Derrick Rose’s MRI shows a sprained left wrist.  This is likely the best news possible for The Bulls following last night’s loss to The Magic.  Rose left the game early due to the injury.  In today’s MRI, no fracture or ligament damage was discovered.  This means that Rose is day-to-day, but he has been ruled out for tonight’s game in Miami.

No shockers here….all the #1 seeds in The Joe O And Rock Show Cougar Maddness Tournament advance:

Laurence Holmes Bracket – #1 Vanessa Marcil 86 % def #16 Kirstie Alleie 14 %

Joe Ostrowski Bracket (Joe-O) – #1 Robin Meade 84% def #16 Mika Brzezinski 16 %

Rock Mamola Bracket – #1 Sandra Bullock 94% def  #16 Oprah Winfrey 6%

Adam “Pac-Man” Harris Bracket -  #1 Salma Hayek 93 % def  #16 Katie Couric 7 %

TONIGHT’S MATCHUPS:  You can start voting at 6pm on 670thescore.com

#2 seeds  vs.  #15 seeds

Laurence Holmes Bracket – #2 Mariska Hargitay vs.   #15 Juliann Margullies

Joe Ostrowski Bracket (Joe-O) – #2 Jennifer Aniston vs.  #15 Vanna White

Rock Mamola Bracket – #2 Shania Twain vs.  #15 Monica Bellucci

Adam “Pac-Man” Harris Bracket – #2 Marisa Tomei vs.  #15 Michelle Pfeiffer

Voting starts at 6pm on 670thescore.

You can catch The Joe O And Rock Show Saturday Night at 9pm for live voting results and updates on the inaugural Joe O And Rock Show Cougar Maddness.

Ozzie Guillen Jr. “Stacy Dash vs Monica Bellucci in the finals Monica Belluci winning the whole thing.”

WHO DO YOU HAVE WINNING COUGAR MADDNESS 2010??

-RoCk

By Adam Hoge

INDIANAPOLIS — We’re back at Conseco Fieldhouse for Day 2 of the Big Ten Tournament. Today will be crazy with four games on tap.

There’s going to be a lot going on, so we’ll update this page after each game instead of continuously throughout the games, but if you want live updates during each game, be sure to follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/AdamHoge670.

Stay tuned throughout the day!

No. 1 Ohio State 69, No. 8 Michigan 68

Well, March has officially started.

Ohio State’s Evan Turner just bested Michigan’s Manny Harris by hitting a game-winning 35-foot buzzer-beater to give the Buckeyes a 69-68 win in the first of four quarterfinal games today.

After Harris hit a runner off the glass with 2.2 seconds remaining, Ohio State was forced to go the length of the court after a timeout. The Buckeyes inbounded the ball to Turner, who took two dribbles and buried the deep three to win the game.

“Coach did a great job calling up a play,” Turner said. “It was similar to the play from last year against Siena, except on the other side. It was a great play and it was a good shot. We had a little luck.”

Quite frankly, Ohio State never should have been in the situation where they needed a hail mary. The Buckeyes had a 10-point lead with about 10 minutes remaining. The Wolverines slowly got themselves back in the game behind Harris, who finished with a game-high 26 points.

Harris might have been the best player on the court in this game, but never doubt the Big Ten’s Player of the Year.

“I was really conscious [of the time],” Turner said. The coaches said ‘You only have about two dribbles.’ So I knew by my second dribble that I had to get it off.”

Michigan was surprisingly slow to close out on Turner’s shot because it didn’t want to foul. Stu Douglass got a hand up, but it was a good four feet away from Turner when he released the shot.

“Being open helps a lot. I felt like I was in the gym by myself,” Turner said

After the game, Turner’s coach didn’t seemed surprised that it went in.

“As he let it go, I thought, damn that thing has a chance to go in,” Thad Matta said. “And as it kept going and going and going, boom it went in.”

No. 5 Illinois 58, No. 4 Wisconsin 54

Now, that’s more like it.

