Take a look at the updated 2016 Big Ten Tournament bracket after two rounds of play.
The second round of the Big Ten Tournament is in the books and day two was much more exciting and brought the March Madness feel to fans of the conference that the first round didn’t.
No. 8 Michigan and No. 9 Northwestern opened the second round with a noon tipoff and the Wolverines looked as if they’d be cruising for an easy win, taking an early double-digit lead. However, the Wildcats battled back and tied it up on a miraculous touch shot from about five feet out with 0.1 seconds left in regulation by Alex Olah.
Michigan went on to take the win in overtime despite a bonehead play by Derrick Walton Jr. that nearly cost them the game as he stepped out-of-bounds with 0.7 seconds left. The Wolverines held on, though, 72-70 in overtime.
Illinois, the No. 12 seed, came into the second contest as an extreme underdog against No. 5 Iowa, but the Hawkeyes crumbled and allowed the Fighting Illini to get their first back-to-back wins in Big Ten play all year after a huge upset. Could we see a Cinderella story developing? Illinois wins 68-66.
Penn State looked to upset No. 7 seed Ohio State in the third game Thursday, but the Buckeyes responded to a halftime deficit with a nice second-half surge, taking the victory, 79-75. The Nittany Lions’ solid second half of the year has finally concluded and the Buckeyes slim hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid are still alive.
The final second round game took place between No. 11 Nebraska and No. 6 Wisconsin. The Badgers couldn’t avoid the same fate Iowa suffered and fell to the Cornhuskers, 70-58. Sharon Shields and Andrew White were too much for the Badgers to handle.
Here’s the updated Big Ten Tournament bracket after the first two days of play:
In Friday’s quarterfinals, No. 8 seed Michigan will play No. 1 seed Indiana at noon ET, No. 12 Illinois will face No. 4 Purdue at about 2:30 p.m. ET, No. 7 Ohio State will play No. 2 Michigan State at 6:30 p.m. ET and No. 11 Nebraska and No. 3 Maryland will round out the day at about 9:00 p.m. ET.
Who will win the Friday matchups?