The Big Ten basketball season swung into full tilt, as the conference teams approached the midpoints of their seasons.
The hierarchical order of teams starts to emerge at this point, and with it, schools are breaking and meeting expectations. This factor reinforces the need to reflect, especially on the Big Ten media poll at the start of the year, as some of its rankings seem laughable at the midseason.
The last week of play inside the conference only strengthens that narrative.
Boilermaker brilliance, Cornhusker continuation
In the preseason poll, there stood one team as a favorite above them all — Purdue. After this past week of play, the placement is justified. The Boilermakers squeaked out two close wins on the road over Iowa and USC, both middle-of-the-pack teams with strong home records, however.
Leading Purdue, as always, is a stout big man, this time in the form of Oscar Cluff, and he’s posted efficient outings, such as a 19 point outing against USC, yet he’s played second fiddle.
The leading story out of West Lafayette is Braden Smith, who, in his fourth year with Purdue, played his best basketball so far in his career, as he stands on pace to challenge Bobby Hurley’s all-time career assists mark.
Against USC and Iowa, Smith led the Boilermakers in scoring, as the NCAA’s best passer opted to lead with his jumper, yet also posted 13 assists over the two games.
The other team atop the conference, Nebraska, didn’t get that initial buzz predicted as preseason predictions had it finishing in the bottom five of the conference. Over the past week of play, it defeated Oregon 90-55 and Northwestern 77-58, rising to 18-0. Evan Miyakawa ranks the Cornhuskers as the 12th-best team in the nation and tabs it as a hot team at the moment.
Northwestern, Penn State sink to the bottom
While those two teams skyrocketed to the top amid mixed expectations, a pair of teams sank like an anchor to the bottom of the Big Ten once conference play started.
The media picked Penn State to finish at the bottom of the conference, while it picked Northwestern just slightly below Nebraska at fourth from the bottom. Both big cat schools sit winless in the conference and have lost their last five games.
Forward Yanic Konan Niederhauser (14) dunks the ball in the Penn State men’s basketball game against Northwestern in the Bryce Jordan Center on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 in University Park, Pa. The Nittany Lions beat the Wildcats 84-80.
Noah Aberegg
Both suffered 11 point losses to UCLA and No.11 Illinois on Jan. 14, respectively. Nebraska crushed the Wildcats, while Maryland destroyed Penn State; both squads had little to boast about this season, and last week embodied that sentiment perfectly.
The two teams face each other soon, on Jan 29, and it’ll be a battle to avoid the bottom.
Middle of the pack moments
Between those top of the conference juggernauts and those Big Ten bottom dwellers, there remain 14 teams all vying to differentiate themselves from the pack, and after the past week of play, some squads attempted that.
Those attempts span both on and off the court. A team like Ohio State, which sits seventh, added a sixth-year former Nittany Lions forward, Puff Johnson, hoping to boost its squad midseason, although it triumphed over UCLA without him this past week, who stands one spot below the Buckeyes.
Indiana and Iowa occupy the next two spots below them in the standings and faced each other last week. Iowa pulled out a 17 point victory, which tied it with Indiana at 3-4 in the conference, although the Hawkeyes appear prepared to make a leapfrog.
The next week of play inside the Big Ten has the majority of the middle-of-the-pack teams scheduled to face each other; Minnesota faces Ohio State, Rutgers heads to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes, and the rest of the top five conference teams, behind Purdue and Nebraska. Michigan State and Illinois are set to face lower-half conference teams in Maryland and Oregon.
The matchup to watch around the Big Ten this next week is Michigan against Indiana. Michigan routinely has been tested this season and Indiana has the quality to mount an upset, despite its crushing loss to the Hawkeyes in the past week.
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