It was a short slate for the Big Ten on Wednesday night, followed by one game on Thursday night, but the action still delivered some entertaining games and some great storylines. It was good for the USC Trojans to get their star recruit Alijah Arenas on the court for the first time. While he was not dominant right out the gates as expected, his return was not the main storyline for the Trojans — they got upset by Northwestern. Nebraska and Illinois keep rolling and aim to be in an even better position to win the conference. Wisconsin is still on an upward trajectory
Here are the scores and the rest of my analysis from Wednesday and Thursday in Big Ten basketball:
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No. 11 Illinois 89-70 vs Maryland
The Fighting Illini are missing their stud Kylan Boswell, but this is a team that continues to show that their depth is one of their superpowers. The Illini took care of business once again, as they were led by an Andrej Stojakovic masterclass performance. He gave great confidence that he will cover up the hole of Boswell’s injury. He will need to be great again, as well as each of the Illini’s other stars, as the Purdue Boilermakers will be the next matchup.
No. 7 Nebraska 76-66 vs Washington
Pryce Sandfort does it again and has his 3rd straight 20-point performance, and as a result, Nebraska’s run of undefeated continues. The winning streak for the Cornhuskers now sits at 23 games. Nebraska got a scare with Braden Fager spraining his ankle and exiting the game. Their bench will now take a big hit until he is able to return. Nebraska still has provided confidence that this is a team that can withstand some obstacles, given how deep they are. The Huskies got a great performance out of their star Hannes Steinback, and Zoom Diallo had a big night with an efficient 18 points. Unfortunately, that was not enough for the Huskies to avoid a 5th loss in the last 6 games.
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Northwestern 74-68 vs USC
The long-awaited debut of Alijah Arenas could not even be enjoyed as the Trojans suffered a devastating upset to one of the worst teams in the Big Ten. Nick Martinelli kept his hot shooting streak alive vs the Trojans as he led the Wildcats to victory with 22 points. The Trojans on the flipside could not buy a bucket, shooting 38.5% from the field. The Bruins upset the Boilermakers on Tuesday and the Trojans get upset by Northwestern, such a humbling day for this basketball program.
Wisconsin 98-71 vs Penn State
The Badgers stormed to an easy road win at Penn State on Thursday. The Badgers are now 14-5 overall and look like a very different team from the group which struggled in nonconference play back in November and December.
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Top Performers
Andrej Stojakovic had the best performance of the night on Wednesday, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Coming into the Illinois-Maryland game, UM’s David Coit was on a heater, and if anyone was going to have a scoring outburst, it would be a safe bet it would be him. Stojakovic had other plans. Stojakovic had 30 points, and he shot 4-7 from three. It wasn’t just his elite scoring that made the difference; it was also his great defense, and his 2 blocks were a great depiction of that. An all-around performance from Stojakovic led the Fighting Illini to yet another big win.
The Washington Huskies came up short, but Hannes Steinbach was the biggest reason for them keeping it close with the best of the best in the Big Ten. Steinbach had 21 points and 12 rebounds vs the Cornhuskers. The big man went 2-2 from 3 and 7-12 from the field; the Cornhuskers could not contain him. Tough blow that his great outing could not be topped off with a victory, and instead they lost by 10 points. Nonetheless, he looks like one of the best freshmen in the country on a week-to-week basis.
Overview
The Trojans may have a solid record this season, but they have been anything but solid in conference play. The Trojans are doing the opposite of proving they belong in the Big Ten; they were upset by one of the worst teams in the conference. On the other hand, Nebraska and Illinois continue to look as advertised, even with tough injuries to key players.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Biggest winners and losers from January 22 in Big Ten men’s basketball
