Big Ten Breakdown

We have now played 2-3 games in the Big Ten conference season so it is possible to see where the teams in this league are going to finish. Here are the standings so far.

Michigan State 3-0
Wisconsin 3-0
Penn State 2-1
Michigan 2-1
Minnesota 1-1
Iowa 1-1
Illinois 1-1
Ohio State 1-2
Purdue 0-2
Indiana 0-2
Northwestern 0-2

Best of the Conference


Michigan State - Is it shocking that Tom Izzo has the Spartens playing the best basketball in the Big Ten. Granted he has the most talent, but MSU played a brutal schedule in the Non-Conferene like usual, did it without big man Goran Suton, and now they are primed to take over the Big Ten. He does an amazing job of mixing in his veteran leaders with the crop of All-Americans better than most people in the country.

So far MSU has won on the road twice. Beating the Fighting Tubbbys in Minnesota and Northwestern. Beating Ohio State at home is a good win, and they will most likely beat OSU on the road because they will still be without David Lighty. At Penn State and Illinois at home will be tough games. Penn State is much improved, and except for last years abortion, Illinois always plays MSU tough. If they win both, they could be 11-0 before they have another tough test @ Michigan and their cross half court and launch offense. MSU only has Michigan and Wisconsin once which will help their case for the Big Ten title, but in their last 6 games the have Purdue twice, Wisconsin at home and have to go to Illinois. I think MSU will finish 15-3 in the Big Ten.

They are crazy deep at guard, Suton and Gray have been around Big Ten basketball for what seems like 8 years, and Delvon Roe is a really good Freshman. Top to bottom they are the most talented 8 man rotation in the Big Ten.

Wisconsin - Just like MSU and Tom Izzo, Wisconsin always puts a good team on the floor as long as Bo Ryan is selling used cars in Madison. Wisconsin looked horrible getting their asses handed to them by UCONN, but they played Marquette and Texas tough. The only team that has the talent of any of those teams in MSU and they only play once and the game is in Madison. Wisconsin has one of the best home courts in the Big Ten. Bo Ryan has his team molded into the same team he has had for years. Athletic post man? Check (Landry), point guard who can penetrate, defend and shoot? Check (Hughes) Tall slappy white guy who can rebound and shoot outside? Double Check (Leurer and Krabbenhoft) and finally 80's style Indiana guard who can shoot as soon as he steps into the gym? Check (Bohannon). They play great defense and play a non-flashy offense that is solid. The only thing that will hurt Wisconsin is their depth if Hughes or Landry get hurt or in foul trouble.

Wisconsin has already beat Michigan on the road, Penn State at home in a close game, and then they demolished NW at home lastnight. They play Purdue on the road which they could steal if Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer are still banged up this Sunday. They luck out by getting MSU and OSU only once. Their schedule is by far the easiest in the Big Ten, but they have only played 3 road games so far so they might have some hiccups along the way especially playing at Iowa and Illinois back to back within 4 days. I look for them to finish either 14-4 or 13-5, depending on if they lose at home.

Middle of the Pack

Penn State - Penn State is kindoff a shocker here because besides the top 3 that they have in Battle, Pringle and Cornley, their isn't a lot to their team. Talor Battle is a great guard, and is in the class of Harris, Moore, and Turner as the best in the Big Ten. Cornley is a beast inside, but is only 6'5, so they lack a big low post threat which could hurt them agaisnt teams like MSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, and yes even Michigan if they ever learn how to use Deshawn Sims. Their talest player that does anything is Andrew Jones III and he is only 6'9 and they are not very deep at guard. They guards they do have though can light it up. They will surprise some teams like they did agaisnt Purdue, but they might also lose some games they should have won.

Unfortunatly for them, they only have Northwestern once, whom they already beat, but barely at home. They only have OSU once, but that is on the road. They beat Purdue at home, but like I stated earlier that was without Hummel and Kramer. The middle of their schedule will either make them a tournament team, or they will get the hell kicked out of them. They play @ MSU, @ Michigan, Wisconsin at home, then @ Purdue. All of this is in 2 weeks. During this stretch they will play 5 of 7 games on the road with Illinois and Ohio State thrown in their at the end. If they beat Minnesota on the road I think they will go 12-6, otherwise they go 11-7.

