Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, March 6, 2016
The regular season is over. Now, it?s off to Indianapolis for the Big Ten tourney, where top seeds Indiana and Michigan State look like the teams to beat.
[ MORE: View the official Big Ten tourney bracket ]
Before we turn all of our focus to the tourney at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, let?s take a look at the best of the last week of the regular season.
Best win: Rutgers vs. Minnesota. There were several big wins by the contenders, but it has to be the previously winless Scarlet Knights' 75-52 win vs. Minnesota on Saturday. The blowout victory snapped Rutgers' 32-game Big Ten losing streak, dating back to its upset win over No. 4 Wisconsin on Jan. 11, 2015, and it helped the team avoid an 0-18 Big Ten campaign.
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Best stat line: Bryn Forbes hit a Big Ten single-game record 11 3-pointers en route to scoring a career-high 33 points in No. 2 Michigan State's 97-66 rout at Rutgers on Wednesday night.
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Best moment: Watching Indiana celebrate its second outright Big Ten title in four years in the locker room late Tuesday night at Iowa. Yogi Ferrell hit a monster 3-pointer with 37 seconds left to ice the big win for the Hoosiers.
Honorable mention: It also was fun to watch senior day ceremonies across the Big Ten landscape. And, no senior day tradition is better than the Michigan State seniors kissing the midcourt logo on their way to the bench for the last time.
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Best dunk: Khalil Iverson at Minnesota. He's becoming a familiar name in this category. Funny things is, his latest highlight-reel dunk was preceded by an embarrassing missed dunk on a fastbreak a little more than two minutes earlier. All good, Iverson more than made up for it with this Dominque Wilkins-esque dunk.
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Best pass: Nick Zeisloft vs. Maryland. This thing was ridiculous, if we're being perfectly honest. Not only did Zeisloft get in the passing lane and steal the ball, but he managed to avoid stepping out of bounds, allowing him to unleash a no-look beauty halfway down the court to Juwan Morgan, who went for a lay-up. Amazing.
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Best quote: Tom Crean. For those who don't know, the All-Big Ten teams and award winners will be released at 6 p.m. ET Monday on BTN Live. There's a pretty nice battle for player of the year between Indiana's Yogi Ferrell and Michigan State's Denzel Valentine. The latter is the likely favorite, something Tom Crean seems to realize based on this quote while introducing his candidate on senior day Sunday night.
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