Dark horse teams to win Big Ten Tournament

The Big Ten seems to be an interesting conference this season. Yes, Purdue won the regular season title again and is primed to win the tournament title for a second straight year, but they also could be on upset alert.

I say the Big Ten is interesting because Illinois has shown they can be elite this year, but also had its downfalls. There are a lot of teams that seem like they could be great based on wins this season like Nebraska, Northwestern, and Wisconsin, but I also believe you could see some teams make runs in the Big Ten Tournament that no one thought would.

When you look at the records, you see that Wisconsin is 19-12 and 11-9 in the Big Ten and they are projected to be a six-seed in March Madness, yet Iowa is 18-13 and 10-10 in the Big Ten and they are a "Next Four Out" team fighting to get into the NCAA Tournament.

So basically what I am saying, is these teams all seem to be close in how they are performing, so I think this tournament is an open field and could be anyone's game. However, who is a dark horse, that might just be peaking at the right time? Here are a few of them.

Michigan State is a team that I don't think anyone can quite figure out right now. They had good wins over Baylor, Maryland, twice, and Illinois. The Spartans lost four of their last five games, which isn't great when it comes to March Madness, but they have not lost their projected seeding yet.

The good news for Michigan State is that they are the eighth seed in the Big Ten Tournament, but the bad news is that they have to take on nine-seed Minnesota, which is a tough matchup.

The Spartans average 73.4 points a game with thier leading scorers being Tyson Walker averaging 18.4 points per game and Malik Hall averaging 12.7 points per game. Michigan State also averages 34.7 rebounds per game, which when they are going up against teams in the Big Ten like Wisconsin, Purdue, or Illinois, the Spartans will have trouble on boards. Those teams all have a much higher rebound differential than Michigan State does.

Something Michigan State has that I think makes them the dark horse is thier ability to shoot and thier field goal percentage as a team. They have a +5.0 field goal percentage differential, meaning they are scoring more than the average team. They have the third-highest field goal differential in the Big Ten.

Yes, Michigan State has lost more than usual lately, but will a few extra days off, the Spartans could get things back on track, and then they would be a team that no one wants to see.