Purdue - Starting out 0-2 in conference isn't gonna help anyone, but Purdue has the talent to run off a lot of games at the end of the season as soon as they get healthy. Illinois and Penn State both stole games from Purdue, but the one that has to hurt the most is Illinois, because that was at home. The starting 5 is set for this team, and is loaded with talent. Moore, Hummel, Grant, and Johnson can all kill you on any given night. They also have depth at every position really, they just got caught having their best player and best on the ball defender hurt at the same time. I personally don't think that Kramer is the greatest defender, but having watched Chester Frazier for the last 3+ years, I understand how much of an emotional lift these guys can bring with their hustle and intensity.

Purdue is 0-2, and they play Wisconsin on Sunday with the distinct possibility of going 0-3. They only have Minnesota and Indiana once, so that sucks for Purdue. With the early loses, unless Purdue runs the table, they will lose at least 5 games. The bad news, playing on the road in the Big Ten this season is gonna be the toughest in the last 5 years, the good news, PU has the talent to win a lot of those road games. I think that Purdue when healthy won't lose at home again unless it is MSU or Wisco, so I think they finish 12-6.

Ohio State - Losing David Lighty is killing this team. He is the best player they have on both sides of the ball (Evan Turner is the best offensive player). Without Lighty, this team is one year away from being great. They have absolutley no depth at PG since Crater is transferring, and BJ Mullins is not playing at the level that everyone thought he would coming out of high school as a top 5 player. With the losses on this team, it is forcing Buford and Mullins to grow up quickly, but the Big Ten has too many veteran teams now with similar talent. Gone are the days where one player can carry at team, so Diebler, Mullins and Buford really need to step up quickly, or Lighty needs to heal like Superman.

Starting out on the road didn't help OSU any in losses to Minnesota and MSU, and they have to go to Michigan and Illinois after taking care of Indiana. They do only play Wisco and PSU once, so that should help, but if they aren't careful, by the time that Lighty gets back, it won't matter much anymore. Starting out the Big Ten season 1-4 isn't out of the realm of possibilities here. Also having to play Michigan twice, Illinois, MSU and PU in 5 out of 6 games will not help. Barring a complete turnaround I think that OSU goes anywhere from 11-7 to 9-9.

Illinois - No one thought that Illinois would be in the position that they are in right now. Having only lost 2 games and playing unselfish basketball like the glory days of 2004-05. Illinois has the talent to contend in any game, however as they showed at Michigan and against Clemson, they might have a problem finishing out those games. I know they have won close games all year, but those teams have since faltered and the wins don't look as great anymore. If McCamey can become consistant, Legion can become consistant and they all continue to play great defense, then they should have no problem holding home court. The problem may come on the road for this team.

Illinois gets the total shaft as far as scheduling goes in the Big Ten. They only play cupcakes Iowa and Northwestern once, and they start out playing Purdue, Michigan twice, MSU, OSU, and Wisco. Thank god they threw in Indiana to mix it up a little bit. The good news is that Illinois already beat PU on the road, and they have a nice stretch towards the end of the season where they are at Northwestern and Indiana, and then have Penn State at home followed by at OSU and then Minny at home. So realistically if they can weather the storm early in the season they can stack up some wins at the end. Also 4 out the next 5 games are at home, those being against IU, a winnable rematch of Michigan, and a Lighty-less OSU, only Wisco at home could be seen as a real loss. If they can come out of that with only one loss to MSU on the road and be 5-2 this team can contend for a title. If they lose at home to Wisco and someone else they could very well be 3-4 going to Minnesota. If they take care of business early look for Illinois to finish 12-6, if not they could be 9-9. I'm going with 12-6 though.

Some notes though: Illinois has beaten Minny I think 19 times in a row, so they are looking for revenge. PU will most likely be healthy in the rematch. Lightly will be back when we play at OSU. We are at Northwestern, and they always play us tough there. We end with MSU at home and at PSU, and PSU has played us close for the last 3 years.

Frauds

Michigan - They looked terrible against Indiana!! So here is the story on Michigan. They have only played 2 road games, at Maryland which they lost, and at Indiana which they should have lost. They also beat Savannah State in overtime. By the way, last time I checked Savannah was a city not a state, but I digress. Yes beating UCLA on a neutral court was big and beating Duke at home was also big, but that is what Beilein's system is made for. It catches opponents who aren't ready by surprise, and if they get hot, they can shoot you out of the gym. Is this a way to beat teams that know your system and have prepared for it for 2 years now? No. People would like to think that lastnight would be a wake-up call to them to play hard no matter who the opponent is, but I would think that Misnamed State would have done that. They play defense in spurts, and at times the only way Deshawn Sims touches the ball is when he gets it 25 feet from the hoop. John Beilein is the Mike Dantoni of college basketball. The team is fun to watch and all the players love the system because they have a green light anywhere this side of half court, but in a game that is slowed down, or on an off shooting night, they will lose.

