With the Big Ten conference season officially underway, things have been learned about all the Big Ten teams that we did not know in just the early-season games. As teams gear up to finish off their non-conference slate, every Big Ten team has an off-day today (Friday the 7th). With the quick break in action, let's power rank all fourteen teams in the conference.
1. Michigan: 9-0 (2-0)
Michigan faced two of their toughest challenges in North Carolina and Purdue in the days after I wrote my first power rankings. It was Northwestern who provided them with the biggest scare. The now number five team in the nation thumped UNC and Purdue at home, but needed a buzzer-beater three to bank off the front rim in order to secure the victory. Ignas Brazdeikis has continued to carry the team when needed, averaging 19.7 points in the last three games, while getting plenty of help from guys like Jordan Poole (who broke out against Purdue). The win at Northwestern did expose some concerns: Michigan's three-point shooting, coming off two lights-out performances at home, still looks shoddy, and the team is really only seven deep. Still, with the defense they've shown, it's near-impossible to not be impressed. Michigan is set up for a game with struggling South Carolina, then three buy games before the rest of Big Ten play. They stand four wins away from a perfect 2018 portion of this season.
2. Michigan State: 7-2 (2-0)
No Matt McQuaid, no problem. Well, maybe against Louisville, but that was not the primary issue of that game. Cassius Winston fouling out meant Foster Loyer was forced into meaningful minutes in overtime of an eventual loss, but despite that the Spartans bounced back to the tune of a couple double-digit victories at Rutgers then home to Iowa. Nick Ward has been heating up and his ten-for-ten night against Iowa may be a sign of continued big things to come. When the backcourt clicks, so too does MSU, and Winston's ability to assist on days where he may not be shooting the best is crucial to helping the team along. Joshua Langford will get plenty of minutes and even on an "off" few games, he's still shooting over 38%. Michigan State have lost twice, but in their victories they have shown a second gear to the team that perhaps some skeptics at the start of the season (myself included) did not expect. With Langford really taking control in the offense, if he can continue to develop as a junior, and with Winston still doing well, I like the steps from the supplemental cast as well. They are looking to be rounding into peak form by the end of the calendar year.
3. Wisconsin: 8-1 (2-0)
Wisconsin took three games against P5 opposition (North Carolina State, Iowa, and Rutgers) by a combined fifteen points. They were not leading at the half in any of the three games, but were still able to turn it around. They may be a second half team, but they have not needed till the second half of the season to start playing well. D'Mitrik Trice is currently shooting 60% on fifty attempts and has become the '1A' option to Ethan Happ. I mentioned in last power rankings that they'd need a third player to step up, and they've been doing so in a rotating manner. Aleem Ford hit four threes against NCSU, Brevin Pritzl came off the bench for twelve against Iowa, and Nate Reuvers came up with an important ten against Rutgers on six shots. They play very good team basketball with solid defense and a couple outstanding offensive weapons. The Badgers are showing that structured team offense is a way to find success in the Big Ten and, after a down season, they are hoping to be back up. They have one final non-conference test, at Marquette, to show what they are made of.
4. Ohio State: 8-1 (2-0)
Ohio State suffered an ugly loss to Syracuse, but they did well to bounce back and beat their two Big Ten opponents by a combined thirty points. The Buckeyes are another balanced-attack team with six players scoring in double figures against Minnesota, and three against Illinois, with Musa Jallow and Kaleb Wesson the two consistent double-figure men in both games. Chris Holtmann has eight players he definitely trusts with a large chunk of minutes and with a couple freshmen like Duane Washington and Luther Muhammad in the mix, Ohio State is setting themselves up for greater success than just this year. Just a sophomore, though, Kaleb Wesson is the man to watch. With an underrated free throw ability (hovering around 72%) and a fantastic two-point field-goal percentage, Kaleb helps make this team a massive threat. Their bounce back after the loss to Syracuse has been good, but a neutral site victory over UCLA would be massively important in helping to build this team's confidence up before Big Ten conference play.
