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NCAA Tournament: Big Ten off to a fast start in round 1

By Charlie Lockhart

DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 21: Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye #23 of the Bradley Braves goes up for a shot against the Michigan State Spartans during their game in the First Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 21, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 21: Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye #23 of the Bradley Braves goes up for a shot against the Michigan State Spartans during their game in the First Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 21, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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The Big Ten has made the NCAA Tournament Committee look good so far as five conference teams won their first round games yesterday.

The Big Ten led the way with eight teams invited to this year’s NCAA Tournament and so far conference teams have made the committee look good for including that many. All five Big Ten teams that played yesterday pulled out victories.

Not all were easy wins though. Especially the one by the highest seeded team in the conference.

The Bradley Braves gave the Michigan State Spartans all they could handle leading 35-34 at halftime and only trailing 56-55 with a little over four minutes to play. Finally Michigan State got on a bit of a roll and pulled out a 76-65 victory.

As usual Cassius Winston came up big for the Spartans. Not just because he scored 26 points but that many of those came at crucial times when it looked like the Braves were about to take control of the game.

Other players in double figures for Michigan State were Xavier Tillman with 16 and Matt McQuaid 10.

No. 2 seed Michigan defeated Montana 74-55 and had little difficulty doing so. The Wolverines got off to a fast start, took a 34-21 lead into the halftime break and never looked back.

Leading scorers for Michigan were Charles Mathews (22), Ignas Brazdeikis (14), Jon Teske (11) and Jordan Poole (10).

Purdue led Old Dominion by 13 at halftime and held on to win by the same margin 61-48. Carsen Edwards led the Boilermakers with 26 points and Matt Harms scored 13.

Maryland had the most difficult game of the day and simply outlasted Belmont to pull out a 79-77 victory. The Bruins took a 40-34 lead into halftime but after the break it was game on.

The Terrapins kept battling and eventually pulled out a hard-fought victory. Maryland players in double figures were Jalen Smith (19), Darryl Morsell (18), Bruno Fernando (14) and Eric Ayala (12).

Now for my favorite game of the day.

More from Ohio State Buckeyes

In our Scarlet And Game predictions for round one I was the only guy who picked Minnesota to defeat Louisville. Since the Gophers defeated the Cardinals 86-76, I am leading Tom, Blake and Shayne in our predictions.

This was a competitive game early with Minnesota leading 38-33 at halftime. The Gophers began to pull away after the break and kept control of the game the rest of the way.

I expected Minnesota to play well but I have to admit the scoring output surprised me. And the fact the Gophers had five players score in double figures did too. Those five were Gabe Kalscheur (24), Jordan Murphy (18), Amir Coffey (18), Daniel Oturo (13) and Dupree McBrayer (13).

Stats provided by ESPN.com.

Next. Dwayne Haskins’ Pro Day better than Kyler Murray’s. dark

The three games involving conference teams on tap today are Wisconsin vs. Oregon, Iowa vs. Cincinnati and Ohio State vs. Iowa State. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the Big Ten would have eight teams move on to the second round? It could happen.

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