Big 10 Tournament Simulation - Michigan State vs. Illinois
by Mike Rose
COLLEGE BASKETBALL BETTING – XBOX SIMULATION
Big 10 Tournament
While many teams from other conferences are simply jockeying for seeding in the upcoming NCAA Tournament (BetUS Sportsbook’s simulation of the eleven-team tournament…
2009 Big 10 Tournament Simulation
Two of those bubble teams are the #8 Northwestern Wildcats (17-12, 13-10-1 ATS). The Gophers likely only needed one more win to get into the field of 65, while Northwestern needed to make a nice run to go dancing. Minnesota ended up delivering the knockout blow to the Wildcats season with the 75-70 win.
Two other teams in bubble trouble took care of business in the first round of the Big Ten tourney, with the 7th ranked Indiana Hoosiers (6-24, 12-12 ATS).
The second round of the Big 10 tourney featured a four-pack of very intriguing contests. Though they likely locked up a spot in the dance with the win over Northwestern, a win for the Gophers over the top-seeded Michigan State Spartans (25-5, 15-11-1 ATS) would have certainly done the deed. Unfortunately for them, the Spartans prevailed quite easily, beating Minnesota 90-76.
The #5 Purdue Boilermakers (22-9, 12-15 ATS) upended Penn State 74-68.
In a tournament that featured a bunch of teams in bubble trouble, it took two teams that are firmly in the field of 65 to produce the best game. Purdue scored seven unanswered points in the final 0:32 of regulation to force overtime against Illinois, and then hit a three-pointer with 0:03 left in overtime to knot the score up at 74 apiece. In a play that closely resembled the Christian Laettner play as a Blue Devil, G Chester Frazier found C Mike Tisdale at the opposite end of the court for a foul line jumper that hit nothing but net to propel the Illini into the tourney final. The Spartans had no problems with the Buckeyes, taking out OSU 88-77.
Michigan State had a legitimate chance of becoming a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but probably needed an impressive showing against the Illini to get the job done. The Spartans did exactly that. They held Illinois to just 36% from the field and shot a blistering 83% from three-point land themselves to pick up a 69-60 victory, which may have just been enough to get the job done for Sparty.
