If there was one game circled on the schedule when it was announced, it was tonight’s clash in West Lafayette (6:30 p.m., Peacock/NBCSN) — a heavyweight bout between the top two preseason picks in the league.
The stakes have flipped a bit — Purdue, the preseason favorite, is playing chaser, and the Wolverines are the consensus No. 1 team in the country — but the game still has the Big Ten title implications everyone hoped for.
A Purdue win will convince the Boilermakers and four others that their Big Ten title hopes are alive. A Michigan win will put it on the cusp of an outright Big Ten crown, all but eliminating Purdue from the race.
“You’re not winning the Big Ten if you can’t win this game, you’re just not,” Matt Painter said of the importance of this game for his team. “Because I don’t know how many losses (Michigan) will get. So that’s where it’s at.”
If you enjoy Big Ten basketball, it doesn’t get much better than this. Two top ten teams at Mackey Arena in late-February, with everything to play for.
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