All nine Big Ten teams are still standings in the NCAA tournament, of course, seven have yet to play. They are all on the court Friday.
On Thursday, Wisconsin won its 13th match in a row by eliminating Pac-12 Oregon, 25-18, 21-25, 25-21, 25-19. Lauryn Gillis had 14 kills to lead the Badgers at the UW Fieldhouse.
Wisconsin took third in the Big Ten and expects to go deep in this tournament. The Badgers are seeded No. 6 overall and draw Iowa State next on Friday in the second round. The Cyclones swept Miami 3-0 but all the sets were close, four points, two and five.
Unseeded Purdue was the other Big Ten winner. The Boilermakers took out SMU 25-27, 25-17, 28-26, 25-16 in Austin, Texas. Four Purdue players had between 11 and 14 kills.
Next up for Purdue, which gave the Gophers their only loss in the past 18 matches, is No. 3 seed Texas. The Longhorns won 3-0 over Fairfield.
Four other seeded teams -- there are 16 in all -- all won, too. No. 8 Stanford defeated New Mexico State, No. 9 Kansas topped Furman and No. 11 Florida defeated New Hampshire, all by 3-0 scores.
And then there was No. 1 Southern Cal, playing at home at Galen Center, against Cleveland State. The visitors won the second set before falling. Surprisingly somewhat, Cleveland State was No. 67 in RPI rankings and had a 26-6 record, so on paper, USC got tougher draw than the Gophers.
U plays Jackson State, No. 310 in the RPI.