Today at 3:30 p.m. ET the No. 8 Michigan Wolverines will face off with the No. 22 Michigan State Spartans for the Big Ten tournament championship on CBS. The title game can be live streamed for free here; Wolverines fans can hear the game on WOMC-FM, while Spartans fans may do the same on Detroit 950 AM.
Michigan has ended Ohio State's reign of terror in Big Ten tournaments by eking out a three-point victory an 18-point performance by Nik Stauskas, who connected on half of his eight 3-point attempts. Three Wolverines starters netted double-figures in the scoring column, and the team shot over 50 percent against Ohio State's normally tough defense.
"We weren't thinking about winning the Big Ten Conference championship, the tournament," Stauskas said. "We were thinking about just beating Ohio State. This is a rivalry game."
The Wolverines' offense proved its mettle yesterday, and head coach John Beilein seemed pleased that his squad was able to get their shots off vs. such a good defense. "Those are the three best defensive teams in our league. They're just really difficult to score points on," Beilein said referring to the Buckeyes, Wisconsin Badgers and Michigan State Spartans.
By beating OSU, they move on to face the Spartans, who topped Wisconsin yesterday 83-75. The Spartans' defense is quite good as well, and they also pack a strong offensive punch led by Gary Harris. Individually, Harris had a relatively quiet day, but all five Spartans starters scored more than 10 points.
Adreian Payne was particularly effective, leading State with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Now healthy, the Spartans are back to resembling the outfit that many saw as a surefire title contender when the season tipped off.
"We're just scratching the surface," Payne said. "We didn't play at a high level before just because we haven't had time for everyone to play together for a long period of time. This tournament has been great because we've been able to play with each other more and we're starting to look better."
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