The college basketball season is just a handful of games into the young season, but there's still plenty to garner from each team's performance. Today, we're having a look at the Big Ten teams and power ranking them to this point in the season. The Big Ten has looked exceptionally strong this season and with so many quality teams, it's tough to do. That said, I gave it my best go, and here's what I came up with.
1. Michigan
Michigan has been utterly dominant in all six games they've played. The closest margin of victory has been a triad of nineteen point victories. Michigan has only gone seven-deep in terms of players getting serious minutes, but Austin Davis makes eight and Brandon Johns and David DeJulius will hope to develop into rotational pieces as the season develops. Ignas Brazdeikis has come on massively as just a freshman, doing a bit of everything for the Wolverines, and doing all of it very well. Isaiah Livers has shone coming off the bench with a new-and-improved shooting motion, as he's shooting 55% from behind the arc. Michigan will definitely want to see more consistency shooting the ball from out there, especially from Charles Matthews, who still does not have the touch from deep, but they've been dominant without it thus far. They enter a key stretch of the early season with North Carolina, Purdue, Northwestern on the road, and South Carolina all in a row. They will hope to keep a firm early season grasp on the Big Ten through this next two weeks of games.
2. Michigan State
Michigan State is not loaded up with the talent they have had from seasons prior, but they have the sort of team-oriented side that Tom Izzo seems to thrive with. A two-day span of dominating UCLA and Texas has proved to any that saw their season-opening loss to Kansas as a sign of their downfall as a quick blip. Josh Langford has so far been able to prove that the next step for his progression was, in fact, in reach, as he leads the team in points per game while shooting 47.5% from three. Cassius Winston alongside him makes him a two-headed back court monster with both players able to shoot the lights out. Still, I think MSU needs more from another couple players as well. Nick Ward's rebounds have gone down, his field goal percentage is down, and his points and minutes are around the same. Likewise, if any of those three are not hitting, it is risky to rely on production from role players who don't stamp the game with their mark on the stat sheet like a Kyle Ahrens or Kenny Goins. They will make many more chances to impress, and they have looked good as well, but I think they may have another gear in them as well.
3. Wisconsin
After a down year last season, Wisconsin seem to be on the bounce back. A spell in Atlantis showcased their ability to play like, well, a typical Wisconsin team. Despite the loss to Virginia, a fellow defensive-minded team, wins in the days prior over Stanford by 16 and Oklahoma by 20, to go with a road win over Xavier, are great non-conference victories. Ethan Happ continues to be a do-it-all man with not just a double-double average, but also nearly six assists per game too. He's been supplemented by D'Mitrik Trice's 16.8 points per game and 57% shooting from three (that's an impressive 20-for-35). After plenty of injuries, including to Trice along with now-sophomore Khalil Iverson, the Badgers want to return to their previous form. A problem I could see, though, is that if Happ is off, Wisconsin may not have that secondary (or third, with Trice) guy to come up and make shots for them. Brad Davison's having what some may see as a slow start, but is really just his stats corresponding to his lesser usage. If Wisconsin wants to contend for the Big Ten title, they'll need at least one of Davison, Iverson, Kobe King, Nate Reuvers, or Brevin Pritzl to step up a touch more.
4. Ohio State
One of two more non-Michigan teams that are 6-0 are the Buckeyes, who have started off the season in a similarly hot fashion as last season. Road wins over Cincinnati and Creighton have opened eyes, even if both teams are bit lackluster this season compared to others. Kaleb Wesson has been a beast down low, shooting 65% on two-pointers, but managing his minutes over the season will be a task for Chris Holtmann. The positive for Holtmann is that he has seven players who currently flirt with 20 minutes per game, and of them just two are seniors. The freshmen in the rotation have also produced well, Duane Washington is hitting threes at a 48% clip while Luther Muhammad is a menace on defense already playing the second most minutes per game for the team (behind senior leader C.J. Jackson). This OSU team is playing well yet again and off to a good start. If they are not around the top four of the conference yet again, I will be surprised. I'm looking to their game against Iowa to be a real good test of where they are as a complete side at this point of the season.
