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Dribbling around the Big Ten

When you woke up today, you said to yourself, "Dadgummit, I would love to learn something I didn't know about every Big Ten basketball program.

"And doggone it, I need to learn these things in the order of the current conference standings, or else they won't stick in my brain."

Wow, did you come to the right place. This is a veritable cornucopia of Big Ten kernels, nuggets and opinions.

Purdue: When Matt Painter was hired to be the Boilers' coach-in-waiting on April 9, 2004, he could have gone anywhere for his first recruiting visit.

He chose East Chicago, Ind., where a freshman guard named E'Twaun Moore was taking part in an open gym.

"At the time, we weren't really having college coaches come and see me," Moore said. "Just seeing him from Purdue, a Big Ten school which I'd always idolized since I was younger, made me happy."

Moore, now a Purdue freshman, just scored a career-high 28 points at Northwestern to zoom into sixth place (14.2 ppg) in league-game scoring.

Oh, and as if Moore's first name wasn't unusual enough, he answers to the nickname "Smooge."

Apparently his grandma gave it to him as a tyke.

Wisconsin: Remember how Bob Knight's dominant Indiana teams always used to make more free throws than their opponents shot?

Check out the Badgers' charity stats: 376 free throws made to their opponents' 344 free throws attempted.

This helps to explain the difference between, say, second-place Wisconsin and 10th-place Illinois.

The Badgers have made 93 more baskets than their opponents and 143 more free throws.

The Illini have made 90 more baskets than their opponents but have been outscored by 80 at the line.

Indiana: Of course Kelvin Sampson cheated and lied about it. How often do you hear about cheaters who tell the truth about their misdeeds?

As punishment for hiring him in the first place, Indiana should be forced to keep Sampson for his entire contract, thus making his entire tenure worthless.

Michigan State: It's about time we Associated Press voters stopped thinking so highly of the Spartans.

In six of the last seven years, they've started the year in the AP Top 25. Every single time they've started in the Top 25, they've finished worse than they started.

At the rate they're losing now, the Spartans are on pace to be out of the Top 25 poll on Selection Sunday for the sixth time in the last seven years.

Is it Izzo? Or is it us as voters?

Ohio State: Freshman guard Evan Turner will beat his prep classmate, Illinois' Demetri McCamey, in the race to be the first all-Big Ten player from St. Joseph High School since Isiah Thomas.

Turner could do it as soon as next year, especially if 7-foot frosh Kosta Koufos moves on to the pros after this season.

Minnesota: Time for a quiz. Tubby Smith's given first name is:

1. Orlando; 2. Tubbyrd; or 3. Pitino.

Penn State: Despite sweeping Illinois for the first time since it began Big Ten play in 1993, the Nittany Lions still have the worst record in conference history:

• Chicago: 168-296 .362

• Northwestern: 443-967 .314

• Penn State: 78-184 .298

Iowa: In 1896, the Hawkeyes participated in the collegiate world's first five-man basketball game.

After the Hawks lost 15-12 to Chicago, a West Liberty, Iowa, farmer offered 10,000 bushels of corn to the university's president if he would fire the coach and athletic director.

Historians pinpoint this as the moment college sports were knocked out of perspective for good.

And, yes, I'm kidding about the corn, I think. The lack of perspective comment stands.

Michigan: Thanks to chronic cheating and cruddy coaching, the Wolverines don't have a recognized NCAA Tournament win since 1994.

At the rate Michigan is improving under first-year coach John Beilein, I expect the Wolverines to snap that streak next year.

Illinois: The Illini are shooting just 59.9 percent from the free-throw line. Not only does that rank 333rd out of 341 Division I teams, it's the school's worst marksmanship since the 1949-50 season when the Illini made 58.4 percent.

That's so long ago, Johnny "Red" Kerr was still two seasons away from attending Illinois.

Northwestern: The Wildcats are threatening to become the first Big Ten team since the 1946 Chicago Maroons to lose all of their conference games by double figures.

Northwestern has six games to go on its quest, starting with today's visit to Iowa. What might happen if the Wildcats can't get within 10 points of any of their remaining foes?

Well, the University of Chicago announced on March 8, 1946, that it was leaving the Big Ten at the end of the school year.

Just sayin'.

And just to prove that some thought processes never change, here's the headline from the New York Times' article that reported Chicago's departure:

"Chicago Withdraws From Big Ten Because of Weak Athletic Teams; New Member May Be Accepted from Among Pitt, Nebraska and Notre Dame When Resignation is Official in May"

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