The Battle for the B1G 10

The B1G 10 has been the best conference in college basketball thus far. The upcoming game between Michigan St. and Indiana will be another great game.

For me the regular season is like studying for an exam; in this case the exam is a wild three-week long tournament known as March Madness.

Sticking with this metaphor for a moment, watching the B1g 10 this year is the equivalent of going over the parts of the exam you know are going to be most important.

What I mean to say is – I believe one, probably two, teams in the conference will be number 1 seeds come March 17^th,so its time to study up!

The conference has produced a ton of marquee games this year and Tuesday night’s game may be the best of them all.

The top two teams in the conference (and two of the top 5 teams in the country) will square off in East Lansing.

Both #1 Indiana and #4 Michigan State are playing their best basketball right now.

First, lets look at this game from the Spartan’s point of view.

This must be viewed as a must win game.

After Indiana, the Spartans travel to Columbus, and then at Ann Arbor to face Michigan – who will be looking for blood after their beat down last week.

Road games are never easy, especially in the B1g 10 and even more so when you are playing top 15 teams.

From Indiana’s point of view this game is about the conference standings.

They are now tied with the Spartans atop the conference and won the matchup earlier this season.

A win tomorrow evening would give the Hoosiers full game lead for the regular season big 10 title.

Why is that a big deal?

Since the arrival of Tom Crean in 2008-2009 the Hoosiers have recovered from sanctions (they were 1-17 in conference play in his first season) and are looking for their first regular season or post-season title with Crean.

Big game, both teams need the win, so who gets it?

In most games it comes down to a few factors: points per possession differential (i.e PPP you score – PPP you give up) , effective FG %, FT shooting and rebounding.

When you look at the raw stats Indiana has the advantage. However, the game is not played on paper.

Can the Spartans use the home crowd advantage to overcome Indiana?

Or will Tom Crean’s Hoosiers shoot there way to top spot in the B1G 10.

It’s a can’t miss, must watch game – oh and State fans, Erving Magic Johnson will be doing the color commentary with Dicky V.

IT’S GOING TO BE AWESOME BABY!

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Louis Winston

Louis recently graduated from McMaster University with a bachelor of health science and is about going to law school. There is no sport he will not follow or watch. Hockey nut, basketball fanatic, football crazed and baseball obsessed. Its not crazy, its just sports. Louis closely follows the inside scoops on college basketball and football and like all good Canadians knows everything there is to know about hockey.

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Tags B1G 10 Indiana Hoosiers Michigan State Spartans NCAA March Madness