Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew. Send us your links to tips@insidethehall.com.

+ Game notes for Indiana’s exhibition opener against Grace, a NAIA opponent. {IUHoosiers.com}

+ One of Indiana’s top recruiting targets in 2012, North Central’s D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, recently underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will be out several weeks. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Mike Hutton writes that Indiana is on the fast track with Tom Crean at the helm. {Gary Post-Tribune}

+ Kyle Neddenriep looks at five players from around the state who are under the recruiting radar, but ready to soar. Indiana is mentioned with several including Kellen Dunham, Jared Drew and Collin Hartman. {Indianapolis Star}

+ John M. over at the Indiana SBNation site previews the returning players in Indiana’s backcourt. {Crimson Quarry}

+ Andy Katz ponders the question: Could this finally be the year at Northwestern? {ESPN.com}

+ Katz writes that Wisconsin doesn’t mind being picked low in the Big Ten. The Badgers are looking for their 12th straight NCAA berth this season. {ESPN.com}

FINAL SCORE: Wisconsin 85, Indiana 61

There’s not a lot to write about this game that hasn’t been written already this season. The regular season is over. IU finishes up the Big Ten season with a 1-17 record.

The Hoosiers shot relatively well from the field in Madison (54 percent), but committed 16 turnovers, missed nine free throws and were out-rebounded 28-19. That’s not exactly a recipe for winning basketball games.

The Badgers, on the other hand, hit 52 percent from the field, hit 7 of 14 from 3-point range and knocked down 26 of 32 free throws.

Verdell Jones set a career high with 23 points as did Nick Williams with 19 points.

With that, we’ll leave it in your hands. Thoughts about this game, the regular season as a whole and your predictions heading into a 5PM ET matchup on Thursday with Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament are welcome in the comments.

After trailing by just one at halftime, Indiana scored just four points in the first 9:01 of the second half and fell 68-51 to Wisconsin on Thursday night at Assembly Hall.

By the time the Hoosiers (6-19, 1-12 Big Ten) scored their fifth and sixth points after halftime, Wisconsin had built a 15-point lead. The Badgers didn’t let the lead fall below 11 the rest of the way.

The loss was the fourth straight for IU and the 17th in their last 19 games.

“I don’t think we competed or played well in the second half. Our defense really let us down,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “And there is really nothing in the second half that we can hang our hat on. We were much different than the first half and they exposed that. They did an excellent job taking advantage of that.”

Trevon Hughes scored 21 points on 7 of 14 shooting to lead Wisconsin and Joe Krabbenhoft added 18. The Badgers (17-9, 8-6) shot 49 percent, hit 11 of 15 free throws and committed just seven turnovers.

Verdell Jones paced the Hoosiers with 16 points and Devan Dumes added 12 in his first game back following a two-game suspension. IU hit 15 of 19 free throws, but hit just 2 of 11 shots from beyond the 3-point line.

Up next: The Hoosiers travel to West Lafayette on Saturday afternoon for a 2PM ET meeting with Purdue. That game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. “I think we’re thirsty to redeem ourselves,” Verdell Jones said. “Purdue is an in-state rival and we definitely want to go up there and give them our all. We’ll prepare tomorrow for them and just come out and give it our best.”

• Box score

The All-Big Ten preview is ITH’s look at our picks for the top players in the Big Ten this season. Today: Marcus Landry of Wisconsin.

Marcus Landry came of age last season. In his first full year as a starter, the (then junior, now senior) forward chipped in 11.8 points, 5.4 boards and shot 46.6 percent from the floor. At 6′ 7″ he also picked up a bit of an outside shot. (Doesn’t it seem like all Wisconsin big men do this?)

Besides Landry and fellow senior foward Joe Krabbenhoft, the Badgers return no starters, and have 11 sophomores and freshmen on the team. Expect Landry to lead the youngsters, and be a focal point of Wisconsin’s offense this year. Though last season he was third on the team in scoring overall, he was first during the Big Ten season, and was named the most outstanding player for the Big Ten Tournament.  He was also named to the 2008-09 preseason All-Big Ten team yesterday at Big Ten media day and had this to say:

“I still think that there’s some things that I can show, and I know (Badgers coach Bo Ryan) knows that there’s some more things that I can do,” said Landry. “So I’m ready to let it all out. This is a big year for me. It’s my last year. I’m looking forward to doing things after this, regardless of what it is. So I think that I still have some things to show.”