5. Indiana
Just one loss on the season has Indiana in a good position, but injuries are becoming to be a concern. De'Ron Davis, Josh McRoberts, Jerome Hunter, Devonte Green, Al Durham, and even Romeo Langford, have all suffered knocks of some sort. Mentioning Langford is a bit facetious, he suffered a minor knock against UT-Arlington and was back to face off with UC-Davis, but the short-staffed side have had their struggles with the mid-majors. Their lone loss was a one-point heartbreaker at Arkansas with a finish that saw them called for a questionable foul and miss a late tip-in. Once healthy, this team is incredibly deep, but they only have six players that have seen the court in all six games. Romeo Langford has been a star freshman for the Hoosiers and is playing the second most minutes total out of anyone in the Big Ten. Juwan Morgan is his partner in crime down low and the forward is already nine-for-thirteen from deep marking a serious improvement. Langford could, and should, improve from deep (currently he's just 6-for-23) but right now I'm looking at their next five games (at Duke, Northwestern, at Penn State, Louisville, and vs. Butler) as a tough stretch for a banged-up team.
6. Purdue
Purdue have looked solid this season, but Carsen Edwards' performance has been grabbing the headlines. He is averaging nineteen shots a game, has taken the most field goals in the Big Ten, and is averaging 25.3 points per game while shooting 41% from three. He is the number one option, and Ryan Cline is a strong second option. He is actually averaging more minutes per game than Edwards, but takes almost three-quarters of his shots from outside at a 40.5% mark. Purdue have a medley of other weapons, but each have a fault to nitpick: Evan Boudreaux doesn't play enough minutes to have be a dominant secondary weapon, Matt Haarms needs to continue physical development, Nojel Eastern is athletic and drives well, but lacks the outside shot needed, and Grady Eifert and Sasha Stefanovic serve as role players and glue guys on the court. Talks of this being a serious Purdue down year were overblown without question, but I had quite high hopes for Eastern this season. He's shooting 65.5% on twos, but can he expand his game outside while improving his distribution? That may be key to the Boilermakers season.
7. Iowa
Iowa walked into the season with lots of questions. They have answered them with some effect. Can they sustain last season's offensive output? Yes. Is the defense improved? Also yes, but not by a ton. They are still giving up over 70 points per game on average. This has yet to matter, though, as their lowest point total on the season has been 77 points twice, once against UMKC, once against (at the time) #13 Oregon. They are 5-0 with nine players seeing regular minutes on the court. Luka Garza continues to be a threat as a center with a near-automatic mid-range game and a sweet outside stroke. Tyler Cook averages sixteen per game but has yet to develop his outside shot that was told he needs to get to the next level of the game. Jordan Bohannon has seen some early-season struggles as well, shooting just 33% from the field and 25% from deep. Isaiah Moss also hasn't been massively impactful thus far but Connor McCaffery has been a good distributing sixth man for his father, Fran. I'm not making any snap judgments about them until the non-conference season is accounted for, along with their December Big Ten games against Wisconsin and Michigan State.
8. Nebraska
Nebraska is a side who had high expectations coming into this season. They have not been bad at all, but still, some of the problems that made me skeptical of them entering the year remain. Nebraska thumped Seton Hall at home, but against the first good side not in their comfy confines, Texas Tech, they were the ones getting thumped. Nebraska have their 'big five' of starters, but other than that they appear to me to lack depth needed to compete in this deep Big Ten. James Palmer continues to put up plenty of shots, but they're not falling from three (20.5%) compared a solid two-point percentage (60.7%). There's a lot to like for a reason: Palmer, Isaac Copeland, and Glynn Watson each provide something different and I like Isaiah Roby's versatility as well. Watson in particular I think is a top-tier point guard in a great conference for point guards. Still, Tim Miles needs to prove to me he can coach the big games. We have yet to see this, but I am watching for them to step it up.
