Elimination Time Finally Here

The time to put up or shut up is now here. Michigan must take care of business tomorrow at the barn. With Penn State's last second victory against Illinois and Northwestern pulling off a couple upsets, tomorrow's game has become even bigger since last Saturday. Finishing with a 8-10 record in Big Ten play and a possible finish of 8 or even 9 (ouch), would make it really hard for the tournament committee to put Michigan in the field of 65.

There are a number of scenarios that have to play out yet before we know what seed Michigan will be in the Big Ten Tournament. Over at umhoops.com, there is a nice analysis of 4 possible outcomes, placing Michigan anywhere from the 6 to 9 seed in Indianapolis. One surprising note, Penn State has a chance to enter the tourney as a 2 seed. Ideally, that sets up a 7-10 game with Michigan playing Iowa and facing Penn State the next day. Those are two definitely winnable games.

How about the depth of the Big Ten this year? Top to bottom, there is really no weak team. Iowa has pulled off a couple of upsets, and even Indiana has managed to stay close in some games. I had written off Northwestern a couple weeks ago, but man, those guys will not go away.

Tomorrow will be an early one for me, 9 A.M. college gameday, 10 A.M. game (remember I'm two hours behind Eastern Time). It'll be nice to not have to sit around waiting for the game to come on.

I know there's an mgoblog curse on live blogs, but is anyone interested in doing one here? Let me know, I'm always interested in in-game discussions.