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(UPDATE: local police say there is no threat at this time, go to this link for more)
There have been unconfirmed reports of an active shooter situation on the campus of the University of Michigan.
Although details are still coming in at this time, the University sent out the following alert message less than an hour ago, while the Michigan basketball team was finishing its Big Ten tournament semi-final game at the United Center in Chicago:
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It will likely be a game time decision whether or not Northwestern senior wing Vic Law plays tonight in the Big Ten Tournament (“He’s very much questionable for the game,” NU coach Chris Collins said on the Big Ten Coaches Conference Call Monday), but his Wildcats legacy is already long cemented.
The St. Rita graduate and native of suburban South Holland collided with Big Ten scoring champ Carsen Edwards on Saturday, and the result was a cut to his shin which left him bleeding and unable to leave the court without being carried off. The good news is his basketball career won’t end with the scary scene on NU’s Senior Day.
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It won’t be official until tomorrow, but Purdue junior combo guard Carsen Edwards (23.4 points per game entering the regular season finale) will win the Big Ten scoring title. It will make him the third Boilermaker in the last nine years to lead the Big Ten in scoring (JaJuan Johnson in 2011 (20.7) and Caleb Swanigan in 2017 (18.9).
No other Big Ten team has had more than one league scoring champ during that span. It’s an impressive achievement for Edwards, who already has an AP All-American third team plaudit, and the Jerry West Award (nation’s best shooting guard) from last season on his resume.
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Congratulations to the #11 Purdue men’s basketball team, on their clinching a share of the 2018-19 Big Ten Championship after defeating Northwestern, 70-57, at Welsh-Ryan Arena today. That gives them a record-setting 24th league title, and approximately 1/5 of all the Big Ten regular season conference titles that have been awarded.
Here is video of the final seconds ticking away, and the moment the Boilers officially became champs. Below that, you’ll find video of the trophy exiting the court.
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Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter has said a couple things in the past week that we should all really pay attention to. Take heed of the Boilermakers boss’ words, you might learn something and become a better person because of it.
In general, there has been a belief in recent years that Big Ten basketball coaches, as a whole, have better media skills than Big Ten football coaches. Since Bo Ryan left, and P.J. Fleck came aboard, the dynamic changed somewhat. However, it appears that Matt Painter, and also Minnesota’s Richard Pitino, are really stepping up and filling the void left by Ryan in the press conference game.
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As disappointing as last season was for Northwestern basketball, it was not rock bottom for the program. As awful as this season has gone, it may not be the bedrock either. With NU currently sporting a ten game losing streak and maintaining a very strong chance of finishing dead last un the league, Wildcats fans have been looking beyond this year for quite some time already.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much reason for optimism there, as Northwestern is going to lose an overwhelming majority of its scoring, rebounding, experience and leadership from this year’s squad. Next year will indeed be a hard rebuild, a total reboot.
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By Jason Verduzco
You’re not sure how it happened. Despite having the football game on every Sunday and offering to take them outside to play catch when they were little, you find yourself raising a child who absolutely hates sports. When other children fake a stomach ache to get out of a test, your kid fakes it to get out of gym class.
They read at recess instead of playing on the playground. You have to shoo them out of the house to get them fresh air. And while you love your kid, you also worry about their health when they’re not getting exercise and about their social life when they don’t understand the basics of sports.
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Following Minnesota’s disastrous loss to Rutgers on Sunday, one could easily find plenty of voices within the Golden Gophers blogosphere calling for the head of Richard Pitino.
While it’s certainly more than a bit premature for that, should the Gophers’ NCAA bubble burst, it is reasonable to believe that he’ll be in a make-or-break season next year. Under contract through the 2021-22 season with an annual compensation reported to be $1.6 million, it’s not very likely that he would get bought out at the end of the season; no matter the results down the final stretch here.
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The 1994-95 Northwestern basketball team went 5-22, and yes, they were just as bad as their record indicates. That’s not why we’re talking about them today though, a quarter-century later. Two of their players ended up doing prison time for fraud after their point shaving activities were uncovered.
Yes, two members of that Northwestern Wildcats team were purposefully trying to lose by even more, in an effort to make money by helping NU lose by more points than the gambling spread in three Big Ten games that season. Let’s Get Weird, Sports episode 9 is a short podcast, we filled it out with an extra Northwestern story towards the end that you’ll want to hear.
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Chris Collins is now into the final stretch of what has truly become his worst season ever in charge at Northwestern. His Wildcats, currently 14th out of 14 in the Big Ten conference, face a very real danger of finishing dead last in the league.
At this point, somehow finding a way to get up to 10th place, and thus being able to avoid having to play on the first night of the Big Ten Tournament, would be considered a major victory. Collins has won at least six games and finished 10th or higher in league play in all five of his previous seasons on the job. Northwestern, currently on an eight game losing streak will need to win three of their last four in order to reach six league wins this season.
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The “program momentum,” if you believe such things actually exist in college basketball, is long gone now at Northwestern. Yes, they made their first ever NCAA Tournament two years ago, and achieved the school’s first ever tournament win to boot, but that might as well be ancient history today.
Today’s mood is the polar opposite of 2017 March Madness as Chris Collins now faces a very real danger of finishing dead last in the Big Ten for the first time in his career. Barring a miracle turnaround down the stretch, NU will be forced to play on the first night of the Big Ten tournament and an under. 500 overall record for fourth time in Collins’ six seasons seems very likely. In three of his five seasons at the helm, the Cats have finished 10th in the league.
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Illini basketball in the Brad Underwood era has finally shown signs of a pulse in the past month as the team picked up two very high quality wins over teams ranked in the top 15 at the time. Illinois has now won four of their last five, and played their way above the Wednesday night projection in the Big Ten tournament.
If the Illini can close out the season 4-3 or better, they will avoid breaking the school record for single season losses. A primary reason for the Illini surge has been the stellar play of freshman point guard Ayo Dosunmu. His rapid development has coincided with the drastic Illini improvement.
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