Methinks he might be showing those things all over Tijan Jobe come this season.

– Wisconsin, barring a total choke job, wrapped up at least a tie for the Big Ten title with a 57-42 beat down of Michigan State at the Kohl Center. A couple of observations: Brian Butch should be a first team All-Big Ten selection. Second, is there a more disappointing team than Michigan State? A lot of talent on that team, but something just isn’t right. I’m shocked at how bad of a season Drew Neitzel is having. And finally, Wisconsin only had one turnover in the entire game. That’s a pretty amazing statistic.

– Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star wrote a column today which provided his two cents on the impending coaching search for IU. It was a decent piece, but there were a couple of names included that I don’t want anywhere near the program: 1) John Calipari: do we really want Worldwide Wes hanging around IU? 2) Kevin Stallings: He’s a nice guy I’m sure, but his Purdue background and personality (or lack thereof) don’t thrill me. Surely we can do better than Stallings. The sizzle just isn’t there, but maybe I’m missing something.

– Our old friend Coach Knight has joined forces with ESPN for “championship week” and the NCAA Tournament. As you would expect, Knight appeared on “Mike and Mike” this morning and side stepped all questions about Indiana and the Kelvin Sampson situation. It’ll be interesting to see how well Knight does in this new role. He’s always had disdain for the media so it’s somewhat ironic to see him as a member of it.

It’s crunch time in the race for the Big Ten regular season title and three teams have separated themselves from the pack. Based on difficulty of schedule, Bo Ryan and Wisconsin appear to be the favorite. Purdue has a road game at Ohio State, who is hungry for a marquee win to boost their NCAA resume and Indiana plays at Michigan State.

Here’s a list of the remaining games for each of the three contenders:

– Wisconsin: Michigan State (home), Penn State (home), Northwestern (away)
– Indiana: Michigan State (away), Minnesota (home), Penn State (away)
– Purdue: Northwestern (home), Ohio State (away), Michigan (away)

We’ll know a lot more about where the race is heading tonight when Michigan State plays at the Kohl Center. If the Badgers win, they’re almost a sure bet to finish 16-2. However, if Purdue wins out, they would also be 16-2 and would own a tiebreaker (for Big Ten Tournament seeding purposes) over Wisconsin because the Boilermakers beat them twice. Don’t count the Hoosiers out just yet, but given their success (or lack thereof) at the Breslin Center, they seem to be the least likely of the three teams to win the league.

So given the remaining schedules, who is your pick to win the Big Ten regular season title?

I’m having a hard time not starting off this recap with an expletive, but alas, I will refrain. Anyone who watched this one can tell you the drill: it was a highly contested, great game. Unfortunately, IU came out on the wrong end, losing 68-66. Brian Butch hit a lucky bank three with just a few ticks left on the clock to put Wisconsin up and Jamarcus Ellis missed a three at the buzzer that would have given IU the victory.

D.J. White started out hot, dropping six of his first six baskets. But he picked up his third foul early in the second and played a bit reserved because of it. So, Eric Gordon did his thing, taking the ball to the hoop and hitting a few shots. White finished with 17 points and seven boards, while Gordon finished with 23 points. Jason Bohannon led Wisconsin with 18 points.

The one good thing here? IU played well. This is two games in a row we can sit back and say: “Hey, we’re looking good, we’re finally coming around.” It’s just too bad it had to come in a loss. At home. The day it was announced Kelvin Sampson got slapped with major sanctions.

As a reminder, we still haven’t beaten a ranked team or anyone of real worth. (Ohio State doesn’t count.) You know, in case you were wondering out there.

It’s been a rough day to be an IU fan. Let’s just leave it at that.

Related:

• Box score