By: Angelique S. Chengelis (The Detroit News) -- Indianapolis -- Michigan now needs three wins to reach the NCAA Tournament. That seems unrealistic for a sub-.500 team, but that's how the Wolverines are approaching this Big Ten tournament. They scratched one win off the list Thursday, beating Iowa, 59-52, in the first game of the tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse. The Wolverines will play top-seeded Ohio State on Friday at noon in the first quarterfinal of the day. The fifth-ranked Buckeyes had a bye ... Read More

By: Ryne E. Hancock (BleacherReport.com) -- In order to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, in my opinion, you have to do the following: * Win more than four games against top-50 teams in the RPI, both before Jan. 1 and after. * Dominate your conference. * Be consistent. If you’re a Kansas State fan and reading this, then close this window right now, because it doesn’t apply to you. Same with Duke fans and intramurals commish Brittney Plowman as well. While we all know that ... Read More

By: John Kampf (News-Herald.com) -- COLUMBUS — Hanging high above the court at Value City Arena, home of the Ohio State men's basketball team, is a large white banner, trimmed in scarlet. Inside the trim it reads in scarlet letters, "Jackson." Beneath it the number "22." The banner commemorates the decorated tenure of Jimmy Jackson. The standard for OSU men's basketball program for this generation. At least until this year. Since he departed Ohio State following the 1991-92 season, Jackson has had no peer come and go ... Read More

By: Zack Meisel (TheLantern.com) -- The night started with tears dripping down the face of senior Mark Titus. It ended with a floor full of Buckeye nuts celebrating Ohio State’s first Big Ten Championship since the 2006-07 season. Behind a barrage of 3-pointers by junior Jon Diebler, the No. 6 Buckeyes raced past Illinois to win 73-57 on senior night at the Schottenstein Center. Diebler drained seven shots from behind the arc, including five in the first half. He paced the Buckeyes with 21 points. With the ... Read More

By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- After finishing off a remarkable 50-day run, the Ohio State Buckeyes can enjoy a nine-day break knowing that no matter what else happens, they are Big Ten men's basketball champions and the No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament. With a 73-57 victory over Illinois on Tuesday, No. 6 Ohio State ended its regular season at 24-7 and 14-4 in conference play. Purdue and Michigan State, both with two games to play, can tie ... Read More

By: Ryan Cost (CNATI.com) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As Ohio State guard Evan Turner stood atop the scorer's table, he hoisted the Big Ten championship trophy in one hand, and gave the "number one" sign with the other to the large group of fans on the Value City Arena floor chanting "One more year! One more year!" It was a symbolic gesture. Ohio State is the "number one" seed in next week's Big Ten tournament after capping off its conference season with a sound ... Read More

By: JOHN P. WISE (BleacherReport.com) -- It's March and everyone's talking about college basketball. Is your team on the bubble? While all the talk is about teams and brackets and seeds, let's not forget about some of the top individual players who hope to lead those squads deep into the NCAA Tournament. So let's get started with my five leading candidates to win the coveted Naismith Award, which honors the best player in men's college basketball (stats through Feb. 28): + Evan Turner, Jr, G, ... Read More

By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland Plain Dealer) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Terrelle Pryor wanted to know the score. "I hope Purdue loses," the Ohio State quarterback said Sunday afternoon. Told the Boilermakers were trailing Michigan State, Pryor said, "That's good then." "I'm just happy the girls are in and now we need the guys coming in. I'm sure they'll get it done," Pryor said. Actually, Pryor and the football Buckeyes were in first, winning their fifth straight Big Ten title in the fall. Then the OSU women's ... Read More

By: Angelique S. Chengelis (The Detroit News) -- Columbus, Ohio -- If only Michigan could have played Ohio State minus Evan Turner. And William Buford. And Dallas Lauderdale. The ninth-ranked Buckeyes had too much firepower this time for the Wolverines, as they won handily, 66-55, on Saturday afternoon at Value City Arena to split the regular-season series. Michigan, which had beaten Ohio State in early January while Turner, a national player of the year favorite, was sidelined with an injury, has lost three straight with ... Read More

By: Michael Rothstein (AnnArbor.com) -- COLUMBUS - Evan Turner sat in his hospital bed, his back fractured, his season bleak. Everything had gone so well for the Ohio State junior forward. He was averaging 20.6 points and 12.9 rebounds a game. His team was 7-1. And in an instant, with a hard, awkward landing after a dunk against Eastern Michigan on Dec. 5, it looked like it was over. So he apologized to teammates for being injured and started working on his return. Why the ... Read More

By: AP via TheSpread.com -- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -Watch 30 seconds of highlights from an Ohio State game and you'd think the Buckeyes had four guys who wear No. 21. Need a rebound? Evan Turner will get it. A defensive stop? Ditto. An assist? A big bucket? Turner will provide those, too. Few if any teams in the nation depend more on one player than No. 9 Ohio State does on Evan Turner. It's not a secret, either. West Virginia's Devin Ebanks previewed his team's ... Read More

By: Adam Biggers (BleacherReport.com) -- The Big Ten is a guard-heavy conference—everyone knows that. The league boasts some of the best men in the business: Michigan State's Kalin Lucas, Purdue's Etwaun Moore, and Illinois' Demetri McCamey. All three men are certainly in the mix for the league's prestigious "player of the year" honor, but there's another name that has stood out for the last half of the season: Ohio State's Evan Turner. After his superb showing in East Lansing last Sunday (74-67 OSU win) while fighting ... Read More

By: Tim Gardner (USAToday.com) -- As we hit the home stretch of the college basketball season, there are several front-runners for the national player-of-the-year award. One is Kentucky's John Wall. The freshman has played huge since Day One for John Calipari's Wildcats, including a game-saving block against Vanderbilt over the weekend that kept Kentucky atop the SEC and ranked No. 2 in the country. Wall leads the Wildcats in scoring with 16.8 points a game. There's also Wesley Johnson. The Syracuse junior is averaging 16 ... Read More