Northwestern’s 90-66 rout of Minnesota on Saturday night, combined with Purdue’s 78-70 win over Wisconsin on Sunday, secured a double bye into the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament for the Wildcats.
Regular-season champion Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska and Northwestern will be the top four seeds this week at the Target Center in Minneapolis and will begin play Friday. The Illini were locked into the No. 2 seed even before their 73-61 victory Sunday night at Iowa.
Illinois could wind up facing the Hawkeyes again in its opening game. The winner of Thursday’s Iowa-Ohio State game will advance to meet the Illini.
Northwestern will face either Wisconsin, Maryland or Rutgers in its first game.
If Purdue and Northwestern win their quarterfinals, the Wildcats would get a shot at knocking off the Boilermakers again. They upset Purdue at Welsh-Ryan Arena both last season and in December before losing in overtime in January at Mackey Arena.
Big Ten Tournament schedule
Target Center, Minneapolis
Wednesday’s first round
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(12) Maryland vs. (13) Rutgers, 5:30 p.m., Peacock
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(11) Penn State vs. (14) Michigan, 8 p.m., Peacock
Thursday’s second round
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(8) Michigan State vs. (9) Minnesota, 11 a.m., BTN
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(5) Wisconsin vs. Maryland-Rutgers winner, 1:30 p.m., BTN
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(7) Iowa vs. (10) Ohio State, 5:30 p.m., BTN
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(6) Indiana vs. Penn State-Michigan winner, 8 p.m., BTN
Friday’s quarterfinals
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(1) Purdue vs. Michigan State-Minnesota winner, 11 a.m., BTN
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(4) Northwestern vs. Wisconsin/Maryland/Rutgers, 1:30 p.m., BTN
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(2) Illinois vs. Iowa-Ohio State winner, 5:30 p.m., BTN
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(3) Nebraska vs. Indiana/Penn State/Michigan, 8 p.m., BTN
Saturday’s semifinals
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First two quarterfinal winners, noon, CBS-2
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Last two quarterfinal winners, 2:30 p.m., CBS-2
Sunday’s final
