Wednesday, March 4, 1998

Tourney has Big Ten basketball buzzing

By TODD J. ENGEL
Collegian Sports Writer

The regular season is over, the seedings are in, and now it is time to see who can play the best basketball for the next four days and win the inaugural Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament beginning tomorrow.

The Big Ten conference signed a two-year contract with the United Center in Chicago to hold the tournament in the birthplace of Big Ten basketball. The four-day tournament runs from March 5-8, with the championship game on Sunday at 2 p.m. on CBS. The overall champ receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament round of 64.

Greg Stevenson (#42) lays up a shot in Saturday evening's game at Ohio State. In the last game at OSU's St. John's Arena, the Nittany Lions defeated the Buckeyes 89-85 in an overtime thriller. (Collegian Photo/Michael L. Palmieri - click for full size image)

Some coaches were for it, some against, but now there seems to be an overall acceptance. Coaches of teams that finished in the top half of the conference (Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa) are content with their records and intend to move on to the NCAA Tournament, but at the same time are looking forward to being a part of the historic event.

Northwestern coach Kevin O'Neill made it clear that teams finishing in the lower echelon of the conference have nothing to lose -- especially his Wildcats, who finished with a 3-13 conference mark and 10-16 overall.

Ninth-seed Northwestern and No. 8-seed Minnesota (13-14, 6-10) will get the ball rolling when they tipoff at 2 p.m. on ESPN2. The winner faces No. 1-seed Michigan State at 4 p.m. Friday, also on ESPN2.

"We're limited in what we can do," O'Neill said. "That's well documented and obvious. If Evan Eschmeyer and Sean Wink don't have big days, we're not very good."

Seventh-seed Penn State (15-11, 8-8) and No. 10 Wisconsin (11-18, 3-13) split their two season meetings and will play a rubber match at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow on ESPN. The winner goes up against No. 2-seed Illinois (21-8, 13-3) at 7:40 p.m. Friday on ESPN-Plus.

Rounding out the first day of competition will be No. 6-seed Indiana (18-10, 9-7) and No. 11-seed Ohio State (8-21, 1-15) at 7 p.m. on ESPN-Plus. The winner will be greeted by a hot Purdue team (24-6, 12-4) with the third seed on Friday at 10:05 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Big Ten regular season championship was decided last Sunday when Purdue knocked off Michigan State in overtime, forcing the Spartans to share the title with the Fighting Illini.

"Across the board it's exciting to be a part of the first tournament," Illinois coach Lon Kruger said. "I think it's going to be one of the premiere conference tournaments in the country."

Kruger and Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett were two of the more prominent coaches in favor of a postseason tournament when the idea was first proposed and pushed for it from day one.

Bennett said most coaches were receptive to the idea and now it is a reality.

"I think the feeling is strong," Bennett said. "Its time has come is the overriding theme. It's time we do this."