Let's start with some positive news on a night where Fox Sports One hosted a triple-header of Big Ten action.
Ohio State might be good. The Buckeyes continue their winning ways with its third win in a row, this time a road 83-64 whipping of the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Penn State has moved to 3-8 in the conference now and though it looked semi-like a bubble team going into this game, it's getting really hard to picture Mike Rhoades team as anything but NIT bound yet again.
The 6:30 opener was a game that was more sloppy than good until Ohio State got it going in the second half, but more importantly the game reminded us of a key life lesson.
Don't drop your ball on another man. Such an act cost Penn State heavy when Nick Kern was awarded a technical foul for laying the basketball on top of a horizontal Buckeye.
Not in my league, Big Ten.
Big time player of the game goes toooooooooooo
John Mobley, Ohio State freshman, was the Buckeyes best player, flashing some getting to the rim skill between knocking down three threes and keeping Ohio State's offense moving. Mobley had 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists in maybe the best game of his young career.
Throw in a little 5 of 7 from three from Bruce Thornton, and the Buckeyes didn't really need anything more to take down an offensively inept Penn State team.
UCLA is definitely good
I guess Mick Cronin had a point. Keep the Bruins on the west coast and watch them fly. The Bruins were not nice from the get go to the Oregon Ducks, clipping their wings, and swarming them early in the first half.
It continued into the second half where UCLA hornswaggled the Ducks on their way to winning, 78-52.
UCLA has followed its four game losing streak with five straight wins. The Bruins are a terrifying team if it shoots like it did against Oregon, making 11 of its 23 three-pointers.
To be honest, this game was a giant stinker with the Oregon Ducks continuing its free fall through its Big Ten schedule.
Oregon has now lost to Purdue, Minnesota, and UCLA in its last four games with a lone home win against Washington snuck in between.
UCLA is starting to look like the only bright light in the west in the Big Ten.
I told you so.
Maybe the biggest news of the night was Illinois' big time loss at Nebraska in overtime, 76-70.
Brice Williams was responsible with shutting out the Illini by scoring six straight points in overtime, but both teams had plenty of chances to end this one in regulation.
The 80-74 loss moves Illinois to five losses in the conference which means that's five games back of the Michigan State Spartans. I don't care how hard the Izzo's finishing schedule is, the Illini are not winning a Big Ten title this year with five losses.
The, I know he's good, but is he really all that good award of the night goes to:
Kasparas Jakucionis had a double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to go with 4 assists. Those are good numbers, but Jakucionis did not play well.
He wasn't the only one on his team (Ben Humrichous would like to forget his 0-8 performance), but the freshman was 3 of 10 from three and had 6 turnovers and failed to have Illinois' offense working with any consistency throughout the night.
The later in the game, the more Illinois' offense faltered underneath the pressure of a game Nebraska defense. Illinois has a tendency to think five guys standing outside the three-point line means having a five out offense. But instead of running plays, the offense craters to a collection of isolations, bad jump shots, and forced drives.
But the real award winner of the night might be Will Riley, who would be the captain of the I will shoot you in or out of this game all-star team if Ace Bailey didn't exist.
But in all seriousness, Illlinois is not a good team right now, and it goes way beyond your center having mono. Illinois was 10 of 42 from three. That's an absurd amount of three-pointers. It also had a 7 to 17 assist to turnover ratio.
Big yikes and bad vibes at Illinois right now.
Let's take a look at what's on the docket for tomorrow
Indiana at #10 Purdue | 8:00 PM est | FOX
I guess that means the rivalry game is also the game of the night
It should be a slaughter if how the teams have played the last month means anything, but weird things happen in rivalry games and Mike Woodson has had more success than most against Matt Painter in the last four years.
For more coverage, today, tomorrow, and beyond, continue to check out Boiler Upload, Rivals Network.
