MSU secures double-bye, UM big dance chances take hit ahead of Big Ten tourney
Matt CharboneauThe regular season has just about come to an end in the Big Ten and that means the log jam in the standings was finally being sorted out at press time heading into this week’s conference tournament in Chicago that tips off Wednesday.
The path for Michigan State and Michigan is just about set after the Spartans closed the season with a win Saturday over Ohio State while Michigan fell in overtime Sunday at Indiana.
Things broke about as well as they could for the Spartans (19-11, 11-8 Big Ten), who clinched a double-bye and will not play until Friday thanks to Penn State rallying to beat Maryland, Purdue holding off Illinois and Nebraska pulling the upset.
It means Michigan State will be the 4-seed, assured when Northwestern defeated Rutgers on Sunday night. The Spartans will play around 2:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of Thursday’s game between the 5-seed and Wednesday’s winner from the 12-13 game.
Michigan (17-14, 11-9) missed out on the double-bye with Sunday’s loss and a shot at a quality win to improve its NCAA Tournament resume.
Michigan is the 8-seed and will take on No. 9 Rutgers at noon Thursday.
The tournament will give Michigan State the chance to improve on its NCAA Tournament seeding. Currently, the Spartans are projected in many brackets to be a 7-seed.
Twitter: @mattcharboneau