The Hoosiers may already be penciled in for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but they are still two wins away from claiming the Big Ten tournament championship as they play the Wisconsin Badgers in the semifinals on Saturday.
Big Ten Tournament 2013 schedule and bracket: Indiana tries to exorcise Wisconsin demons
Indiana is having a fantastic year, but their next road block in front of a Big Ten tournament championship is a team that has won against them 11 times in a row.
Joe Robbins
Indiana won the Big Ten conference title outright for the first time in 20 years, but have still never won the Big Ten tournament. In the process, the Hoosiers get a rematch against the Badgers, who beat them earlier in the year.
Both teams coasted through their games in the second round after receiving first-round byes. Cody Zeller scored 24 points as the Hoosiers made sure the Illinois Fighting Illini didn't surprise anyone again with an 80-64 win. Wisconsin, which often times can struggle to score, dropped 51 points on Michigan in the second half en route to a 68-59 win.
To make it to the Big Ten tournament final, the Hoosiers will have to do something they haven’t done in quite some time -- beat Wisconsin. Indiana has lost 11 consecutive games to the Badgers, whose deliberately-paced style of basketball seems to frustrate the high-scoring offense of the Hoosiers.
In the other semifinal game, an age-old college basketball rivalry gets yet another look as the second-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes take on the third seeded Michigan State Spartans.
The Spartans got an unexpectedly feisty test from the Iowa Hawkeyes but escaped with a 59-56 win led by Adreian Payne's 18 points and 10 rebounds. Ohio State had a much easier time in their quarterfinals game, using a 15-0 run to push past the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The teams split their two games this year with each winning at home. Ohio State got the most recent laugh, winning, 68-60, on Feb. 24, part of the Buckeyes’ current six-game winning streak. Michigan State has rounded into form to close out the season after losing three straight, albeit two of those wins are over Northwestern and Iowa.
No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 4 Wisconsin, 1:40 p.m. ET
No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Michigan State, 4 p.m. ET
Here is the current bracket, courtesy of ESPN.
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