By Paul M. Banks

INDIANAPOLIS- Big Ten player of the year, and likely national player of the year Evan Turner has become quite the polarizing figure this weekend. The Ohio State swing-man made magical memories for OSU fans on his way to becoming Big Ten tournament MVP. But he also angered many partisans of the teams who were vanquished by the Ohio State Buckeyes; en route to their tournament championship.

If he’s on your side- you love him. Here’s what his coach Thad Matta had to say after the tournament championship game.

“You know, at what point I literally said, hey, take the game over, and that’s when he hit the three off the pull-up. But when you say that to a guy like Evan, he’s so cerebral basketball-wise, he can do it with the pass, you can do it with the defensive stop. But his play-making ability is really good. And just with his size, they had smaller guys on him, they tried Johnson on him there for a while, but it was — when you look at the body of work over the weekend,

I mean, this has to go down as probably — I know I’ve been in this league for six years. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Of course, if you’re playing against Turner, you probably don’t enjoy his body of work so much. Evan was candid about his disgust with the Illini trash-talking on Saturday. “They were just [More …]

By Jake McCormick

Walking through Grand Avenue Mall on Saturday, I saw a hefty stock of Milwaukee Bucks merchandise displayed in the front of a sporting goods store. A year ago, the Bucks weren’t even a blip on Wisconsin’s sports radar. The city has started to believe in their 36-29 record and it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the NBA catches on.

It’s no secret that the Bucks’ playoff aspirations have shot up faster than a Lady Gaga song moving up the Top 40. A month ago, Milwaukee was on the border of the playoffs and hoping to fill out one of the bottom two Eastern Conference playoff spots.

Thanks to a 12-1 streak since the trading deadline acquisition of John Salmons, the Bucks have already eclipsed 2008-09’s win total and are playing at a level not seen since the 2000-01 season, which ended at Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals. With matchups against Boston, Atlanta, and in Boston to round out the regular season, Milwaukee has a bigger prize in their crosshairs than just a mere first round appearance. The last week of the season could decide the positions of seeds 3-5 in the East, and the Bucks have already made a strong argument as a dark horse candidate regardless of their matchup.

Milwaukee has become nearly unbeatable at home since the calender flipped to 2010. They currently hold a seven game home win streak and are 14-2 in the Bradley Center, [More …]

By Mike Gallagher

Minnesota looked like they were ready to punch their ticket to the Big Ten Semifinals Friday with a 55-48 lead with 3:27 left to play.

But you had to know it wasn’t over.

Michigan State went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 55 which had every Gopher fan in the crowded Minneapolis bar I happened to be at thinking; Here we go again.

In their last matchup the Gophers dominated Michigan State the first 35 minutes of play, leading by eight with 7 minutes left, before abruptly forgetting how to score and losing 65-64, a loss that haunts the Gophers to this day. Had they won that game, certainly the Gophers would find themselves on the more forgiving end of Joe Lunardi’s bubble.

But unlike their last meeting, when Michigan State made their run Friday, the Gophers weathered the storm, holding the Spartans scoreless the last 1:30 of regulation.

After they rode out the last of the 40 minutes of scheduled play, the Gophers seized the bull by the horns.

Sensing their season slipping away and with no momentum going into the extra session whatsoever, a mere backup-to-start-the-season took over.

“I was in the zone to the point of where I wasn’t really thinking too much, I was just playing basketball.”

Devoe Joseph’s two threes in OT were what keyed this Gopher victory, and prompts me to think he should think less often, and just play basketball.

With 17, he led the [More …]