They are 2-1 now and handled Illinois at home. I think that they will beat teams at home except for Wisconsin and Purdue, but they will not win road games that they should win. They only have to play MSU once, and don't get Indiana at home. Finishing the season at Iowa, home against PU, and then at Wisconsin and Minny does not bode well for this team. In the middle of the season they also are at OSU and PU, then have Penn State at home, then go to play UCONN before coming home to play MSU. They could very well go 1-4 in that stretch and lose confidence. I just don't like this team and its gimmick offense against solid Big Ten coaches who have seen it before. I think Michigan finishes the Big Ten season 10-8 to just because they get OSU without Lighty twice. I think they will start the Big Ten season 5-3, maybe beat somebody they weren't supposed to, but there will be at least one head scratching loss on the road and maybe one at home, so that 10-8 could very well turn into 8-10.

Minnesota - Just like their Michigan counterparts, they do have a good win against Louisville, but don't let that win fool you. Louisville was playing their second game in 48 hours, while Minny had 10 days to rest up and prepare. Plus who has Louisville beat? Just UAB, that's it. There is a distinct possibility that UL will be a bubble team after playing a hellish schedule in the Big East. Minnesota has only played one road game this year and beat Colorado State (Colorado is a state, I have been there) by only 1. They already lost to MSU at home, and beat OSU at home. Tonights game against Iowa will tell alot. If this game is close, or Iowa wins, then Minnesota can be determined to be absolute frauds. Tubby is recruiting well, and he is maturing those players by playing total pussies at home. When you have played both North and South Dakota State along with SE Louisiana, Georgia Southern and Eastern Washington, I think it is time to hire a new scheduler. At least they threw in the gugernaut that is High Point and Cornell in their to get this team some battle wounds. Tubby was smart to do this though, because they are gonna get their ass kicked in the Big Ten, but still make the NIT most likely.

I don't even care about there schedule. The only road games that they have a shot of winning are Iowa, Northwestern and Indiana. Best case scenario for the Tubbys is that they finish 9-9, more likely it is 7-11, and they can kiss the tourney good-bye.

Don't Even Bother

Iowa - They haven't beaten anybody, nor are they likely to. The rest of the Big Ten just has too much talent for them. They might make some games close by playing like Michigan and drilling a ton of 3's, but as soon as the lost every player that was good from last year, and Todd Lickliter refused to recruit convicts like Steve Alford, this program was doomed. Cyrus Tate was supposed to be good, but I have no idea what the hell happened to him. I'm not sure if Anthony Tucker is back, but it won't really make a difference.

All we need them to do is take care of business in Indiana, other than that it doesn't matter what this team does. Maybe 5 wins for Iowa this year.

Northwestern - The other gimmick offense in the Big Ten. They might surprise some teams at home this season by running their geek offense, and they actually are getting more athletic, but they are still Northwestern, and they will continue their streak of NEVER MAKING THE NCAA TOURNAMENT!

5 Wins maybe.

Indiana - We finally get to the real reason I wanted to write this post. If you have stayed with me so far, then I am sure that this is also what you were waiting for. Oh it was great to see Indiana play their little walk-on hearts out lastnight against Michigan. It was also great to see the 16,000 white people and 7 minorities get behind their walk-ons and JUCO transfers lastnight. They gave me a scare, I'll admit. Everyone in the Big Ten who was cheering for Indiana's first defeated season in the Big Ten were holding their breath. I would like to thank Indiana for not letting us down. Even though Michigan put on one of the worst displays of offense, coaching, substitution managment, adjustments during timeouts, ball handling, stopping penetration by white walk-ons, and closing out on white guys who don't go inside the 3 point arc I have ever seen, Indiana still pissed this game away. Matt Roth and Verdell Jones are both from Illinois and it is nice to see them get some playing time for one year, because they have already been recruited over. Tom Crean will have this team playing great in 2 years, so it is nice to enjoy this glorious season of futility.

Predicition: Still no wins!!!

OVERALL

Michigan State 15-3
Wisconsin 13-5
Purdue 12-6
Illinois 12-6
Penn State 11-7
Ohio State 10-8
Michigan 9-9
Minnesota 8-10
Iowa 5-13
Northwestern 4-14
Indiana 0-18