Big Ten underdogs see favorable weekend

It was a good weekend for underdogs in the Big Ten conference.

First, Big Ten bottom feeder, Nebraska, unfurled its best game of the season on Saturday, defeating Illinois 80-57. Then No. 19 Michigan took down its rival No. 8 Ohio State by a score of 56-51 in front of its home crowd.

Finally, Sunday the Iowa Hawkeyes were able to pull off an upset over No. 20 Indiana 78-66, avenging an earlier loss to the Hoosiers.

Upsets are part of college basketball. And they certainly have been present in the Big Ten this season, but this past weekend packed in a few more than usual.

At the weekly Big Ten teleconference, Illinois coach Bruce Weber talked about how the lack of pressure on the underdogs gave them an advantage this weekend. He placed some of the blame for his team's loss to Nebraska on this idea.

"The thing I fear the greatest is that (Nebraska) would be free and loose," he said. "They made shots that they haven't made all year."

Neither team was probably free or loose in the Saturday evening game between Michigan and Ohio State. It was a matchup of ranked opponents and the favored Buckeyes were on the road.

"In a game like that, where you have two good defensive teams, and one is, Ohio is just longer than us, it was the team that was going to make tough shots that was going to win," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "And we really made some well guarded shots. They had several similar shots that just didn't go in."

Maybe the most surprising of the underdog victories from the weekend was Iowa's win against Indiana. The Hawkeyes had lost to the Hoosiers in Bloomington 103-89 back on Jan. 29, and had lost two consecutive games coming into the second contest with them.

"I don't think our effort was poor down there. I think our execution was horrendous," Hawkeye coach Fran McCaffery said. "We scored 89 points. We ran the break. We ran our offense extremely well, you know."

So what was different this time?

Defense. The Hawkeyes got a tremendous performance out of its defensive scheme and benefitted from the stellar effort of forward Melsahn Basabe. The sophomore recorded five blocks in the game and, according to McCaffery, contested four more.

"You could look at that as the big difference for the game and in our team," McCaffery said. "He was a legitimate force inside on both ends of the of the floor. The shot blocking, when you remember how many layups they got last time, he erased five of them right off the bat."

"And what does that do? It raises our energy level. It gives our offense energy, and it triggers our fast break. It ignites the crowd."

The Iowa contingent was no doubt happy with the upset victory over the Top-25 Hoosiers, but surprisingly, they refrained from rushing the court following the game. McCaffery was glad to see that.

"I think it happens too often," he said. "You have to get to a point where you have to act like you've done it before. There has to be a certain expectation level. Yeah, okay, they were ranked, but it was a conference game, and there's a good chance we're going to win a conference game at home."

"Every time we have a win, I don't think we need to run on the floor."

lannyholstein@dailynebraskan.com