Purdue

At the most the winner of tonight's game between Wisconsin (19-5, 9-3) and Purdue (20-5, 9-3) becomes the team with the best chance to catch Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten standings. But at the very least a win puts the victor in a good position to earn the two-seed in next month's Big Ten Tournament, a nice reward given the fact that the quarterfinal opponent will have played on the opening Thursday. Wisconsin looks to cap a season sweep of the series, and an important aspect of tonight's game will be their ability to put Saturday's win over Ohio State in the past and move forward.

In a game that didn't provide much separation in terms of the starters and their production it was a reserve who proved to be the difference in Wisconsin's 66-59 win over Purdue in Madison. Ryan Evans supplied 10 points and some sold defense off the bench, most importantly tying up E'Twaun Moore on a drive to the basket with 25 seconds remaining and the Badgers up 63-59.

Another Tuesday night means another important game in the Big Ten, with Purdue (18-4, 7-2) hitting the road to take on Wisconsin (15-5, 5-3) in the always-imposing Kohl Center. While there is quite the distance between both of these teams and undefeated Ohio State atop the conference standings, both get the Buckeyes at home later in the season, meaning that the winner on Tuesday night can still entertain some hope of winning a share of the Big Ten crown.

If you were upset that the game between Florida and Georgia wouldn't end in time for the tip between Purdue and Ohio State that's understandable. Because by the time ESPN switched its coverage from Athens to Columbus the Buckeyes had just about ended the game, going on a 17-1 run following a Purdue basket to make the score 6-4 with 17:27 remaining.

First place in the Big 12 in on the line Saturday afternoon with Texas (15-3, 3-0), fresh off of an impressive win over rival Texas A&M, visiting Kansas (18-0, 3-0) with the undefeated Jayhawks looking to keep their 69-game home win streak alive. In order for Texas to pick up the victory they're going to need their frontcourt to play as well as they did against the Aggies if not better because they'll be up against one of the premier frontcourts in America.

It would have been extremely difficult to find many people who expected Wednesday's rivalry game between Texas A&M and Texas to be a blowout. But that's what happened in Austin as the Longhorns took control of the game defensively while also executing on the offensive end, winning by the final score of 81-60 and ending the Aggies' 13-game win streak.

Minnesota went into Thursday night's game against #8 Purdue in need of a victory and thanks to Blake Hoffarber and some solid late-game defense the mission was accomplished. Hoffarber's 26 points led the way offensively and the Golden Gophers managed to hold the Boilermakers without a field goal for the last nine minutes in a 70-67 victory in Minneapolis. JaJaun Johnson led all scorers with 29 points to go with 11 rebounds while Lewis Jackson added 15, but Purdue was unable to overcome the rough shooting night of E'Twaun Moore.

If Minnesota (12-4, 1-3) is to entertain any thoughts of being a top five team in the Big Ten Thursday night is a game they must have. Visiting "The Barn" is #8 Purdue (15-1, 4-0), a team that's performed much better than some expected in the preseason when forward Robbie Hummel went down with a torn ACL. The two biggest reasons why Matt Painter's team is ranked in the Top 10 are seniors JaJuan Johnson (19.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and E'Twaun Moore (18.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg), two players who have played at an All-Big Ten level for much of the season to date.