Around the Big Ten Men’s Basketball: December 10
While the college basketball season may only be a few weeks in, arguably the biggest upset of the season occurred on Thursday night.
Following an 8-0 start to the season, the Purdue Boilermakers earned its first No. 1 ranking in program history headed into Piscataway against Rutgers.
In a back-and-forth matchup, the Scarlet Knights pulled off the improbable, as they secured a 70-68 win over the Boilermakers with a half-court shot from Ron Harper Jr. who finished the night with 30 points and 10 rebounds.
While that was the biggest upset of the week, there was still a ton of great action to highlight in the Big Ten conference from last week.
Moving down the rankings, the No. 19 Michigan State Spartans handed the Minnesota Golden Gophers their first loss of the season in a 75-67 Spartans victory.
The scoring was balanced for the Spartans offense as both Gabe Brown and Malik Hall ended the game with 15 points with Hall also leading the team with nine rebounds.
Minnesota had entered the matchup with a 7-0 record with wins against out-of-conference opponents such as Pitt and Mississippi State.
After defeating the former No. 1 team in the country in Duke last week, the No. 21 Ohio State Buckeyes are currently on a three-game winning streak, which includes wins over Penn State and Towson this week.
Kyle Young has been a big contributor during the winning streak, serving as the Buckeyes sixth man.
Young picked up 16 points with 4 3-pointers against Penn State on Sunday before scoring 18 points against Towson on Wednesday.
Both totals led the Buckeyes offense.
The No. 22 Wisconsin Badgers have been rolling as of late as well with six straight wins, which includes a 64-59 win over a talented Indiana Hoosiers team.
It took a major comeback to secure the win however as the Hoosiers were up 42-25 at halftime.
The Badgers weren’t able to take the lead until a Johnathan Davis 3-pointer with just 1:18 left in the game where Wisconsin would hang on for the victory.
The only Big Ten team with two conference wins as of Friday night is the Illinois Fighting Illini.
Those two wins came against Rutgers in blowout fashion and Iowa in just a four-point win.
Following a short suspension to open up the season, Kofi Cockburn has been on a rampage thus far this season.
Cockburn put up double-doubles in both wins with 13 points and 15 rebounds against Rutgers and 17 points and 18 rebounds against Iowa.
The junior center has put himself in contention for the Big Ten player of the year with averages of 22.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game this season.
Logan Bourandas is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
