Big Ten basketball Update and Power Rankings

With the Big 10 beginning the 18-game conference schedule on Wednesday, let’s size up what the non-conference schedule has produced.

Credibility: Looked to be a so-so power conference when the season began, the conference gained national credibility with wins over UCLA, Duke, Texas, Louisville and Davidson. If the conference had won less than three games, then the national pundits probably would not give the conference the time of day.

Conference championship contenders: No. 11 Purdue and No. 15 Michigan St. will lead the way in that category. However, Purdue’s only quality win is over Davidson. And the Boilermakers did not put their foot forwards as one of the teams to beat when Illinois went to Mackey Arena on Tuesday and won in overtime, 71-67.

Michigan St. and Purdue don’t meet until Feb. 17 at West Lafayette, Ind. and Feb. 27 in East Lansing.

The darkhorse contenders will be Michigan and Illinois. The Wolverines are going to have to learn to live with their success. Illinois appears to be finding a new level after hammering Missouri in St. Louis on Dec. 23 and then Tuesday’s win.

Team we don’t know about: Minnesota. Tubby Smith’s Golden Gophers are off to their best start (12-0) in 60 years but really haven’t been tested much. They have the great 70-64 upset of Louisville on Dec. 20 but the other 10 wins have come in Minneapolis against lesser teams.

But we’ll find out a lot about them in the first two league games when they play host to Michigan St. on Wednesday and No. 23 Ohio State on Saturday in The Barn. The Gophers are going to probably have to split to turn more heads. Their guards of Al Nolen and Lawrence Westbrook are probably the most underrated in the conference.

Team we continue to learn about: Illinois. Bruce Weber’s Fighting Illini has one of the conference’s deadliest shooters in Damien McKamey who is shooting about 35 percent from 3-point range.

McKamey, Trent Meacham, Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale are all within six tenths of a point scoring wise. At 13-1 including a great win at Purdue, maybe its time to look at the Illini.

ETC: Northwestern, Penn St. and Iowa put together non-conference building seasons with 11-2, 8-2 and 10-3 starts. The question will be whether they can pull off some upsets to be in the NCAA tournament conversation or if they are more NIT material….Indiana’s long season continued with a loss to Lipscomb. It’s that bad in Bloomington….the MVP of this league is going to be Michigan St. point guard Kalin Lucas who has a 6.45 assists/turnover ratio…Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan is 54-3 all-time at home against Big 10 opponents. Don’t be surprised if the Badgers don’t give a couple more back this year. Their problem is they don’t know how to finish tight games.

Power Rankings

1. Michigan St.
2. Illinois
3. Michigan
4. Purdue
5. Ohio St.
6. Minnesota
7. Wisconsin
8. Northwestern
9. Penn St.
10. Iowa
11. Indiana

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