5. Indiana: 7-2 (2-0)
Rounding out the five undefeated teams in conference play is one that had to really hold on for both of their victories. Their two-point win over Northwestern at home came due in large part to a Wildcats turnover in the last half-minute of the game while Penn State held the last shot of their game at home. Indiana also is coming off a massive loss to Duke on the road, but there is certainly no shame in that. Of the five conference unbeaten sides, IU is the one I considered dropping the most given the shakiness of their wins, current state of a roster that is still not fully injury-free, and a future schedule including Louisville and Butler staring back at them. Romeo Langford has been able to live up to the hype and really is starting to look like he's putting everything together in his arsenal, including the three-ball, and Juwan Morgan is a strong low-post scorer. But, like Wisconsin, I'd really like to see a third option, primarily a second multi-faceted scorer, appear for the Hoosiers. They've gotten some real good play at times from Ali Durham and Rob Phinisee, but consistency can be a bit iffy for this rather young team. I predict some losses in Big Ten play that will really help them gear up to be a pretty strong team by the time the conference tournament rolls around.
6. Purdue: 6-3 (1-1)
It was a good defensive battle for the likely right to be named sixth in these power rankings on Thursday night, but Purdue was able to survive. After a thumping on the road at Michigan to open conference play, Purdue hosted Maryland and played tough and gritty defense down the stretch to win the game by two. After the loss at Michigan and a heartbreaker to Florida State, it was an emotional win for Purdue who still has tough tests to come: this includes a road trip to Texas and Crossroads Challenge match-up with Notre Dame. The win against Maryland was so big because even with Ryan Cline zero-for-six from three, and even with Carsen Edwards held to four-for-fifteen shooting, we saw the explosion on the scene of Aaron Wheeler who came off a solid outing at Michigan to give Purdue fifteen points in 21 minutes off the bench. Wheeler has to be a bigger piece for this Boilermakers team that desperately needs another high-energy player that can shoot the ball well. The thing that concerns me about this side is floor spacing. If they can figure that out with a line-up surrounding Edwards with other shooters to take pressure off him on drives, that could be a dangerous Purdue team as they figure out how to play with each other on offense.
7. Minnesota: 7-2 (1-1)
Minnesota's inconsistency as a team really confuses me. An emotional win over Nebraska after the passing of Dupree McBrayer's mother capped off a nine-day span that included, in order, a double-digit loss at Boston College, a win over Oklahoma State, a pounding in Columbus against Ohio State by twenty, and finally a comeback over Nebraska back at home. Amir Coffey's 32 points against Nebraska caught eyes, but fourteen of them being off free throws and just two threes (out of three) still concerns me. Coffey remains under 30% from three on the season and this is a team that, collectively, went zero-for-thirteen from three at Ohio State. There are, however, lots of positives. Coffey is a great leader for this team and he and Jordan Murphy together mean you generally won't not have a team leader both on the court and performing for this team. Gabe Kalscher also went five-for-five inside the arc and is showing off a bit more than just the shooting he has shown in his bag of tricks. I still feel like the seven spot is a bit too high, but I have not seen enough from any team below them to justify displacing them from here.
8. Nebraska 7-2 (1-1)
A win at Clemson is the sort of victory this Cornhuskers team needed. The collapse at Minnesota looks quite bad, and I still think I rate Maryland getting into the tournament as more likely to happen than this team, but there is no denying the ability of this side. Writing all this would be a lot easier, and they could potentially be a couple spots higher, if they had closed the game out in The Barn against Minnesota. Instead, despite two wins that should impress, questions still linger about James Palmer this season and the team's depth as a whole. Glynn Watson Jr. impresses me the most off this Nebraska team and I think he is going to make this team's heart beat throughout the season. I also think Palmer needs to get going offensively for Nebraska to stand a chance of making the NCAA Tournament. A lot of the past few games will focus on the actual results of the games themselves, but pondering Nebraska's fate is very intriguing to me this season. Will this finally be the year Tim Miles can lead Nebraska back to the promised land, or is he destined to come up short? Lincoln will hope it's the former and not the latter.
