The Big Ten Tournament is likely only going to get better the longer it goes, and Friday’s quarterfinal round offers the biggest display of some of the country’s high-tier teams.
Big Ten basketball tournament 2013 schedule and bracket: Quarterfinals ready for Friday
The Big Ten doesn’t have a whole lot of bubble teams, but they’ll keep beating up on each other in the conference tournament’s quarterfinals on Friday.
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It begins at noon ET on ESPN with the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers taking on the eighth-seeded Illinois Fighting Illini, who got here thanks to Brandon Paul's buzzer-beating jumper, which ousted the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first round Thursday.
In their only regular season meeting of the season, Illinois stunned Indiana with a last-second layup to win, 74-72, on Feb. 7.
The 2 p.m. ET game (also on ESPN) features another rematch of a classic regular season game, as the fifth-seeded Michigan Wolverines face the fourth-seeded Wisconsin Badgers. On Feb. 9 at the Kohl Center, Badgers' guard Ben Brust calmly nailed a half-courter as time expired to force overtime, where, after another huge three-pointer from Brust, Wisconsin went on to win, 65-62. The Wolverines, behind a strong second half, got by the Penn State Nittany Lions, 83-66, in the tournament's first round Thursday.
In the evening, the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes meet the tenth-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers at 6:30 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network. Nebraska held on to get by the Purdue Boilermakers, 57-55, in the first round on Thursday, and now meet a Buckeyes team that rather comfortably swept the regular season series between the two teams.
Quarterfinal play wraps up with the third-seeded Michigan State Spartans taking on the No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes at 9 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network. Iowa can still make a case for the NCAA Tournament, and a win over Sparty would definitely not hurt their chances. The Hawkeyes built a 14-point first half lead against the Northwestern Wildcats in the first round and never looked back, cruising to a 73-59 win. On Jan. 10, Michigan State won on the road against Iowa, 62-59, in their only meeting of the regular season.
A full bracket can be found at the Big Ten’s official site.
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