Anthony Tao

Northwestern will win the Big Ten tournament.

There are, on first glance, three conceivable reasons I might say such a thing.

1. I’m a homer. But this can’t possibly be true, since I’ve tried all quarter to point out NU’s faults.

2. Feeling guilty about my season-long criticizing, I’m issuing a mea culpa in the form of a feel-good prediction. Ah, but the rules of column writing forbid me to feel guilt.

3. I’m delusional, having bathed in purple bubbles, immersed myself in “Big Cat” National Geographic specials and gorged on Friskies.

Um, no.

Actually, I say the Cats will win because I think they can. It requires a bit of a leap of faith, sure, but of all the Big Ten teams in this thing that “can” take home the title, not one stands out. Everyone is flawed.

So, as the old saying goes, home is where the heart is – and I’m picking the home team.

This isn’t as preposterous as you think. The Cats are led by two seniors, Vedran Vukusic and Mohamed Hachad (you may have heard of them), who don’t want their basketball careers to end without at least one postseason game. Expect the two to have a great tournament, along with Evan Seacat and Mike Jenkins.

If everyone else follows their lead, the Cats will beat Penn State on Thursday (the Nittany Lions can’t possibly beat NU for the fourth straight time), and Ohio State will fall on Friday. After that – let’s have some faith, okay?

Abe Rakov

There isn’t a Final Four team in the Big Ten right now – maybe not even an Elite Eight contender. But because all the teams are equally mediocre, the Big Ten tournament should be full of close games, buzzer beaters and upsets. Every team but hapless Purdue and overachieving Penn State has the talent it will take to win the conference tournament this year.

Ironically, one of the league’s least-talented coaches will probably win it, as Steve Alford will “coach” the Hoosiers – er, Hawkeyes – to the title before he books it out of Iowa City faster than he ran away from Bobby Knight.

But before his team can even play in the Big Ten tournament, Alford should be forced to sing the Iowa fight song. I’m not sure if he learned it, but it goes: “The word is ‘Fight! Fight! Fight! for Iowa,’ let every loyal Iowan sing -“

Wait, the word loyal is in their fight song? There’s just too much bad karma going against that team. There’s no way Iowa can win. I guess if Terence Dials-it-in, Thad can make his team Matta’, and The Ohio State University will finally have more than a stolen football national championship.

Wait, cheaters never prosper.

Tom Izzo’s squad has Michigan State football disease and is choking down the stretch. Michigan has the curse of Chris Webber. That leaves Illinois. With no chief concerns, the Fighting Illini are poised to repeat as tourney champs.

Troy Appel

This year’s Big Ten conference season has been a downer. Eight teams – all mediocre – enter the Big Ten tournament feeling like they have a shot, but here are my top five contenders.

Michigan State has the best athletes and the best coach, but failed to live up to expectations. They will enter ice cold, having just recently lost four out of five games.

Illinois had a hot start, now they can’t beat anyone away from home. Dee Brown’s 37 percent shooting and lack of pure playmakers will make it very tough.

Iowa is Iowa. Amazing wins with some baffling losses mixed in. Can this team be trusted to string together multiple good games? Likely not.

Indiana is the sleeper. The win over Michigan State showed that they are still invested. But can they keep winning?

This brings us to the 2006 Big Ten tournament champion: Ohio State. Having defeated a murderer’s row of opponents that included Michigan, Illinois and Michigan State – with their only blemish being on the road to Wisconsin – the Buckeyes are in great shape. Any of six guys can score, and they have the all-important post threat in Terence Dials.

The only thing stopping them is that they enter with the No. 1 seed. That hasn’t always equaled a trophy. Just look at Wednesday’s gift-of-a-win over Northwestern. Ohio State is nothing but the best of a mediocre bunch.

Patrick Dorsey

Let’s face it. These tournaments are meaningless.

OK, so if a few teams at the bottom of the conference (including Northwestern, which more likely will be hanging on for dear NIT life) win down in Indy, they’ll make it to the tourney. But does a conference tournament title really matter to NCAA Tournament locks like The Ohio State? Illinois?

Not a chance.

(And don’t give me this “What about seeding?” argument. The only seed that actually matters in Champaign, Ill., is corn seed.)

No, this is about dollar signs and padding the records of major-conference “bubble” teams. Meanwhile, stolen are tourney spots from the mid- and low-major conferences (whose regular season champions often are victims of their leagues’ own tournaments and the ridiculous automatic-bid rule).

As much as I hate to give the Ivy League credit, it’s the only one in the country that has this one right – its regular season champ goes to the NCAA tournament. The Pac-10 used to have it right, too, until their officials caved.

Now we’ve got all these worthless tournaments taking up valuable TV time, time that could be used for, I don’t know, a two-week-long Phoenix Suns extravaganza.

So unless an outsider like NU wins, this tournament’s title is worth about as much as an ESPY. Therefore, out of protest, I’m picking last-place Purdue. I really like that drum.