9. Maryland: 7-2 (1-1)
This Maryland team jumped up in power rankings for me, but really not because how they looked. Anthony Cowan still has yet to click into gear, if that was not clear by the four-for-seventeen (two-for-ten from three) night against Purdue. He is, however, being surrounded by players like the imposing Bruno Fernando and have had good nights from Justin Smith and Darryl Morsell at times. With five players scoring in double figures on average, and a sixth with nine, they are fitting the definition of a well-balanced team nearly to a tee. Still, they did not really alleviate any concerns that I had with them in my last power rankings. The tougher teams of their schedule have beaten them, their three-point offense continues to be middling at best, but Aaron Wiggins is doing quite well to establish himself as a genuine three-point shooting threat for teams to need to focus on. My x-factors on this team are Wiggins and Smith; if the two freshmen that were brought in with plenty of fanfare can develop into what was hoped of them, this is a supremely dangerous team. If they can't then teams will be able to focus a lot more on Cowan and continue to shut down his offense.
10. Iowa: 7-2 (0-2)
Iowa is a solid basketball team. I need to state this up front because tenth place feels harsh for them. A win over in-state rival Iowa State on Thursday night will raise spirits, but at home and playing an ISU team without star wing Lindell Wigginton means that the excitement over the big win should be tempered a touch. This is a team that lost twice to good Big Ten competition and struggled against a Pittsburgh team that looks to be a bit worse than first thought. That said, this really is an Iowa team with a fun-to-watch offense that can score at will. Tyler Cook is becoming one of the Big Ten's premier forwards and 26 more points against Iowa State will help bolster his case. Jordan Bohannon is yet to get to his sophomore year peak, though, and in a similar situation to Maryland and Cowan, you have to feel that their teams' point guards getting back to levels fans are accustomed to should be important to the team as a whole. They are this low because their thumping in East Lansing and loss at home to Wisconsin do not feel great, but neither are terrible losses at all. Iowa has a nice neutral site game against Northern Iowa, but after that in-state clash there should be no concerns about losing until heading to Purdue in the re-opener of Big Ten play.
11. Northwestern 6-3 (0-2)
It's been a story of tough luck for the Wildcats as of late. After a solid ACC/Big Ten Challenge win over Georgia Tech, it was a pair of two-point losses against Indiana and Michigan to dampen the mood. Still, at 6-3 and with DePaul and Oklahoma still on the non-conference calendar, Northwestern has a chance to at least ease a bit of the pain before jumping back into the Big Ten pool. Vic Law and Dererk Pardon are the top dogs of the team, and both had stellar games against Michigan, but Ryan Taylor and A.J. Turner both have the potential to help the team out more than they have so far. We have seen glimpses, but both men are still just on the cusp of breaking out. Their talent leads me to believe that the question is more 'when' and less 'if' one, or both, do this season. But the time is now for the Wildcats who, in a deep league with a lot of veteran talent, would surely feel as if they missed a nice opportunity to snag another NCAA Tournament bid if Law, Pardon, and Taylor all graduate with the Wildcats empty-handed at the end of the season.
12. Penn State 4-4 (0-2)
A very nice win over Virginia Tech and keeping it close against Maryland on the road and Indiana let Penn State move up a bit in the power rankings. Lately it's been Rasir Bolton, a freshman out of Virginia, that's been the talk of the team. He's averaged over fourteen points per game in the three games PSU have played since my last power rankings and has since won a spot in the starting five for the Nittany Lions. Talk is certainly buzzing about Pat Chambers losing his job as head coach come the end of the season, but Bolton and Myles Dread, along with Myreon Jones, have made for yet another impressive class of freshmen brought in by Chambers. Lamar Stevens remains a star as well and he has the potential to change a game all on his own. Neutral site games against North Carolina State and Duquesne, along with an away game at Alabama, means that Penn State could prove they are not to be taken lightly, or aid in their slip back down into the bottom two of the power rankings.