9. Minnesota
My numbers nine and ten are very close, but Minnesota squeaks it out given who they have beaten. A pair of non-conference wins on neutral sites over Texas A&M and Washington, along with a home victory over Utah, makes for a really nice start to the season. Three Power 5 conference victories will hope to be the spark for a bounce back season after some disappointment last season. The team are well on their way, as you know exactly what you'll get with this team. Jordan Murphy remains a double-double machine, Dupree McBrayer and Amir Coffey alternate a bit as point guard, Daniel Oturu has filled the gap of a center, and Gabe Kalscheur is a long-range sniping freshman already averaging 13.8 per game with a 58% three-point mark (his 18 made threes are most thus far for a freshman). The problem, for me, is depth. Isaiah Washington has hit a sophomore slump this season off the bench and Brock Stull is good for spot minutes, but the Big Ten is a jump in quality from a weak Horizon League last season. Scoring off the bench has been non-existent thus far, really. Once that can get sorted out, though, I like this Minnesota team to really make a statement in the league.
10. Maryland
It says more about the league than Maryland that, at 6-0, they are currently 10th in my power rankings. This is a good Maryland team with a court general in Anthony Cowan and big man in Bruno Fernando that are both stars in the Big Ten. Not only that, but three more players average in double figures: Jalen Smith, Darryl Morsell, and Aaron Wiggins. Six games in, though, and Maryland has blown out a solid Marshall team, but squared off with no one else of much note. I want to wait to see this young team get tested by the likes of Virginia and Purdue before I make too many concrete claims about their season. I am also worried about the fact that their team three-point percentage is 31%, second-lowest in the conference at this point of the season, ahead of only Northwestern. Cowan is shooting just 28%, Smith has taken just seven threes and made only one, and even second-top on the team (Wiggins) is rather inconsistent with a 38.4% mark. The Terps have no front court depth to speak of, as well, and if Fernando gets in foul trouble they will have to play smaller, meaning more tests of the three key rotational freshmen. With Fernando's talent, that's a huge advantage for them. If he runs into trouble, teams that are able to play smaller, like a Michigan, might be able to do well against them.
11. Northwestern
Entering the bottom four, I have glaring questions about each of them and their results this season. For the Wildcats, what do I make of their massive loss to Fresno State? Their game with Oklahoma is circled for me as one to see where they stand, against a solid team similar to their level. Vic Law is the apparent star on the team and will hope to lead a bounce back. He leads the way with 18.4 points per game, the top of four double-figure scorers. All four of their top scorers are starters and upperclassmen (three seniors and a junior in A.J. Turner) while the fifth starter, freshman Miller Kopp, cedes most of his minutes to sophomore Anthony Gaines. The freshmen, Kopp, Pete Nance, and Ryan Greer, are getting the chance to ease into the college game and with another probable top half class in the Big Ten, it's a chance to reload for the Wildcats. Another quick note: Dererk Pardon joins Jordan Murphy and Ethan Happ as the only Big Ten players averaging a double-double.
12. Illinois
Illinois' schedule has been, in a word, brutal. A trip to Maui and a visit from Georgetown means their 1-4 record looks bad, but it appears worse than it actually is. It's a bit of a reboot from Brad Underwood who, for the second straight year, is dealing with a sort of mass exodus from the program that included quick point guard Te'Jon Lucas and wing man Mark Smith, who transferred to Border Wars rival Missouri and is eligible immediately. This season's story has been Trent Frazier's continued brilliance, as the sophomore averages a team-high 18 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game (the 2.5 steals leads the Big Ten), and freshman star Ayo Dosunmu, who's shooting from three at 58% with 16.2 points per game. The guard play is solid, Aaron Jordan is holding down the fort at power forward, and when freshman big man Giorgi Bezhanishvili needs a break, they can also go small like Underwood liked to do at his previous coaching stops. Advanced metrics like KenPom don't exactly fancy them like a Penn State (KenPom rating: 93) but Torvik has them three spots ahead of PSU. I rate them higher at the moment than Penn State as well.
