Pickin’ the Big Ten: Feb. 7-8

Michigan State travels to Minneapolis to face Minnesota this weekend. (2018 Omar Phillips)

Greetings! A big weekend in the B1G, with the top four teams facing off against each other. Wisconsin also travels to Michigan and Notre Dame takes the weekend off. First, let’s see how Paula and I did last week.

Last week
Drew: 2-3-1 (.417)
Paula: 3-2-1 (.583)

This season
Drew: 73-44-10 (.614)
Paula: 61-56-10 (.520)

This week

All times are local.

No. 19 Michigan State at Minnesota
Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

Minnesota is suddenly one of the hottest teams in the country, owning a 7-1 record in the second half. The one loss was a 4-1 defeat against Michigan State a couple weekends ago in East Lansing. The Gophers rebounded with a 2-0 victory on Saturday to get a split in that series. The Spartans were off last weekend and split with Penn State last time out.

Drew: Minnesota 3-1, 3-2
Paula: Minnesota 2-1, Michigan State 2-1

No. 9 Penn State at No. 13 Ohio State
Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

The Buckeyes ended their three-game losing streak last Saturday at Michigan and they’d obviously love to turn that into a three-game winning streak at home this weekend. Penn State, on the other hand, is looking to get back on track after only managing to take one conference point from Notre Dame last weekend at home. These two teams split their series earlier this season with Penn State winning 5-4 on Friday and OSU winning 4-3 on Saturday.

Drew: Ohio State 4-3, Penn State 4-2
Paula: Penn State 4-2, Ohio State 3-2

Wisconsin at Michigan
Friday at 6:00 p.m and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

At the opposite end of the standings, both of these teams could use this weekend to climb out of the cellar. Wisconsin is reeling after being swept by Minnesota last weekend at home. Michigan, like Minnesota, has itself on a bit of a run so far in the second half of the season. The Wolverines are 4-1-1 since the Great Lakes Invitational.

Drew: Wisconsin 4-2, Michigan 3-1
Paula: Michigan 3-2, 3-2

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