Purdue and Edey Lead the Wild Big Ten Heading into the Tournament

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This year, some of the top teams from Big Ten Conference are bringing their basketball tournament to Chicago. Zach Edey and Purdue won the title this season, plus Trayce Jackson-Davis and Indiana, Boo Buie and Northwestern and Tyson Walker and Michigan State all have had some amazing accomplishments. It’s going to be an exciting week in the Windy City!

Brandon Newman, a guard from Purdue said that March is an amazing month for games and there will be lots of close fights. Led by Edey who is 7-foot-4 and could defeat anyone, the first place team in Big Ten won by more than 3 games; this hasn’t happened since Michigan did it in 2014.

Purdue was ranked fifth in the regular season. With another win at the United Center, they could get the number one seed for the NCAA tournament. However, Purdue has won and lost about half of their last eight games in Big Ten. On Sunday, they almost squandered a 24-point lead over Illinois but still managed to win 76-71. Coach Matt Painter commented that it was very tough to switch up strategies between games and everyone in the league had faced such challenges.

The Boilermakers had a really good season with between 8-10 losses in the Big Ten tournament. A decision was made on Sunday night when the Wildcats won their game against Rutgers 65-53. That pushed them to a record high of 12 wins in the Big Ten tournament and 21 wins overall, which is more than they’d had since 2016-17 (24-12).

Chris Collins, Northwestern coach, said he was tired but he enjoyed playing in such a high level league after they beat Scarlet Knights. The Wildcats also played Indiana two times this season and won both games by just three points. They might play with each other again Saturday during the semifinals, and Maryland and Illinois could be on the same bracket too.

The Michigan coach, Juwan Howard, said the league they are competing in is full of really good teams and that it will be interesting to see which one comes out on top while playing in a neutral site. Meanwhile, Michigan State has been very sad and mourning ever since a shooting happened last month, with 3 students dead and five injured.

The Spartans ended the season on a high note by winning 3 out of their last 4 basketball games, including an 80-65 win against Indiana. Coach Tom Izzo let us know that although they’re capable of competing at a high level, there are many teams just as good.

Edey was the top scorer in the Big Ten this season, with 21.9 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. But Jackson-Davis is not far behind either! In Jackson’s last two games, he scored an impressive 26 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals against Iowa. He followed it up by scoring 27 points during an overtime win against Michigan.

Coach Mike Woodson said his player, Murray, has achieved a lot in his career at Indiana and still has more basketball ahead of him. He’s scoring 20.5 points and 8 rebounds per game, plus he’s shot 61 3-pointers so far this season.

Wisconsin had been doing really well but finishing with a 17-13 record put them at risk of missing out on the NCAA Tournament this year – they had played in 22 of the last 23!

Coach Greg Gard’s team probably needs to do really well in the upcoming week in order to make it back into the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Tournament. The first game of the week is on Wednesday and their opponents will be Ohio State. Follow Jay Cohen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jcohenap to stay up-to-date with all news related to AP college basketball, which includes info about the AP Top 25 College Basketball Poll at https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and other related news at https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25.