegedly, the mobsters threatened and paid off a cook to slip laxatives into a soup eaten by many OU Sooner starting players, causing them to fall violently ill in the days leading up to the game. OU was victorious in the end, but their 14-0 win did not cover the 20-point spread they had in their favor. However, many people involved in the 1954 contest do not recall any incident like the one purported by Bodin to have occurred.

   Oklahoma currently leads the series 81-16-7.