13. Rutgers 5-3 (0-2)
That is correct, do not adjust your monitors. It is Rutgers out of the Big Ten basement and into 13th in my power rankings. The win over Miami looks less exciting when seeing Miami's two straight Ivy League opposition losses since then, but they played Michigan State tough despite losing by eleven and really pushed Wisconsin on the road. They are playing excellent defense, only allowing 60.8 points per game, good for 20th in the nation at the start of Thursday, and have two bonafide playmakers in Geo Baker and Eugene Omoruyi, both of whom are combining to average thirty points per game. I want to see more from Rutgers, and they will get a good chance to at Seton Hall, but given the draw of the schedule they could very realistically start the season 0-6 in the Big Ten. Then again, the Scarlet Knights have pulled a few upsets as Big Ten members. Perhaps they could take one earlier in the season than usual.
14. Illinois 2-7 (0-2)
Illinois have lost too many games and not been nearly competitive enough against Ohio State and Nebraska to justify putting them ahead of a scrappier Rutgers team. Despite their offensive skill, their scoring defense is the worst in the country, amplified by the strong opposition played. Nebraska is also a tough place to play, but from the first minute they seemed unready for the task. While skilled, Ayo Dosunmu is in a bit of a rough patch. Since the posting of my last power rankings, four games ago for the Fighting Illini, Dosunmu is shooting just 25% and averaging 7.3 points per game. Still, he influences elsewhere with an average of four assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. Trent Frazier is skilled too, and forwards Aaron Jordan and Giorgi Bezhanishvili should be able to make life easier on the guards, but things are not going brilliantly for Brad Underwood's side. The rest of the non-conference slate, including the neutral site Border Wars game, should be a lot more telling about this Illinois team, but for now, I have them in the final spot of the Big Ten power rankings.
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: 9-0 (2-0)
Michigan faced two of their toughest challenges in North Carolina and Purdue in the days after I wrote my first power rankings. It was Northwestern who provided them with the biggest scare. The now number five team in the nation thumped UNC and Purdue at home, but needed a buzzer-beater three to bank off the front rim in order to secure the victory. Ignas Brazdeikis has continued to carry the team when needed, averaging 19.7 points in the last three games, while getting plenty of help from guys like Jordan Poole (who broke out against Purdue). The win at Northwestern did expose some concerns: Michigan's three-point shooting, coming off two lights-out performances at home, still looks shoddy, and the team is really only seven deep. Still, with the defense they've shown, it's near-impossible to not be impressed. Michigan is set up for a game with struggling South Carolina, then three buy games before the rest of Big Ten play. They stand four wins away from a perfect 2018 portion of this season.
2. Michigan State: 7-2 (2-0)
No Matt McQuaid, no problem. Well, maybe against Louisville, but that was not the primary issue of that game. Cassius Winston fouling out meant Foster Loyer was forced into meaningful minutes in overtime of an eventual loss, but despite that the Spartans bounced back to the tune of a couple double-digit victories at Rutgers then home to Iowa. Nick Ward has been heating up and his ten-for-ten night against Iowa may be a sign of continued big things to come. When the backcourt clicks, so too does MSU, and Winston's ability to assist on days where he may not be shooting the best is crucial to helping the team along. Joshua Langford will get plenty of minutes and even on an "off" few games, he's still shooting over 38%. Michigan State have lost twice, but in their victories they have shown a second gear to the team that perhaps some skeptics at the start of the season (myself included) did not expect. With Langford really taking control in the offense, if he can continue to develop as a junior, and with Winston still doing well, I like the steps from the supplemental cast as well. They are looking to be rounding into peak form by the end of the calendar year.
