Iowa set to face Baylor for NIT championship (The Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Pierre Jackson is one win away from capping his stellar Baylor career with the Bears’ first NIT championship. To do that, he’ll have to break down Iowa’s defense in the title game of the 76th National Invitation Tournament on Thursday night. The Hawkeyes have faced plenty of good point guards this season in the Big Ten, though none quite put up Jackson’s type of numbers. The junior-college transfer leads the Big 12 this season in points and assists per game, putting him in line to be the first player in a major conference to do that since Arizona’s Jason Terry led the Pac-10 in 1998-99. On Tuesday night, Jackson put up his third straight double-double with 24 points and 10 assists to get the Bears back into the title game. Baylor lost to Penn State at Madison Square Garden in 2009. The Bears struggled with the Cougars for the first 30 minutes or so of Tuesday’s semifinals, before Jackson took over and Baylor finally put away BYU…
Minnesota in another midseason slump under Smith (The Associated Press)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — February has mostly been a month to forget for Minnesota under coach Tubby Smith. The loss at Iowa on Sunday for the Gophers was their 16th defeat in 20 games in February over the past three years. This season, they’ve dropped seven of their past 10 games and face a tough trip to 18th-ranked Ohio State on Wednesday. The Gophers (18-8, 6-7 Big Ten) have beaten the Buckeyes in Columbus only once (2005) in their past 11 games there. Power forward Rodney Williams , who is second on the team in points, rebounds and blocks, could be held out again with a sore left shoulder. Smith said he’s concerned about the injury, which occurred 10 days ago in practice. ”It’s just the change in attitude. Changing the way we play,” point guard Andre Hollins said, recalling the way the team recalibrated after last year’s slump to reach the NIT championship game. ”We’ve got to look onto the next mission. We got past it, but we’ve got to remember what we did wrong, go to Ohio State and tough this one out…
NC State announces home basketball schedule
Visits from ACC champion Florida State, Duke, North Carolina and defending NIT champion Stanford highlight NC State's 2012-13 home schedule.
