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For the first time Purdue will take part in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, which is a sort of Big Ten/Big East Challenge. This is the second year for the event, and it features eight games just like last year. Last season the Big Ten and Big east split with each winning four games:
Penn State 68, DePaul 62 at Penn State
Villanova 87, Nebraska 63 at Villanova
Maryland 75, Georgetown 71 at Maryland
Providence 60, Illinois 59 at Providence
St. John's 61, Rutgers 59 at St. John's
Indiana 86, Creighton 65 at Indiana
Iowa 89, Marquette 61 at Marquette
Xavier 86, Michigan 70 at Michigan
We all know Purdue's game, which appears to be the marquee matchup of the entire event with defending National Champion Villanova coming to Mackey Arena. Here are the other seven games:
Maryland at Georgetown
Allegedly this is a rivalry, but if it were a rivalry they would play more. This one is the lone rematch from last year's event as the teams just switch home venues for some DC-area action while everyone pretends that Georgetown is really a good team (hint: they are not).
Providence at Ohio State
Ohio State saw a nine year NCAA tournament run get snapped last season as their young team ended up in the NIT. Will that happen again? Providence was a solid team all of this past season, so this should be really good.
Wisconsin at Creighton
The Badgers are expected to be one of the Big Ten favorites and they head to a mediocre Creighton, who was 20-15, but won two NIT games.
Seton Hall at Iowa
This should be evenly matched, as both teams were solid NCAA Tournament teams that faded a little bit late. They were still both pretty good, however.
Northwestern at Butler
Northwestern is playing a non-conference team with a pulse? Is this allowed? They need this one if they are going to get an at large berth.
St. John's at Minnesota
Yes, these two teams are legally part of these two conferences and are now obligated to play a men's basketball game against each other. They had a combined conference record of 3-33 last season.
Rutgers at DePaul
I guess a second Rutgers-St. John's game, with the teams sporting combined 2-34 conference records, was too much of a draw for the New York media market. Instead we get:
CHICAGO'S BIG EAST TEAM!
NEW YORK'S BIG TEN TEAM!
A COMBINED 16-47, 4-32 RECORD LAST YEAR!
NEXT ON ESPN8 THE OCHO!