13. Penn State
Penn State has so many questions I don't think I can ask them all. Two losses to DePaul and Bradley are glaringly bad, but metrics like KenPom still have not bailed on them. They are 38th in KenPom and 49th on the Torvik ratings. I think they have too much raw talent to fall too far in the Big Ten, but Patrick Chambers' seat is not scalding hot only for the fact that he signed a recent extension. Lamar Stevens is ultra-talented and, with 36.8 minutes per game, he leads the Big Ten in that metric. He's averaging 24.8 points per game along with 8.8 rebounds, and he promises to be a handful for every team in the conference. Two other players average over 30 minutes per game, star freshman Myles Dread and Josh Reaves, and Chambers rarely calls upon more than eight men in the game. They are extremely young as of the eight, Reaves is a senior, Stevens is a junior, and the rest are underclassmen. This should result in growing pains, and Stevens' 26.7% mark from deep will need to improve, but Penn State's early results are raising red flags around them.
14. Rutgers
At 4-1, Rutgers have followed last year's early-season model of beat those that you should. They did, however, lose to a solid St. John's team, but that was by nearly 20 points. On the flip side, they held Eastern Michigan to just four first half points in their game and 36 total. They followed that up by holding Boston to 44 in the next game. Still, we must face the facts. Rutgers lost three stars from last season, even if Corey Sanders may have been the definition of a volume scorer. This is another supremely young team with just one senior. Geo Baker, as a sophomore, is going to be asked to go from third option to team-leader with the ball constantly in his hands. Eugene Omoruyi is going to slide into the forward-shaped hole that Deshawn Freeman left, and has been a great get averaging just under 16 points and ten rebounds per game for Rutgers as well. That said, that seems about it for Rutgers, who will need Issa Thiam or Peter Kiss to blossom into a third option. The question for the Scarlet Knights has been consistently, 'when will they not finish last in the conference?' To that, I do not think the answer will be this year. That said, next year they welcome in another top-150 small forward and Texas transfer Jacob Young. With all but starting center Shaquille Doorson set to return, the answer to that question next season may be more favorable.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more Michigan basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
1. Michigan
Michigan has been utterly dominant in all six games they've played. The closest margin of victory has been a triad of nineteen point victories. Michigan has only gone seven-deep in terms of players getting serious minutes, but Austin Davis makes eight and Brandon Johns and David DeJulius will hope to develop into rotational pieces as the season develops. Ignas Brazdeikis has come on massively as just a freshman, doing a bit of everything for the Wolverines, and doing all of it very well. Isaiah Livers has shone coming off the bench with a new-and-improved shooting motion, as he's shooting 55% from behind the arc. Michigan will definitely want to see more consistency shooting the ball from out there, especially from Charles Matthews, who still does not have the touch from deep, but they've been dominant without it thus far. They enter a key stretch of the early season with North Carolina, Purdue, Northwestern on the road, and South Carolina all in a row. They will hope to keep a firm early season grasp on the Big Ten through this next two weeks of games.
2. Michigan State
Michigan State is not loaded up with the talent they have had from seasons prior, but they have the sort of team-oriented side that Tom Izzo seems to thrive with. A two-day span of dominating UCLA and Texas has proved to any that saw their season-opening loss to Kansas as a sign of their downfall as a quick blip. Josh Langford has so far been able to prove that the next step for his progression was, in fact, in reach, as he leads the team in points per game while shooting 47.5% from three. Cassius Winston alongside him makes him a two-headed back court monster with both players able to shoot the lights out. Still, I think MSU needs more from another couple players as well. Nick Ward's rebounds have gone down, his field goal percentage is down, and his points and minutes are around the same. Likewise, if any of those three are not hitting, it is risky to rely on production from role players who don't stamp the game with their mark on the stat sheet like a Kyle Ahrens or Kenny Goins. They will make many more chances to impress, and they have looked good as well, but I think they may have another gear in them as well.
