CHICAGO (AP) — Nick Martinelli scored 24 points, Jayden Reid added 14, and Northwestern defeated Penn State 76-66 in a first-round game of the Big Ten Tournament. Fifteenth-seeded Northwestern led 34-32 at halftime and the Wildcats’ biggest lead of the second half was seven points before they went on an 8-0 run to build a 68-55 lead with 3:48 remaining. Tre Singleton added a couple of inside buckets and the lead was 74-60 with a minute to go. Martinelli, who led the Big Ten in scoring during the regular season at 22.7 points per game, made 10 of 17 shots and grabbed nine rebounds. Ivan Juric led 18th-seeded Penn State with 22 points.
CHICAGO (AP) — David Coit scored 17 points, Elijah Saunders added 15, and Maryland defeated Oregon 70-60 in a first-round game of the Big Ten Tournament. Maryland held Oregon to 3-for-22 shooting (14%) with 0 for 10 from 3-point distance in the first half and the Terrapins led 33-12 at the break. Oregon rallied in the second half and dunk and a three-point play from Nate Bittle started a 15-2 run for Oregon to make it 60-49 with 4 1/2 minutes remaining. The Ducks got within single digits a few times, the last at 67-58 with 53 seconds remaining but Maryland’s Darius Adams made 3 of 4 free throws to preserve a double-digit margin. Bittle scored 16 points to lead Oregon.
UNDATED (AP) — Michigan won three of the top four Associated Press Big Ten men’s basketball awards. Yaxel Lendeborg is player of the year and top first-year transfer and Dusty May is coach of the year. Illinois’ Keaton Wagler is the unanimous choice for freshman of the year in voting by a panel of 16 media members who cover the Big Ten. Purdue’s Braden Smith is an AP All-Big Ten first-team selection for a third straight year. He is joined on the first team by Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr., Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli, Lendeborg and Wagler.
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — The Big Ten's coaches and media members have selected Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg as the conference's player of the year. Big Ten coaches and media also named Illinois' Keaton Wagler the league's freshman of the year. The coach-of-the-year balloting was a split decision. The coaches selected Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg. The media went with Michigan's Dusty May. The conference’s selections were revealed the same day The Associated Press announced its All-Big Ten team.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — There’s little doubt that UConn and UCLA will be the top two seeds in the women’s NCAA Tournament when the bracket is revealed Sunday. The two were 1-2 in both of the selection committees top 16 reveals over the last month with the Huskies No. 1 both times. Both have been dominant since the last reveal on March 1, winning their conference tournaments convincingly. Still there’s an argument to be made that UCLA should be in the conversation for the top overall seed, especially after an eye-popping 51-point win over Iowa in the Big Ten championship game Sunday. The Bruins picked up three first-place votes in the AP Top 25 poll Monday, ending UConn’s eight-week run as the unanimous No. 1 team.
UNDATED (AP) — After five wins in five days, Georgia Southern finally ran into a roadblock at the final step. Thomas Dowd’s 23 points and 13 rebounds lifted Troy to a 77-61 win over Georgia Southern on Monday night to claim the championship of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Trojans are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. Georgia Southern, the No. 10 seed in the conference tournament, needed to win six games in six days to earn the Sun Belt’s automatic bid to the NCAAs. The Eagles nearly pulled it off. Furman also earned an automatic bid to the Big Dance on Monday.
UNDATED (AP) — No. 20 Miami (Ohio) has been perfect this season, rolling up a 31-0 record heading into the MAC Tournament. But that might not be enough to get the RedHawks into the NCAA Tournament field should they lose early. That's because they had one of the weakest schedules in the nation this season, and that is reflected in some rather unsightly advanced metrics. That begs the question: Should a 31-0 mid-major that loses early in its conference tournament get an at-large bid over a power school that played a tough schedule? Major college basketball could learn the answer to that this week.
UNDATED (AP) — Cameron Boozer of No. 1 Duke is the second player to earn The Associated Press men’s college basketball national player of the week honors twice this season. Arizona's Jayden Burries was the first. The 6-foot-9 Boozer led the Blue Devils with 26 points and nine rebounds in a win over N.C. State and 26 points and 15 boards in a win over North Carolina, helping to clinch the regular-season ACC title for Duke. Camren Hunter of Central Arkansas was the runner-up after averaging 34.3 points over three games in the Atlantic Sun Tournament, including 49 points in a championship game loss to Queens.
