Another year, another chance for the Big Ten to end its 25-year Championship drought. And this year brings as good of a chance as ever, as numerous teams in the league look like legitimate contenders. Also, shout out to the Big Ten for already beginning Conference play! While most of the other Power-4 conferences are filling their December schedules with Quadrant 4 opponents, the Big Ten is playing conference games, and that should be commended.
NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Rankings
1. Michigan
The Wolverines are a legitimate National Championship threat, coming off their Players Era Festival Championship and currently ranking #1 on KenPom. They also topped our recent Big Ten Power Rankings. It will be interesting to see how they handle their 3 big man rotation, with Lendeborg, Johnson, and Mara all being great players but not necessarily fitting well on the floor at the same time.
2. Purdue
The Boilermakers were handed their first loss this past weekend – in rude fashion – as Iowa State came into Mackey Arena and won by 23. But this team still has one of the nation’s best point guards in Braden Smith and one of the best big men in Trey Kaufman-Renn, and that duo can still power this group to a National Championship.
3. Michigan State
The Spartans own 4 wins over the KenPom top-30, but none of them are in the top-15. This has me feeling that Michigan State is a genuinely good team, but might not have the firepower to be a great one, and that was exhibited in their loss to Duke on Saturday. Jeremy Fears has to improve his shooting for this offense to really click.