3. Wisconsin
After a down year last season, Wisconsin seem to be on the bounce back. A spell in Atlantis showcased their ability to play like, well, a typical Wisconsin team. Despite the loss to Virginia, a fellow defensive-minded team, wins in the days prior over Stanford by 16 and Oklahoma by 20, to go with a road win over Xavier, are great non-conference victories. Ethan Happ continues to be a do-it-all man with not just a double-double average, but also nearly six assists per game too. He's been supplemented by D'Mitrik Trice's 16.8 points per game and 57% shooting from three (that's an impressive 20-for-35). After plenty of injuries, including to Trice along with now-sophomore Khalil Iverson, the Badgers want to return to their previous form. A problem I could see, though, is that if Happ is off, Wisconsin may not have that secondary (or third, with Trice) guy to come up and make shots for them. Brad Davison's having what some may see as a slow start, but is really just his stats corresponding to his lesser usage. If Wisconsin wants to contend for the Big Ten title, they'll need at least one of Davison, Iverson, Kobe King, Nate Reuvers, or Brevin Pritzl to step up a touch more.
4. Ohio State
One of two more non-Michigan teams that are 6-0 are the Buckeyes, who have started off the season in a similarly hot fashion as last season. Road wins over Cincinnati and Creighton have opened eyes, even if both teams are bit lackluster this season compared to others. Kaleb Wesson has been a beast down low, shooting 65% on two-pointers, but managing his minutes over the season will be a task for Chris Holtmann. The positive for Holtmann is that he has seven players who currently flirt with 20 minutes per game, and of them just two are seniors. The freshmen in the rotation have also produced well, Duane Washington is hitting threes at a 48% clip while Luther Muhammad is a menace on defense already playing the second most minutes per game for the team (behind senior leader C.J. Jackson). This OSU team is playing well yet again and off to a good start. If they are not around the top four of the conference yet again, I will be surprised. I'm looking to their game against Iowa to be a real good test of where they are as a complete side at this point of the season.
5. Indiana
Just one loss on the season has Indiana in a good position, but injuries are becoming to be a concern. De'Ron Davis, Josh McRoberts, Jerome Hunter, Devonte Green, Al Durham, and even Romeo Langford, have all suffered knocks of some sort. Mentioning Langford is a bit facetious, he suffered a minor knock against UT-Arlington and was back to face off with UC-Davis, but the short-staffed side have had their struggles with the mid-majors. Their lone loss was a one-point heartbreaker at Arkansas with a finish that saw them called for a questionable foul and miss a late tip-in. Once healthy, this team is incredibly deep, but they only have six players that have seen the court in all six games. Romeo Langford has been a star freshman for the Hoosiers and is playing the second most minutes total out of anyone in the Big Ten. Juwan Morgan is his partner in crime down low and the forward is already nine-for-thirteen from deep marking a serious improvement. Langford could, and should, improve from deep (currently he's just 6-for-23) but right now I'm looking at their next five games (at Duke, Northwestern, at Penn State, Louisville, and vs. Butler) as a tough stretch for a banged-up team.
6. Purdue
Purdue have looked solid this season, but Carsen Edwards' performance has been grabbing the headlines. He is averaging nineteen shots a game, has taken the most field goals in the Big Ten, and is averaging 25.3 points per game while shooting 41% from three. He is the number one option, and Ryan Cline is a strong second option. He is actually averaging more minutes per game than Edwards, but takes almost three-quarters of his shots from outside at a 40.5% mark. Purdue have a medley of other weapons, but each have a fault to nitpick: Evan Boudreaux doesn't play enough minutes to have be a dominant secondary weapon, Matt Haarms needs to continue physical development, Nojel Eastern is athletic and drives well, but lacks the outside shot needed, and Grady Eifert and Sasha Stefanovic serve as role players and glue guys on the court. Talks of this being a serious Purdue down year were overblown without question, but I had quite high hopes for Eastern this season. He's shooting 65.5% on twos, but can he expand his game outside while improving his distribution? That may be key to the Boilermakers season.
