NCAA Tournament Big Ten Friday recap— every conference team wins
Purdue continues to look like one of the best teams in the tournament, while UCLA and Iowa held serve in the first round of March Madness
The Big Ten took care of business in the first round matchups on Friday in March Madness. Three more Big Ten basketball teams are moving on to the next round of the NCAA Tournament, which shows how good this conference is. Purdue looks extremely dominant, and Iowa played strong defense against Clemson.
Here are the scores and the rest of my analysis from the Big Ten games in the NCAA Tournament from first-round Friday: No. 9 Iowa 67-61 vs No. 8 Clemson Hawks get a tough tournament win that is their first one since 2021.
This was a defensive battle as both teams struggled mightily offensively to get anything going. Big man Carter Welling not being available in this game boded very well for the Hawkeyes, as, instead of continuing to chuck 3s, they were able to be more successful in the paint in the second half. Not an elite game by Bennett Stirtz, who had just 16 points and was 4-17 from the field.
Kael Combs took the pressure off him with 15 points and only missed 2 shots. Alvaro Folgueiras 14 points off the bench were very vital. The Hawkeyes offense did not play as expected, but they made the adjustments necessary in the second half and executed enough to steal this game from Clemson.