By Paul M. Banks, President of The Sports Bank.net
When Michigan State meets #3 Purdue on Sunday, it’ll have huge influence on who wins the Big Ten regular season title. But beyond that…who will eventually take Purdue’s #1 seed in the NCAA tourney now?
The Purdue Boilermakers are 12-3 in the Big Ten, a half-game ahead of [...]

By Paul M. Banks, President of The Sports Bank.net
1. Purdue (24-3, 12-3)
Ten in a row! Give them that #1 seed. Boilers are on a mission to duplicate Michigan St.’s feat from last season- reach a Final Four held in your home state. Getting there is DEPENDENT on the health of Robbie Hummel. And the fact [...]

Chris Kramer is the defensive specialist on Purdue and was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in the 2007-2008 season.  Although we here at NQTC all know he is no Chester Frazier, Kramer is still a force to be reckoned with.  And you have to love a guy who will literally swim up [...]

So, the Big Ten previews didn’t finish up due to getting slammed at work.  Therefore, I bring you the preseason Big Ten Power Rankings.
1) Ohio State- Hard to put the Buckeyes anywhere else on the list.  Terrelle Pryor was the most efficient passer in the conference last year and OSU is never lacking talent.  For [...]

The early games are just about finished, with Michigan State beating Minnesota 64-56 and Ohio State and Wisconsin still going at it and it looks like it could go down to the wire….
5:30 pm (2) Illinois vs. (7) Michigan-
The first issue that comes to mind with this game is the availability of Chester Frazier for [...]

Day one of the Big Ten Tourney was pretty boring, to put it bluntly.  Minnesota led pretty much the whole way and ended any hopes Northwestern had for their first ever tournament  berth.  Then Michigan jumped out to an early lead and never looked back against Iowa, all but clinching their first tournament appearance in [...]

In the spirit of Michael Scott and the Office, we roasted the Chicago Bulls a while back and got a pretty good response.  It’s probably because the Bulls are so hilariously awful, but here we go again with the basketball teams of the Big Ten.
Purdue, every time someone slips on the court, I still blame [...]

The Big Ten Tournament starts at 11am today.  There are seven or eight teams that have a legitimate chance to win this thing, and any of today’s games could feature an upset. All times Central:
11:00 am (8) Minnesota vs. (9) Northwestern
The teams split games during the regular season, with each winning at home.  The most [...]

The Big Ten has some great academic schools: Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and others provide great educations.  The Big Ten, for the second straight year, is looking at adding another conference game to the schedule.
It doesn’t seem like a terrible idea really; another conference game means that you only miss one conference opponent per year, [...]

After being lauded as a defensive stopper, Chester Frazier slipped into the role of offensive hero for a little while Sunday, as Illinois held off Indiana in Bloomington for a 65-52 win.
Illinois streaked to a 21 point lead in the first half, but saw Indiana claw back to within six with just over six minutes [...]

It’s true. It’s so magical and mysterious you don’t even know it’s happening during the game. You can see Frazier the whole time and you can see the poor soul he is guarding, but it’s all an illusion. It’s like LOST without that feeling that it’s being written by a drunk guy [...]

Oh, please no! Does the Basanez signing mean the Sex Cannon Era has ended in Chicago?
Bulls beat Hornets sans Chris Paul 107-93. That’s four out of five for Chicago…break em up!
Some Big Ten recruiting notes the day after National Signing Day.
Some are wondering: does Michael Phelps’ insane lung capacity allow him to take [...]

Here’s a subject we don’t get into that much on NQTC: NCAA football recruiting. Today is like Christmas for those of us who spend way too much time paying attention to where a 17 or 18 year old kid is going to college. Hey, at least Chris Hansen isn’t paying us a visit.
Anyway, [...]

Lions fans really REALLY hate Matt Millen. Holding up “Fire Matt Millen” signs is one thing, but this is entirely different.
Bears sign ex-Northwestern QB Basanez to 2-year deal. Really? What exactly does this do?
The Bulls didn’t look terrible, but they did lose to the Rockets to snap their road-winning streak at 3 [...]

Down three at halftime with only 22 points, it looked like it might be another long afternoon for the Illini. The win moves Illinois to 18-4 and made it nine straight wins at Assembly Hall.
Mike Tisdale led the way for Illinois with 18 points and helped Illinois dominate the glass by 13 rebounds, just [...]