7. Iowa
Iowa walked into the season with lots of questions. They have answered them with some effect. Can they sustain last season's offensive output? Yes. Is the defense improved? Also yes, but not by a ton. They are still giving up over 70 points per game on average. This has yet to matter, though, as their lowest point total on the season has been 77 points twice, once against UMKC, once against (at the time) #13 Oregon. They are 5-0 with nine players seeing regular minutes on the court. Luka Garza continues to be a threat as a center with a near-automatic mid-range game and a sweet outside stroke. Tyler Cook averages sixteen per game but has yet to develop his outside shot that was told he needs to get to the next level of the game. Jordan Bohannon has seen some early-season struggles as well, shooting just 33% from the field and 25% from deep. Isaiah Moss also hasn't been massively impactful thus far but Connor McCaffery has been a good distributing sixth man for his father, Fran. I'm not making any snap judgments about them until the non-conference season is accounted for, along with their December Big Ten games against Wisconsin and Michigan State.
8. Nebraska
Nebraska is a side who had high expectations coming into this season. They have not been bad at all, but still, some of the problems that made me skeptical of them entering the year remain. Nebraska thumped Seton Hall at home, but against the first good side not in their comfy confines, Texas Tech, they were the ones getting thumped. Nebraska have their 'big five' of starters, but other than that they appear to me to lack depth needed to compete in this deep Big Ten. James Palmer continues to put up plenty of shots, but they're not falling from three (20.5%) compared a solid two-point percentage (60.7%). There's a lot to like for a reason: Palmer, Isaac Copeland, and Glynn Watson each provide something different and I like Isaiah Roby's versatility as well. Watson in particular I think is a top-tier point guard in a great conference for point guards. Still, Tim Miles needs to prove to me he can coach the big games. We have yet to see this, but I am watching for them to step it up.
9. Minnesota
My numbers nine and ten are very close, but Minnesota squeaks it out given who they have beaten. A pair of non-conference wins on neutral sites over Texas A&M and Washington, along with a home victory over Utah, makes for a really nice start to the season. Three Power 5 conference victories will hope to be the spark for a bounce back season after some disappointment last season. The team are well on their way, as you know exactly what you'll get with this team. Jordan Murphy remains a double-double machine, Dupree McBrayer and Amir Coffey alternate a bit as point guard, Daniel Oturu has filled the gap of a center, and Gabe Kalscheur is a long-range sniping freshman already averaging 13.8 per game with a 58% three-point mark (his 18 made threes are most thus far for a freshman). The problem, for me, is depth. Isaiah Washington has hit a sophomore slump this season off the bench and Brock Stull is good for spot minutes, but the Big Ten is a jump in quality from a weak Horizon League last season. Scoring off the bench has been non-existent thus far, really. Once that can get sorted out, though, I like this Minnesota team to really make a statement in the league.
10. Maryland
It says more about the league than Maryland that, at 6-0, they are currently 10th in my power rankings. This is a good Maryland team with a court general in Anthony Cowan and big man in Bruno Fernando that are both stars in the Big Ten. Not only that, but three more players average in double figures: Jalen Smith, Darryl Morsell, and Aaron Wiggins. Six games in, though, and Maryland has blown out a solid Marshall team, but squared off with no one else of much note. I want to wait to see this young team get tested by the likes of Virginia and Purdue before I make too many concrete claims about their season. I am also worried about the fact that their team three-point percentage is 31%, second-lowest in the conference at this point of the season, ahead of only Northwestern. Cowan is shooting just 28%, Smith has taken just seven threes and made only one, and even second-top on the team (Wiggins) is rather inconsistent with a 38.4% mark. The Terps have no front court depth to speak of, as well, and if Fernando gets in foul trouble they will have to play smaller, meaning more tests of the three key rotational freshmen. With Fernando's talent, that's a huge advantage for them. If he runs into trouble, teams that are able to play smaller, like a Michigan, might be able to do well against them.
