I would be the first to tell you that while I'm a huge sports fan. But I have somewhat lost track of Big Ten college basketball as a whole. I typically know who is doing well and who is struggling. But until this season, Big Ten college basketball has not really been a priority for me while checking scoreboards.
My mindset has completely changed this season. The rebirth of a couple programs (Michigan and Minnesota), as well as the continued excellence of others (Michigan State and Purdue), has kept me enthralled in the early goings of this season.
With conference play just around the corner, I thought I would take a crack at throwing some predictions out there for everyone to enjoy (or get physically ill over—guess it would depend on what team you support). For entertainment purposes, let's go backwards!
11. Indiana Hoosiers (Overall: 7-22; Conference: 2-16)
It's going to be an ugly year for the Hoosiers and their fans, but coach Tom Crean has the credentials and the passion to get this turned around quickly. This may be the one and only season we see Indiana at the bottom of the heap.
10. Northwestern Wildcats (12-17; 3-15)
If this team was playing in last year's Big Ten, I would give them a shot at winning 7-9 games. This year...not so much. Northwestern has improved, but it won't be enough to make any serious noise in the Big Ten this year.
9. Iowa Hawkeyes (14-17; 4-14)
This team hasn't really played anyone outside of Boston College and West Virginia in non-conference play, and they lost both of those games. Another team that should get better in the coming seasons.
8. Penn State Nittany Lions (17-12; 6-10)
Penn State is one of the harder teams to predict in this conference. I'm not too confident in this team getting ONLY six conference wins; in fact, they have an outside shot at getting to the Big Dance.
7. Illinois Fighting Illini (20-9; 8-8)
Here is where we really start to see how much stronger the Big Ten is this year. Illinois should win 20 games in total....yet they won't even sniff the Big Ten regular season title.
6. Minnesota Golden Gophers (21-7; 9-7)
Is Tubby Smith closing in on another Coach of the Year award? If this prediction holds true, it would be hard to give it to anyone else. No one predicted that Minnesota would be so good so fast. Perhaps Smith should get more credit than he's received.
11 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
Brett Lissenden 6 months ago
Great article. The Big Ten is extremely strong this year and I think they will be beating up on eachother a lot. No road game victories will be easy to come by. How high do you think PSU could finish? Talor Battle is something special and they have some other solid players as well.
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Joe G 6 months ago
No way Michigan State finishes third in this conference. They've started to hit their stride in the last couple of weeks and proved it with a big victory over Texas. The thing that sets them apart from the rest of the conference is their impressive depth. Durrell Summers, the star of the Texas game, isn't even a starter. Korie Lucious, the backup point guard, is just as quick as Kalin Lucas. They can bring one of the most prized PF recruits in the nation off the bench, in Delvon Roe, and Chris Allen can provide deadly shooting off the bench as well.
The conference as a whole is doing very well this year. Big Ten teams already boast plenty of victories over teams ranked in the top ten nationally. Texas, UCLA, Duke, Notre Dame and Louisville have all gone down at the hands of Big Ten clubs. There aren't more than a couple of truly weak Big Ten teams this season, it's a pretty strong league top to bottom.
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Jason Funk 6 months ago
Michigan State will sh!t on anyone in the conference, michigan isn't that good even though they have impressive wins but they rely too much on Harris, and Purdue won't be surprising anyone, and Ohio State is too young and haven't seen a Breslin Center or Kohl Center crowd yell at them and tell them that they love men while they are trying to play basketball
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Jameson Fleming 6 months ago
Purdue has something to say about a sh!tting on the conference. I've been tabbing the Boilermakers as the number one in the conference all year. I like the Spartans, they are a very good team, but I think Purdue is slightly ahead of them.
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Cody Blubaugh 6 months ago
The loss of David Lighty is going to hurt the Buckeyes in Big Ten play, especially considering he was the anchor of their defense. Slide the Buckeyes down a slot or two.
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Dan Miller 6 months ago
Writer admits not following the BT, then makes predictions? Maybe he could have addressed Minnesota's cupcake schedule who's signature win is over an over-rated Louisville team at home. He could have mentioned Illinois' 11-1 start with road win @ Vandy, home loss to an undefeated Clemson team, and blow-out win over #25 Mizzou on a neutral court. He could have mentioned MSU played without Suton, OSU going without Lighty for the next 6 to 12 weeks, or Illini add Alex Legion Dec 20th, just in time for the BT season. I guess we expect our writers/journalists to do a little "homework" before they pen their articles. Someone probably needs to proofread, too, since he has some teams with 18 conference games and some with only 16? Easy to understand why I've never heard of bleacher report with the quality of journalism exemplified in this article. Don't think I'll rush out and look for it at Barnes & Noble!
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Benjamin Williams 6 months ago
Ummmm, okay, it doesn't appear that you fully read what I typed. I said that I somewhat lost track, I was still aware of who was doing well and what not. And this season, I'm fully vested.
Minnesota wasn't at home, that was a game on neutral grounds, in Arizona, far from home court for either team.
In terms of the games count, I was going off of a schedule found on a sports website, that was my mistake, and no one is perfect. I find mistakes all the time on articles on ESPN.com, yet I don't blow a whistle about it. I guess someone has lost touch with their own humanity...or they're having a bad Christmas!
Judging by the fact that you just joined an hour ago, you're not very versed on what B/R offers.
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Nathan B 6 months ago
I acknowledge that it's difficult to make predictions at this point in the season, and different people will have different opinions, but I would offer these few thoughts:
Indiana and Iowa are far worse than anyone else in the conference. The gap between Iowa and then Penn St / Northwestern is huge; I don't see anyone else even being potentially close to finishing in the bottom two. Witness Iowa's recent loss to Drake (or was it Drexel? well, equally bad either way) for an example. Neither Penn St. nor Northwestern has anywhere near that bad of a loss.
Michigan and Wisconsin seem pretty overrated here ... and I think Illinois may be a bit underrated.
But that's just my .02 ... thanks for the read -- good job!
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Richard DeLancey 6 months ago
I too think Michigan State will win the conference. Purdue and Ohio Stae are good but not as good as the Spartans.
I would like to see Penn State get 8 or 9 wins and get in contention for a tourney birth.
Great analysis!!!
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wyatt morrison 6 months ago
Michigan State will win the big ten easily.here are my predictions.
1.Mich state
2.Purdue
3.Wisconsin
4.Minnesota
5.Illinois
6.Ohio State
7.Michigan
8.Penn state
9.Northwestern
10.Iowa
11.Indiana
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KYLE ROHDE 6 months ago
I THINK THAT WISCONSIN LOOKS GOOD AND I THINK THAT THEY WILL WIN THE BIG TEN THIS YEAR
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