Indiana signed on for two more years of the Crossroads Classic this week. It’s a move, coach Tom Crean said, that changes some non-conference scheduling.“We’re going to play a neutral game in Indianapolis.FORT WAYNE – Wisconsin snapped a three-game losing streak by ending Purdue’s 26-game home win streak on Thursday.
A couple of hours later, Minnesota pulled off a stunner at then-No. 7 Indiana, holding what had been the nation’s top three-point shooting team to just 4 of 18 from beyond the arc.
Northwestern ended then-No. 6 Michigan State’s 15-game winning streak with a shocking victory Saturday in Evanston. Hours earlier, Iowa beat then-No. 13 Michigan.
What the heck is going on here?
“Nothing is easy in the Big Ten,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said during Monday’s Big Ten teleconference, “as you saw this weekend.”
The Illini started the unpredictable week, getting a monster game out of Brandon Paul (43 points) to knock off then-No. 5 Ohio State.
“Ohio State is a very, very good team, there’s no doubt about it. But I think we have a lot of good teams, a lot of good balance,” Weber said. “It’s just crazy. It’s so hard to predict.”
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said the surprises were not confined to the Big Ten, pointing to Pittsburgh’s and Villanova’s struggles in the Big East and North Carolina’s 33-point loss at Florida State on Saturday.
“The problem is the league is the best it’s been in years if you ask me, especially top to bottom,” Izzo said. “I haven’t seen anything really unpredictable. I’ve almost seen everything pretty predicable. Once in a while, when you see a team not shooting as well as you know it can shoot or somebody turns the ball over that never does or if somebody didn’t rebound like they do, that’s unpredictable.
“For the most part, this league has been pretty predicable. It’s very hard to win on the road, the margin of error between two teams is very slim as I think it is through most of the country. You better bring it every day no matter who you play in the league for sure or you’re in trouble.”
Michigan State and Illinois are tied atop the conference at 4-1. Ohio State, the preseason favorite, is tied with Michigan at 4-2.
The Buckeyes bounced back from the loss at Illinois by beating Indiana on Sunday.
“I’ve always said this at the start of a conference season, there’s going to be one team that gets on a roll and if they stay healthy, they’re going to be right there to contend,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said.
“(Saturday) opened our guys eyes like ‘wow, it’s a dog fight.’ As I told the staff, ‘we can’t get down, we just have to get better.’ ”
Ohio State won the regular-season conference title last year with a 16-2 record. Izzo predicted this year’s conference champion could have “four or five” losses.
“I didn’t know if Ohio State could lose that many, they’ve got a couple, they still probably are the cream of the crop in our league right now. They’re sitting there with two (losses) in six games,” Izzo said.
“I’ll be shocked if (it takes) at least four losses to win it. And it could be more.”