Faced with their second so-called “elimination game” against Wisconsin in just five days, the Illini held off a late comeback attempt from the Badgers Friday and won 58-54.

The win will certainly help Illinois’ NCAA Tournament chances, but another victory in the Big Ten Tournament would almost seal the deal. The Illini will play the No. 1-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in Saturday’s semifinal.

“We knew [the win] couldn’t hurt,” Illinois’ Mike Tisdale said after the game. “The thought is we’re in the Big Ten Tournament right now, we’re not anywhere further than that.”

Adjusting from Sunday’s 72-57 loss to the Badgers at home, Illinois keyed in on Wisconsin’s Jon Leuer who still managed 14 points, but went through a key scoreless stretch of 21 minutes. While Leuer was held in check, the rest of the Badgers couldn’t buy a shot. At one point UW was 6-of-39 from the field as Wisconsin seniors Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon started a combined 0-of-17. Hughes ended up hitting his last four shots, but he fouled out in the last minute and Bohannon missed a three that would have tied the game at 57.

“I went back Monday. I told the coaches I’m going to coach the way I want to coach,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. ”I think we came back and got the message and that’s how they played.”

Mike Tisdale led all scorers with 21 points, while Demetri McCamey added 13 points.

Lou Piniella enters the final season of his contract with his fate for 2011 still up in the air. The Tribune reports that neither the Cubs nor Piniella have committed to a deal next season for the 66 year-old skipper. Cubs President Crane Kenney tells the Tribune, “If he feels well and wants to keep going, we’ll have an interesting conversation.” Piniella responded with, “I have a nice interesting conversation with Crane every day.”

Bears Defensive End Alex Brown believes that the presence of Julius Peppers will certainly impact the defense as whole. Brown joined Laurence Holmes on The Score on Thursday night and discussed his newest teammate, Peppers. Brown talked about how the attention that Peppers gets will likely open up more opportunities for himself, Mark Anderson, and Israel Idonije. Brown believes Tommie Harris will benefit as well, “Tommie will definitely get some pressure taken away from him.”

It is no surprise that Brown is pleased with the acquisitions made by The Bears during their free agent spending spree last week. Brown’s confidence in his team is sky-high, “we have the talent to beat every team that we play.”

He also understand that the pressure on the organization has reached new heights, “we know that we need to win very soon.”

Seth Davis of CBS joins us at 3:00 to discuss the conference-tourney jockeying for positioning in the more important event, and we’ll be following all the action this afternoon.

Someone tell Derrick Rose that launching yourself as high as you can toward a man the size of a building is only marginally less dangerous than jumping into an actual building.  Bulls basketball is tough enough on the senses even when the opportunity to watch Rose is factored in, and I don’t even want to think about what a monstrosity it will be if he’s sidelined for a while.  MRI results come today, carrying the relevance of the remaining games with them.

Cubs yahoo Crane Kenney is at it again, making statements about the team’s business that he is later forced to clarify, retract, or accuse media of misconstruing.  He gave conflicting info on the Mesa tax plan, then gave Lou Piniella a weird, lukewarm endorsement.  Amazing that Tom Ricketts continues to put up with this.

Monday:  Pepsi Max Tournament of Bad 2010 Selection Show!

Don’t forget to reserve your spot for March 20th at the Venue at Horseshoe Casino for the 2010 Midwest Poker Invitational benefitting Children’s Oncology Services and the One Step Camp for kids with cancer and leukemia.  Even if you don’t compete for the cash prizes or the WSOP seat, you can join us for all the NCAA games while enjoying the food, drink, blackjack, craps and roulette. CLICK HERE

INDIANAPOLIS — Talk about a win that was a long time coming.

Northwestern beat Indiana 73-58 Thursday to earn its first Big Ten Tournament victory since 2005, but the win was more important than just advancing to Friday’s quarterfinals against Purdue. The victory was Northwestern’s 20th of the season and set a school record for most wins in a season.

