NCAA Basketball: Overall takeaways from 2021 Gavitt Tipoff Games
The Gavitt Tipoff Games, an annual eight-game battle between the Big East and Big Ten, provided a few of the best games of the early season this week. After tying the first three years, the Big Ten took home 5-3 wins in both of the last two years. The Big East had yet to outright win the Gavitt Games since its inception and this year it didn’t seem likely with both Villanova and UConn not participating.
The Gavitt Games started on Monday, which resulted in two huge wins for the Big East. #10 Illinois couldn’t stop Shaka Smart and Marquette at Fiserv Forum. Then, later that night an even more unlikely outcome resulted– the Providence Friars rolled Wisconsin in Madison! The Badgers had a tough time stopping Nate Watson down low and didn’t hit the shots they needed to when it counted most.
On Tuesday, the Big East stayed hot with Creighton decimating Nebraska in a game where the clearly the wrong team was favored. The bigger news from that one is Trey McGowens went down with an injury that will sideline him 6-8 weeks. Then, Seton Hall shocked #4 Michigan in Ann Arbor. Jared Rhoden, Bryce Aiken, and Myles Cale did enough for the Pirates in the backcourt to keep them right with the Wolverines. While Hunter Dickinson did finish with 18 points, Ike Obiagu of Seton Hall made him work hard for all eighteen of them.
After Tuesday brought the lead to 4-0, attention drifted to Butler and Michigan State in the Wednesday afternoon slot. Michigan State controlled this one the whole way and ended up with a 21 point victory. The second leg of Wednesday saw one of the more exciting games of the week. The St. John’s Red Storm took Indiana to the wire and a Julian Champagnie missed buzzer-beater was the difference in the 76-74 game. Trayce Jackson-Davis provided a very productive 18 and 10 for the Hoosiers.
The last day of the Gavitt Games saw two more Big East wins. This brings the total to 6-2 in favor of the Big East. Xavier took care of business at home versus #19 Ohio State in the early game. Paul Scruggs was huge at the end of that one and Iowa transfer Jack Nunge added 14 of his own.
To cap it off, DePaul emerged victorious over Rutgers in a highly offensive game which few saw coming. I think it’s safe to say that nobody had ‘eight made three’s in the last five minutes on their Bingo card for Rutgers and DePaul. Nonetheless, DePaul caps off the Gavitt Games with a 73-70 win.
Let’s take a look at a few of the things we learned this week during the Gavitt Games for both the Big East and Big Ten.