11. Northwestern
Entering the bottom four, I have glaring questions about each of them and their results this season. For the Wildcats, what do I make of their massive loss to Fresno State? Their game with Oklahoma is circled for me as one to see where they stand, against a solid team similar to their level. Vic Law is the apparent star on the team and will hope to lead a bounce back. He leads the way with 18.4 points per game, the top of four double-figure scorers. All four of their top scorers are starters and upperclassmen (three seniors and a junior in A.J. Turner) while the fifth starter, freshman Miller Kopp, cedes most of his minutes to sophomore Anthony Gaines. The freshmen, Kopp, Pete Nance, and Ryan Greer, are getting the chance to ease into the college game and with another probable top half class in the Big Ten, it's a chance to reload for the Wildcats. Another quick note: Dererk Pardon joins Jordan Murphy and Ethan Happ as the only Big Ten players averaging a double-double.
12. Illinois
Illinois' schedule has been, in a word, brutal. A trip to Maui and a visit from Georgetown means their 1-4 record looks bad, but it appears worse than it actually is. It's a bit of a reboot from Brad Underwood who, for the second straight year, is dealing with a sort of mass exodus from the program that included quick point guard Te'Jon Lucas and wing man Mark Smith, who transferred to Border Wars rival Missouri and is eligible immediately. This season's story has been Trent Frazier's continued brilliance, as the sophomore averages a team-high 18 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game (the 2.5 steals leads the Big Ten), and freshman star Ayo Dosunmu, who's shooting from three at 58% with 16.2 points per game. The guard play is solid, Aaron Jordan is holding down the fort at power forward, and when freshman big man Giorgi Bezhanishvili needs a break, they can also go small like Underwood liked to do at his previous coaching stops. Advanced metrics like KenPom don't exactly fancy them like a Penn State (KenPom rating: 93) but Torvik has them three spots ahead of PSU. I rate them higher at the moment than Penn State as well.
13. Penn State
Penn State has so many questions I don't think I can ask them all. Two losses to DePaul and Bradley are glaringly bad, but metrics like KenPom still have not bailed on them. They are 38th in KenPom and 49th on the Torvik ratings. I think they have too much raw talent to fall too far in the Big Ten, but Patrick Chambers' seat is not scalding hot only for the fact that he signed a recent extension. Lamar Stevens is ultra-talented and, with 36.8 minutes per game, he leads the Big Ten in that metric. He's averaging 24.8 points per game along with 8.8 rebounds, and he promises to be a handful for every team in the conference. Two other players average over 30 minutes per game, star freshman Myles Dread and Josh Reaves, and Chambers rarely calls upon more than eight men in the game. They are extremely young as of the eight, Reaves is a senior, Stevens is a junior, and the rest are underclassmen. This should result in growing pains, and Stevens' 26.7% mark from deep will need to improve, but Penn State's early results are raising red flags around them.
14. Rutgers
At 4-1, Rutgers have followed last year's early-season model of beat those that you should. They did, however, lose to a solid St. John's team, but that was by nearly 20 points. On the flip side, they held Eastern Michigan to just four first half points in their game and 36 total. They followed that up by holding Boston to 44 in the next game. Still, we must face the facts. Rutgers lost three stars from last season, even if Corey Sanders may have been the definition of a volume scorer. This is another supremely young team with just one senior. Geo Baker, as a sophomore, is going to be asked to go from third option to team-leader with the ball constantly in his hands. Eugene Omoruyi is going to slide into the forward-shaped hole that Deshawn Freeman left, and has been a great get averaging just under 16 points and ten rebounds per game for Rutgers as well. That said, that seems about it for Rutgers, who will need Issa Thiam or Peter Kiss to blossom into a third option. The question for the Scarlet Knights has been consistently, 'when will they not finish last in the conference?' To that, I do not think the answer will be this year. That said, next year they welcome in another top-150 small forward and Texas transfer Jacob Young. With all but starting center Shaquille Doorson set to return, the answer to that question next season may be more favorable.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more Michigan basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
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