The task is simple for the Michigan State women’s basketball team when it hosts Wisconsin in its regular-season finale at 2 p.m. Sunday (Big Ten Network).
If the Spartans win, they’ll get a first-round bye in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, which begins Thursday at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill. If they lose, they will open play as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed on Thursday
MSU’s victory over No. 25 Purdue and Illinois’ loss to Ohio State on Thursday helped create a four-way tie for third-place in the Big Ten between the Spartans, Boilermakers, Illini and Michigan. All four teams are 9-6 entering the final day of the regular season Sunday.
While MSU hosts the Badgers, Illinois travels to face Purdue and Michigan travels to face an Ohio State team that appears to be getting things together.
Here are the scenarios and what seed the Spartans would be for the Big Ten Tournament. (Thanks to MSU women’s basketball SID Jim Donatelli for the help in figuring this out).
If MSU wins
***And Ohio State and Purdue win (two-way tie with MSU and Purdue for third)
Seeds – Purdue 3, MSU 4, Michigan 5, Illinois 6
***And Ohio State and Illinois win (two-way tie with MSU and Illinois for third)
Seeds – MSU 3, Illinois 4, Michigan 5, Purdue 6
*** And Michigan and Purdue win (three-way tie with MSU, Michigan, Purdue for third)
Seeds – Michigan 3, MSU 4, Purdue 5, Illinois 6
*** And Michigan and Illinois win (three-way tie with MSU, Michigan and Illinois for third)
Seeds – Michigan 3, MSU 4, Illinois 5, Purdue 6
If MSU loses
*** And Ohio State and Purdue win (three-way tie with MSU, Michigan and
Illinois for fourth)
Seeds – Purdue 3, Michigan 4, MSU 5, Illinois 6
*** And Ohio State and Illinois win (three-way tie with MSU, Michigan and
Purdue for fourth)
Seeds – Illinois 3, Michigan 4, MSU 5, Purdue 6
*** And Michigan and Purdue win (two-way tie with MSU and Illinois for
fifth)
Michigan 3, Purdue 4, MSU 5, Illinois 6
*** And Michigan and Illinois win (2-way tie with Purdue for fifth)
Michigan 3, Illinois 4, Purdue 5, MSU 6
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Thanks Chris, Coach Merchants team deserves a bye after the way they battled through injuries this season. I think they may have won the league without the injurys.
Sorry Brian, thanks Brian
No worries, I’ll take it as a compliment. We’re easily confused for each other.
Agree ’81. Suzy has done a great job with team. The bye is critical for them. With the bench as short as it is, these women could be awfully tired by the championship game.
Thanks, Brian! You’re so much more helpful than BTN.com! I was very clear in my question to them about “seeding possibilities”. They gave me a link to the bracket . . . which of course isn’t filled-in yet — duh! I run into this sort of thing often . . . for instance, in the fall I was in contact with Comcast/Xfinity regarding their coverage of CCHA hockey (since I don’t have Comcast cable, I wanted to know if those games would be streamed online). The CSR’s and even a manager I emailed seemed to be totally unaware that Xfinity was even involved with CCHA hockey! They were trying to direct me to NBC Sports Network! A bunch of padded resumés or short skirts and no effort or knowledge of sports at these places. It makes me wonder sometimes in a supposedly difficult job market how so many positions are staffed with duds. I do compliment though when a job is well done, like here. I also complimented Creighton’s SID — the best breakdown of TV coverage I’ve ever seen — on their athletics website they even had all this technical information about the specs of the broadcast that only dudes who hang out at Radio Shack would understand.