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2008 Big Ten Conference Basketball Tournament

Written by Jimmy Boyd on March 2, 2008

March Madness is officially here so it’s time to start taking a look at the major conference tournament action. The Big Ten tourney is usually one of the best and Jimmy Boyd doesn’t see it disappointing with the college basketball predictions in his 2008 Big Ten Conference tournament preview.

The Big Ten Conference tournament gets underway on Thursday March 13th at Conseco Fieldhouse (home of the Pacers) and goes through Sunday March 16th. This tournament promises plenty of primetime action. Most all of the early round games can be seen on the ESPN networks and the Big Ten Network. The Semifinal and the Finals will air of CBS.

The 2008 Big Ten tournament will have all 11 conference schools battling it out for automatic entry into the NCAA tournament. The top five teams get a bye while the other six schools face the challenge of winning four games in four days to be crowned Big Ten Conference tournament champs.

The Big Ten isn’t as deep as it has been in the past few season, but it is still a very quality league. There are four teams this season which are, by far, better than the rest. Those schools are Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, and Purdue and all will be receiving automatic bids into the NCAA tourney. Because some schools have already locked up a postseason spot, there incentive to win their conference tournament is not as big as it is for a school on the bubble or one that must win it all to advance to the Big Dance. But even with that said, I don’t see any team in the Big Ten outside the top four cutting down the nets at Conseco. At this point, if there is to be a sleeper, I like Minnesota’s chances. Tubby Smith has come into the Twin Cities and instantly transformed this team. The Gophers are currently 18-10 on the season and 8-8 in conference play. If they pull off a couple wins in the Big Ten tourney, they could be dancing – somewhere no one thought they’d be in year one under Smith.

Of the favorites, I look for the Badgers to have a very good shot at winning the tourney. Wisconsin advanced to the Big Ten tourney title game last season, but came up short. The Badgers were not expected to win the Big Ten title in 2008 after losing their two best players from last year’s team, but they have been playing with a chip on their shoulder all season long and it looks like they are going to end up Big Ten champs. No team in the league is more fundamentally sound and plays together as well.

2007 Recap:

The Ohio state Buckeyes were the #1 seed in last year’s Big Ten tourney and also the #1 ranked school in the AP poll. Greg Oden and company dominated the Wisconsin Badgers 66-49 to earn the school’s first Big Ten tournament title. The Buckeyes went on to finish second in the country, losing in the national title game to Florida.

Previous winners:
2007 – Ohio State
2006 – Iowa
2005 – Illinois
2004 – Wisconsin

Make sure you pick up Jimmy Boyd’s college basketball picks to beat the NCAA basketball odds through the Final Four!

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