This was no shock, as Iowa was expected to take care of business vs. the Wildcats. And, it did with efficiency. The Hawkeyes overwhelmed an undermanned Northwestern team with a balanced attack. This is a team on a mission, as Iowa fights for its first NCAA bid since 2006.  The Hawkeyes have won three in a row and four of five.

Devyn Marble scored 19 points to help Iowa hold on for an important 73-59 victory over Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday night. Mike Gesell added 11 points, including a clinching three-point play with 1:41 left as the Hawkeyes (21-11) continued their late-season push for a spot in the NCAA tournament with their eighth victory in 10 games.

BTN.com offers something new for the 2013 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament – deeper live box scores provided by Stats LLC. How are they different? The Stats’ SportVU Tracking System captures X/Y positioning coordinates of the players and the ball to deliver unique performance data by merging the in-depth tracking data with traditional play-by-play information. What do the new stats include? Read about it below in this post.

BTN will kick off the start of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, back in Chicago for the first time since 2007, by announcing registration opens today for the second-annual BTN Big 10K and 5K on July 27, 2013 in downtown Chicago. This year, the race, which will be nationally televised on BTN, will benefit Special Olympics. Fleet Feet Sports – Chicago is again partnering with BTN to put on both races.

The first day of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament had it’s share of excitement. Illinois beat Minnesota 51-49 with a Brandon Paul jumper at the buzzer while Michigan handled Penn State, 83-66. Later, No. 7 Purdue fell to No. 10 Nebraska, 57-55. The last game of the night: No. 6 Iowa eliminates No. 11 Northwestern.