Big Ten men's basketball power rankings: Top teams on the rise

The most jam-packed weekend of the college basketball season proved to be a pretty good one for the Big Ten.

By the time Dec. 16 came to a close, the league had picked up two wins against top-six teams, nearly scratched out a third and added a win against future Big Ten school UCLA. Sunday, Illinois and Nebraska also won, giving the Big Ten a 9-2 record during the weekend with the two losses coming by a combined five points.

It was enough to move the league to No. 2 in KenPom.com’s conference rankings, behind only the Big 12. In his lately weekly update, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is now projecting seven Big Ten teams to make the NCAA Tournament with one other – Michigan State – as the first team out.

As the sport heads into a quiet period of mostly buy games sandwiched in between time off for the holidays, here’s how the league stacks up so far.

1. Purdue (Last week: 1)

In taking down No. 1 Arizona, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer gave the strongest indication yet that these might not be last year’s Boilermakers. Both sophomore guards outscored Zach Edey, combining for 53 points buoyed by 9-for-16 shooting from 3. The big guy will always get his, but when Purdue’s guards are producing at this rate, there’s not a team in the country that can beat them.

2. Illinois (Last week: 2)

After Illinois beat his team by 24 points on Dec. 22, Missouri coach Dennis Gates said what has started to become clear in recent weeks: the Fighting Illini have Final Four capabilities. Gates described them as a Final Four team and it’s clear that the Illini are solidifying as the team most likely to nip at Purdue’s heels at the top of the standings. Illinois looks deep, talented and dangerous.

3. Wisconsin (Last week: 3)

The Badgers headed into break with a 5-3 record that included no bad losses and four top-55 wins according to KenPom.com. They have three Quad 1 wins in the NCAA’s NET rankings, second only to Purdue, and an offense and defense that both among the top 40 in adjusted efficiency. This is shaping up to be Greg Gard’s most well-balanced team in years.

4. Ohio State (Last week: 4)

With a week to lick their wounds after a late-game collapse at Penn State, the Buckeyes went to Atlanta and handled a physical challenge in taking down UCLA as part of the CBS Sports Classic. It wasn’t pretty, and Ohio State nearly went without a made 3-pointer for the first time in more than a decade, but the Buckeyes found a way to grit out the win. The defense is improving, and Bruce Thornton might be an all-Big Ten guard.

5. Nebraska (Last week: 8)

Consecutive double-digit losses to Creighton and Minnesota were enough to cast doubt on the merits of this Nebraska team, but all the Cornhuskers have done since those early-December losses is resume their winning ways. Nebrasketball is fun again, and the Cornhuskers are in position to be the Big Ten sleeper team of the season.

6. Indiana (Last week: 5)

It took a Christmas miracle for the Hoosiers to avoid a home upset loss before the holiday. Morehead State led Indiana by 15 points with nine minutes to play inside Assembly Hall before the Hoosiers used a 20-2 run to avoid their first bad loss of the season. Sixth-year Eagles guard Jordan Lathon hit six 3-pointers in the game; Indiana went a combined 3 for 16

7. Maryland (Last week: 9)

Hello, Jahmir Young. Not that he needed introducing to Big Ten fans, but the star guard scored a career-high 37 points to power the Terrapins past UCLA in Maryland’s first road game against the Bruins in more than 40 years. The offense is still tough to watch, but Maryland’s defense is legit and the Terrapins have won four straight and seven of eight after an early-season three-game losing streak.

Northwestern (Last week: 10)

Credit where credit’s due: after taking a brutal home loss to Chicago State, the Wildcats have rebounded with wins against DePaul and Arizona State. Neither of those teams figure to sniff the NCAA Tournament this year, but this Northwestern team didn’t let that loss to the Cougars bleed over into another game. That stain will haunt the resume all year, but Northwestern might be good enough to overcome it.

9. Michigan (Last week: 11)

No program is more unable to sustain positive momentum than the Wolverines. Michigan got Juwan Howard back, he earned a vote of confidence from the administration after an incident with strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson and the Wolverines easily handled Eastern Michigan at home. Howard spoke with reporters for the first time since losing to Vanderbilt on March 18 in the NIT. The vibes were good. Then Michigan lost in double overtime to Florida three days later. The Wolverines have not won more than three straight games since the 2020-21 season.

10. Minnesota (Last week: 7)

The absence of Dawson Garcia as he continues to recover from an ankle injury hasn’t slowed down the Golden Gophers, who continue to rack up wins against low-major teams. Eight of Minnesota’s first 12 games have been against Quad 4 opponents and it has just one win outside that bottom quadrant. What does this team look like against good competition? Who knows?

11. Rutgers (Last week: 6)

This is shaping up to be Steve Pikiell’s worst offensive season since the 2017-18 Rutgers team that went 15-19 overall and 3-15 in the Big Ten. As usual, the Scarlet Knights are stout defensively, but Rutgers is 0-4 when teams score at least 68 points. Every Big Ten team averages at least that much offensively.

12. Michigan State (Last week: 14)

With the season seemingly hanging in the balance, the Spartans picked themselves off the mat and shocked everyone with an 88-64 win against No. 10 Baylor in a game played in Detroit. It moved Michigan State back to .500, and it won two buy games before heading into break. The Spartans are also dealing with the shooting of backup freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who was hospitalized after being shot in the leg as the weekend before Christmas got underway.

13. Penn State (Last week: 12)

The Nittany Lions are trying to turn things around after that five-game early-season losing streak. They shocked Ohio State and beat up on Le Moyne in their final game before break, but what looked like a bogus foul call on Ace Baldwin with 2.1 seconds left gave Georgia Tech an 82-81 win at Madison Square Garden. Maybe that guarantees some better karma down the road? For now, it’s just a second loss to a sub-100 KenPom team.

14. Iowa (Last week: 13)

Owen Freeman is flourishing into a Big Ten freshman of the year candidate, but it hasn’t helped the Hawkeyes rack up any wins that matter. Iowa is 0-4 in Quad 1 games, 1-5 in the first two quadrants and 6-0 against Quad 3 teams. Simply put: Iowa’s most notable win is against Seton Hall on Black Friday. This looks like a long year for Fran McCaffery’s squad.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Big Ten men's basketball power rankings: Top teams on the rise