“It feel great to have won 20 games in a season, especially going 1-17 in conference my first year,” point guard Michael Thompson said after the game. “We’re excited for what we’ve done so far, but we’re still working hard and trying to add more wins to it.”

The Wildcats will have that chance Friday against the No. 2-seeded Boilermakers, who they beat in Evanston back in January.

Thursday’s win likely secured a berth in the NIT for Northwestern, but their NCAA Tournament hopes remain alive as long as the Cats keep winning this weekend. It will take a Big Ten Tournament Championship for Northwestern to earn its first NCAA Tournament berth ever.

A look back at the best of day one in Indianapolis:

Best Team: No. 6 Minnesota. I thought the Gophers would be vulnerable for an upset against a Penn State team that played its best basketball at the end of the season. That wasn’t the case. Minnesota went up 7-0 and never looked back, winning 76-55. The Gophers will face No. 3 Michigan State in Friday’s nightcap.

Most Impressive Player: Cully Payne, Iowa. I’ve heard good things about Iowa’s freshman point guard but the Thursday was the first time I was able to watch him in person. He looked unstoppable at times, hitting 9-of-16 field goals, including 5-of-10 threes, to finish with 25 points.

Biggest Story: The future of Todd Lickliter. By halftime of Iowa’s loss to Michigan, rumors were swirling around press row that head coach Todd Lickliter would be stepping down as head coach when the season was over. The season ended about an hour later, but for now, Lickliter is still the head coach. There could be an announcement regarding his future as soon as Friday.

Best Quote: Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody on Conseco Fieldhouse’s famously tight rims: “You know, I was just thinking about Reggie Miller. I said, ‘How does he make all those shots here?’ I mean, it’s unbelievable. All the years we’ve played here, that’s why I always voted for Chicago, keeping the Big Ten Tournament there. Nothing against [Indianapolis], it’s great, it’s closer, it’s more collegiate, all that stuff. I just hate the rims.”

A Goodbye Note: The Big Ten’s worst teams all ended their seasons Thursday. What’s in their future? Well, for Iowa, it appears their head coach will be fired and that means a completely new system in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes prospects for next season don’t look good.

Indiana, meanwhile, should be better. Tom Crean had a good recruiting class this season, but Maurice Creek only played in 12 games after getting hurt. His young team will grow and another crop of talented freshmen will arrive. Still two years away from the NCAA tournament, however.

Finally, there’s Penn State. Talor Battle will be back and he’ll be joined by his little brother, Buie, will be joining him in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions should be better, but they won’t compete for a Big Ten title or anything. I like them to be in the NIT next season.

Thursday’s Record: 2-1. Got Michigan and Northwestern right, Minnesota wrong.

Friday’s Storylines:
No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Michigan – Michigan guard Zach Novak correctly pointed out that the Wolverines have outplayed Ohio State in three of the four halves they have played against the Buckeyes this season. That resulted in a 1-1 record against OSU. The problem with that thinking? Evan Turner didn’t play in the game Michigan won. My pick: Ohio State.

No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 5 Illinois – This is the only game Friday that the nation will have its eye on because the Illini are one of the most talked about bubble teams out there. The Badgers went into Champaign and won by 15 just four days ago. What makes anyone think the Illini will have better luck Friday? My pick: Wisconsin.

No. 2 Purdue vs. No. 7 Northwestern – Thursday’s win over Indiana likely put Northwestern in the NIT, but if you ask the Wildats, they will tell you they are only three wins away from the NCAA Tournament. That’s wishful thinking, but Northwestern did beat Purdue at home this season and the Boilermakers don’t have Robbie Hummel anymore. My pick: Purdue

No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 6 Minnesota – I’ll tell you what. The good Gophers came to play Thursday. Will they come to play Friday? The nice thing about a tournament is that hot teams usually continue to play well until they are out of gas. Minnesota should still have a spring in its step Friday, but unfortunately Michigan State is just a better team: My pick: Michigan State.