3. Wisconsin: 8-1 (2-0)
Wisconsin took three games against P5 opposition (North Carolina State, Iowa, and Rutgers) by a combined fifteen points. They were not leading at the half in any of the three games, but were still able to turn it around. They may be a second half team, but they have not needed till the second half of the season to start playing well. D'Mitrik Trice is currently shooting 60% on fifty attempts and has become the '1A' option to Ethan Happ. I mentioned in last power rankings that they'd need a third player to step up, and they've been doing so in a rotating manner. Aleem Ford hit four threes against NCSU, Brevin Pritzl came off the bench for twelve against Iowa, and Nate Reuvers came up with an important ten against Rutgers on six shots. They play very good team basketball with solid defense and a couple outstanding offensive weapons. The Badgers are showing that structured team offense is a way to find success in the Big Ten and, after a down season, they are hoping to be back up. They have one final non-conference test, at Marquette, to show what they are made of.
4. Ohio State: 8-1 (2-0)
Ohio State suffered an ugly loss to Syracuse, but they did well to bounce back and beat their two Big Ten opponents by a combined thirty points. The Buckeyes are another balanced-attack team with six players scoring in double figures against Minnesota, and three against Illinois, with Musa Jallow and Kaleb Wesson the two consistent double-figure men in both games. Chris Holtmann has eight players he definitely trusts with a large chunk of minutes and with a couple freshmen like Duane Washington and Luther Muhammad in the mix, Ohio State is setting themselves up for greater success than just this year. Just a sophomore, though, Kaleb Wesson is the man to watch. With an underrated free throw ability (hovering around 72%) and a fantastic two-point field-goal percentage, Kaleb helps make this team a massive threat. Their bounce back after the loss to Syracuse has been good, but a neutral site victory over UCLA would be massively important in helping to build this team's confidence up before Big Ten conference play.
5. Indiana: 7-2 (2-0)
Rounding out the five undefeated teams in conference play is one that had to really hold on for both of their victories. Their two-point win over Northwestern at home came due in large part to a Wildcats turnover in the last half-minute of the game while Penn State held the last shot of their game at home. Indiana also is coming off a massive loss to Duke on the road, but there is certainly no shame in that. Of the five conference unbeaten sides, IU is the one I considered dropping the most given the shakiness of their wins, current state of a roster that is still not fully injury-free, and a future schedule including Louisville and Butler staring back at them. Romeo Langford has been able to live up to the hype and really is starting to look like he's putting everything together in his arsenal, including the three-ball, and Juwan Morgan is a strong low-post scorer. But, like Wisconsin, I'd really like to see a third option, primarily a second multi-faceted scorer, appear for the Hoosiers. They've gotten some real good play at times from Ali Durham and Rob Phinisee, but consistency can be a bit iffy for this rather young team. I predict some losses in Big Ten play that will really help them gear up to be a pretty strong team by the time the conference tournament rolls around.
6. Purdue: 6-3 (1-1)
It was a good defensive battle for the likely right to be named sixth in these power rankings on Thursday night, but Purdue was able to survive. After a thumping on the road at Michigan to open conference play, Purdue hosted Maryland and played tough and gritty defense down the stretch to win the game by two. After the loss at Michigan and a heartbreaker to Florida State, it was an emotional win for Purdue who still has tough tests to come: this includes a road trip to Texas and Crossroads Challenge match-up with Notre Dame. The win against Maryland was so big because even with Ryan Cline zero-for-six from three, and even with Carsen Edwards held to four-for-fifteen shooting, we saw the explosion on the scene of Aaron Wheeler who came off a solid outing at Michigan to give Purdue fifteen points in 21 minutes off the bench. Wheeler has to be a bigger piece for this Boilermakers team that desperately needs another high-energy player that can shoot the ball well. The thing that concerns me about this side is floor spacing. If they can figure that out with a line-up surrounding Edwards with other shooters to take pressure off him on drives, that could be a dangerous Purdue team as they figure out how to play with each other on offense.
