Bodog Beat

No major conference tournament this week appears more wide open for a possible winner than the Big Ten, which was the only BCS conference to see a three-way tie for first to end the regular season. Ohio State got the top seed for the Big Ten Tournament, which opens Thursday afternoon in Indianapolis – bet on it with Bodog’s college basketball odds.

OSU has opened as a 7/4 favorite on Bodog to win this tournament. The Buckeyes are the most “whole” team right now and enter having won 10 of 11. They also have conference player of the year Evan Turner, who led the Big Ten in both scoring (19.5) and rebounding (9.4) and was second in assists (5.8). He is the first player in Big Ten history to finish in the top two spots in those three categories.

Purdue and Michigan State, the co-regular champs with the Buckeyes, both have issues entering the tourney.  Of course the Boilermakers (11/2 to win on Bodog) lost star Robbie Hummel to a season-ending knee injury and then promptly struggled a bit in the final three games, including a loss to the Spartans. The Boilers are the defending tourney champs. MSU (43/20 on Bodog) could be in a spot of trouble in tits opening game in this tournament at a minimum as starting guard Chris Allen has been suspended for undisclosed reasons and might not return at all for this tournament. Allen (9.1 ppg) wasn’t a player on the level of Hummel but still a solid contributor and the team’s best three-point shooter. The Spartans, for all their NCAA Tournament success, haven’t won a Big Ten Tournament in 10 years.

Only four Big Ten teams have locked down NCAA bids, and the fourth is Wisconsin (2/1 on Bodog). The Badgers closed the season with four wins in a row and seem to have found themselves with the return of big man from a broken wrist. The Badgers beat all three top seeds in this tournament once this season, although all three wins came in Madison. Illinois and Minnesota both have shots at at-large bids if they win a few games.

If history holds, one of the top three seeds will win the tournament because a top-three team has in the past eight seasons and 10 of 12 overall. The lowest seed to win was No. 6 Iowa back in 2001. The No. 1 seed has won the tournament just four times.

Here is the schedule for the first two rounds, all times Eastern:

Thursday’s first round
No. 8 Michigan vs. No. 9 Iowa, 2:30 p.m.
No. 7 Northwestern vs. No. 10 Indiana, 5 p.m.
No. 6 Minnesota vs. No. 11 Penn State, 7:30 p.m.
Friday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 Ohio State vs. MICH/IOWA, Noon
No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 5 Illinois, 3 p.m.
No. 2 Purdue vs. NW/IND, 6:30 p.m
No. 3 Michigan State vs. MIN/PSU, 9 ET

Get all your Big Ten Tournament odds at Bodog