With another week of Big Ten basketball behind us, it’s time to run down the best plays from Feb. 13-19 action. If you like jaw-dropping plays, this was the week for you. But which ones reserved a spot on BTN.com blogger Brent Yarina’s latest Hardwood Highlights? See Brent’s top 10 plays in this post. Don’t agree? Cast your vote for the top play at the bottom of this post. See last week’s top plays and keep up with all the best highlights from across the Big Ten with our Did You See This? feature.
In the waning moments of Michigan’s upset win over Ohio State on Saturday, the Twitterverse started naming Trey Burke the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The point guard was instrumental in the win, scoring 17 points and dishing out five assists, but let’s not consider this thing over. The race is just heating up, as Indiana’s Cody Zeller has been every bit as impressive — probably even more so the past couple of weeks. Brent Yarina breaks down the two worthy candidates in this post.
No. 19 Michigan upset No. 6 Ohio State (recap), Nebraska did the same to struggling Illinois (recap) and Northwestern took care of Minnesota (recap) in Big Ten men’s hoops action Saturday. Catch up on all three games on our BTN.com scoreboard and get stats, recaps and video in this post. BTN has another doubleheader Sunday, starting at 4 ET (view the schedule!). And don’t forget that BTN.com editors watch for all the best highlights throughout the season and post them in our Did You See This? archive.
Zack Novak is the face of Michigan, the embodiment of what John Beilein is trying to build the Wolverine program into in his fifth year in Ann Arbor. Just watch Novak on the court. The energy, the desire, the passion. And, the production. He’s the inspirational leader of a Michigan team that is 19-7 overall and 9-4 in the Big Ten, very much in the hunt for the Big Ten title.
It has been an interesting week, with the league title chase coming into sharper focus with Michigan State’s big win at Ohio State. It will come down to Sparty vs. Brutus for the title, which is what we thought would happen back in October. So, it looks like the other Big Ten teams are relegated to a chase for third place.