7. Minnesota: 7-2 (1-1)
Minnesota's inconsistency as a team really confuses me. An emotional win over Nebraska after the passing of Dupree McBrayer's mother capped off a nine-day span that included, in order, a double-digit loss at Boston College, a win over Oklahoma State, a pounding in Columbus against Ohio State by twenty, and finally a comeback over Nebraska back at home. Amir Coffey's 32 points against Nebraska caught eyes, but fourteen of them being off free throws and just two threes (out of three) still concerns me. Coffey remains under 30% from three on the season and this is a team that, collectively, went zero-for-thirteen from three at Ohio State. There are, however, lots of positives. Coffey is a great leader for this team and he and Jordan Murphy together mean you generally won't not have a team leader both on the court and performing for this team. Gabe Kalscher also went five-for-five inside the arc and is showing off a bit more than just the shooting he has shown in his bag of tricks. I still feel like the seven spot is a bit too high, but I have not seen enough from any team below them to justify displacing them from here.
8. Nebraska 7-2 (1-1)
A win at Clemson is the sort of victory this Cornhuskers team needed. The collapse at Minnesota looks quite bad, and I still think I rate Maryland getting into the tournament as more likely to happen than this team, but there is no denying the ability of this side. Writing all this would be a lot easier, and they could potentially be a couple spots higher, if they had closed the game out in The Barn against Minnesota. Instead, despite two wins that should impress, questions still linger about James Palmer this season and the team's depth as a whole. Glynn Watson Jr. impresses me the most off this Nebraska team and I think he is going to make this team's heart beat throughout the season. I also think Palmer needs to get going offensively for Nebraska to stand a chance of making the NCAA Tournament. A lot of the past few games will focus on the actual results of the games themselves, but pondering Nebraska's fate is very intriguing to me this season. Will this finally be the year Tim Miles can lead Nebraska back to the promised land, or is he destined to come up short? Lincoln will hope it's the former and not the latter.
9. Maryland: 7-2 (1-1)
This Maryland team jumped up in power rankings for me, but really not because how they looked. Anthony Cowan still has yet to click into gear, if that was not clear by the four-for-seventeen (two-for-ten from three) night against Purdue. He is, however, being surrounded by players like the imposing Bruno Fernando and have had good nights from Justin Smith and Darryl Morsell at times. With five players scoring in double figures on average, and a sixth with nine, they are fitting the definition of a well-balanced team nearly to a tee. Still, they did not really alleviate any concerns that I had with them in my last power rankings. The tougher teams of their schedule have beaten them, their three-point offense continues to be middling at best, but Aaron Wiggins is doing quite well to establish himself as a genuine three-point shooting threat for teams to need to focus on. My x-factors on this team are Wiggins and Smith; if the two freshmen that were brought in with plenty of fanfare can develop into what was hoped of them, this is a supremely dangerous team. If they can't then teams will be able to focus a lot more on Cowan and continue to shut down his offense.
10. Iowa: 7-2 (0-2)
Iowa is a solid basketball team. I need to state this up front because tenth place feels harsh for them. A win over in-state rival Iowa State on Thursday night will raise spirits, but at home and playing an ISU team without star wing Lindell Wigginton means that the excitement over the big win should be tempered a touch. This is a team that lost twice to good Big Ten competition and struggled against a Pittsburgh team that looks to be a bit worse than first thought. That said, this really is an Iowa team with a fun-to-watch offense that can score at will. Tyler Cook is becoming one of the Big Ten's premier forwards and 26 more points against Iowa State will help bolster his case. Jordan Bohannon is yet to get to his sophomore year peak, though, and in a similar situation to Maryland and Cowan, you have to feel that their teams' point guards getting back to levels fans are accustomed to should be important to the team as a whole. They are this low because their thumping in East Lansing and loss at home to Wisconsin do not feel great, but neither are terrible losses at all. Iowa has a nice neutral site game against Northern Iowa, but after that in-state clash there should be no concerns about losing until heading to Purdue in the re-opener of Big Ten play.
