Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Tournament Overview: Big Ten

In honor of the Big Ten, I'm going to be walking around the apartment for 25 seconds before hurriedly typing each sentence in this post.

They say eight Big Ten teams might make the field of 65. That should make eight first- or second-round opponents very happy.

When Ed Hightower, Ted Hillary, Jim Burr, Rick Hartzell, and TV-Teddy Valentine all work at least a dozen conference games for you, maybe you ought to think about hiring a new Director of Officials.

I had another point ready to go, but it was dislodged by a Big Slow White Guy. On to the predictions.

Northwestern's expected margin of victory is less than ¼ point over Minnesota in the opener (61.1 to 60.9 in 60.8 possessions).

Michigan are 2½-point favorites over Iowa in the second game of the day (61 to 58.5 in 56.2 mind-numbing possessions). The Wolverines are one of the most overrated teams in the country; it's amazing how much weight is given to wins over UCLA and Duke that happened before the college football regular season was over.

Penn State should beat Indiana by 9 points (70.3 to 61.2 in 63.4 possessions).

Here's the table of all possible matchups:

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