Michigan Basketball: U-M, MSU On Big Ten Tournament Collision Course
Michigan and Michigan State seemed destined to meet in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.
U-M procured a fourth or fifth seed with a 72-63 win at Penn State Wednesday night and will play at 2:30 ET either next Thursday or Friday. U-M would get the double bye and play Friday should the Wolverines win Saturday at Maryland and Nebraska lose at home Sunday to Penn State.
If the Wolverines earn the five seed they'll play the winner of the 12/13 game, which is still up in the air. Minnesota (4-13 in Big Ten play), Illinois (3-13), Iowa (3-14), and Rutgers (3-14) are all potential opponents in that game.
Minnesota plays at Purdue and will likely finish 4-14. Illinois hosts the Boilermakers and plays at Rutgers, so should go either 3-15 or 4-14. Iowa hosts Northwestern Sunday in a game that could go either way, so could be 3-15 or 4-14, while Rutgers has just the Illini at home.
In other words, any four of those teams could be U-M's first game Thursday should the Wolverines finish as the fifth seed. Of those teams, only Minnesota played U-M tough, taking Michigan to overtime at Crisler Center.
Illinois battled the Wolverines before falling by double digits, ditto Rutgers, while U-M beat the Hawkeyes twice.
Michigan State, meanwhile, needs to take care of business to secure the top seed by winning at Wisconsin this weekend. If they lose and Ohio State loses at Indiana Friday, however, they'll still be No. 1. The Spartans will be heavily favored to beat a bad Badgers team in Wisconsin.
The No. 1 seed would face the 4 vs. 5 winner (should No. 5 take care of business Thursday), which could well be Michigan vs. MSU, part two. U-M handled MSU, 82-72, in East Lansing this year, but would be no guarantee to get by Nebraska Friday, having lost to the Cornhuskers by 20 earlier this season on the road.
Of course, MSU would have to beat the winner of the 8/9 game (potentially Maryland vs. Northwestern) Friday to set that up, as well.
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