11. Northwestern 6-3 (0-2)
It's been a story of tough luck for the Wildcats as of late. After a solid ACC/Big Ten Challenge win over Georgia Tech, it was a pair of two-point losses against Indiana and Michigan to dampen the mood. Still, at 6-3 and with DePaul and Oklahoma still on the non-conference calendar, Northwestern has a chance to at least ease a bit of the pain before jumping back into the Big Ten pool. Vic Law and Dererk Pardon are the top dogs of the team, and both had stellar games against Michigan, but Ryan Taylor and A.J. Turner both have the potential to help the team out more than they have so far. We have seen glimpses, but both men are still just on the cusp of breaking out. Their talent leads me to believe that the question is more 'when' and less 'if' one, or both, do this season. But the time is now for the Wildcats who, in a deep league with a lot of veteran talent, would surely feel as if they missed a nice opportunity to snag another NCAA Tournament bid if Law, Pardon, and Taylor all graduate with the Wildcats empty-handed at the end of the season.
12. Penn State 4-4 (0-2)
A very nice win over Virginia Tech and keeping it close against Maryland on the road and Indiana let Penn State move up a bit in the power rankings. Lately it's been Rasir Bolton, a freshman out of Virginia, that's been the talk of the team. He's averaged over fourteen points per game in the three games PSU have played since my last power rankings and has since won a spot in the starting five for the Nittany Lions. Talk is certainly buzzing about Pat Chambers losing his job as head coach come the end of the season, but Bolton and Myles Dread, along with Myreon Jones, have made for yet another impressive class of freshmen brought in by Chambers. Lamar Stevens remains a star as well and he has the potential to change a game all on his own. Neutral site games against North Carolina State and Duquesne, along with an away game at Alabama, means that Penn State could prove they are not to be taken lightly, or aid in their slip back down into the bottom two of the power rankings.
13. Rutgers 5-3 (0-2)
That is correct, do not adjust your monitors. It is Rutgers out of the Big Ten basement and into 13th in my power rankings. The win over Miami looks less exciting when seeing Miami's two straight Ivy League opposition losses since then, but they played Michigan State tough despite losing by eleven and really pushed Wisconsin on the road. They are playing excellent defense, only allowing 60.8 points per game, good for 20th in the nation at the start of Thursday, and have two bonafide playmakers in Geo Baker and Eugene Omoruyi, both of whom are combining to average thirty points per game. I want to see more from Rutgers, and they will get a good chance to at Seton Hall, but given the draw of the schedule they could very realistically start the season 0-6 in the Big Ten. Then again, the Scarlet Knights have pulled a few upsets as Big Ten members. Perhaps they could take one earlier in the season than usual.
14. Illinois 2-7 (0-2)
Illinois have lost too many games and not been nearly competitive enough against Ohio State and Nebraska to justify putting them ahead of a scrappier Rutgers team. Despite their offensive skill, their scoring defense is the worst in the country, amplified by the strong opposition played. Nebraska is also a tough place to play, but from the first minute they seemed unready for the task. While skilled, Ayo Dosunmu is in a bit of a rough patch. Since the posting of my last power rankings, four games ago for the Fighting Illini, Dosunmu is shooting just 25% and averaging 7.3 points per game. Still, he influences elsewhere with an average of four assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. Trent Frazier is skilled too, and forwards Aaron Jordan and Giorgi Bezhanishvili should be able to make life easier on the guards, but things are not going brilliantly for Brad Underwood's side. The rest of the non-conference slate, including the neutral site Border Wars game, should be a lot more telling about this Illinois team, but for now, I have them in the final spot of the Big Ten power rankings.
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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