{"id":170016,"date":"2025-12-17T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=170016"},"modified":"2025-12-16T20:08:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:08:31","slug":"college-basketball-big-ten-rankings-december-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/12\/17\/college-basketball-big-ten-rankings-december-17\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Big Ten Rankings for 12-17-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten is the farthest along in conference play out of any of the major conferences, and I, for one, appreciate that. It also makes sense. This is the conference where travel is likely to be the most grueling, so any added windows and rest between games is probably appreciated by the players and coaches, and is made more possible by lengthening the conference schedule as much as possible.<\/p>\n

NCAA Basketball: Big Ten Rankings<\/h2>\n

1. Michigan<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Is anyone going to beat this team? The Wolverines look like the national title favorite at this point. Only two opponents have played the Wolverines closer than 18 points: Wake Forest and TCU. The Horned Frogs are also the only team to hold them to under 85 points. The triple-big lineup with Yaxel Lendeborg at the 3 has proved incredibly hard to match up with.<\/p>\n

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Also, make sure to check out our latest ACC Rankings<\/a>!<\/h4>\n
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2. Purdue<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Boilermakers currently boast the nation\u2019s most efficient offense, according to KenPom. And they have done that while playing a schedule that ranks 44th in the nation. It is going to be really interesting to see how the best teams in the Big Ten will match up with the double-big combo of Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff<\/p>\n

3. Michigan State<\/h3>\n

\"Big<\/p>\n

Jeremy Fears currently leads the nation with a 53.8% assist rate, which is an absolutely absurd statistic. But finding another guard who can be effective alongside Fears is going to be a key for how this season will turn out \u2013 we know that the frontcourt of Carr, Kohler, and Cooper is going to be effective.<\/p>\n

4. Nebraska<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It used to be a bit of a joke, but Pinnacle Bank Arena is turning into a legitimate homecourt advantage, and the Cornhuskers used a deep 3 from Jamarques Lawrence with seconds to go to beat Illinois there on Saturday. This team is still unbeaten, riding the momentum from the Championship in the College Basketball Crown last season.<\/p>\n

5. Illinois<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to let one shot define the Illini. This team is still figuring itself out after being without multiple injured players through much of November. The freshman duo of David Mirkovic and Keaton Wagler has greatly exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n

6. UCLA<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After last season\u2019s quip about the Statue of Liberty, I\u2019m awaiting Mick Cronin\u2019s comment about having \u201cseen the Puget Sound twice in the last two weeks\u201d as the Bruins have gone to play Washington and Gonzaga in Seattle. UCLA did lose to Gonzaga, but a 10-point loss to a team like Gonzaga is not a bad result for a team still figuring itself out.<\/p>\n

7. Iowa<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No team changed its style more from one season to the next this past season than the Iowa Hawkeyes. Gone is the free-wheeling, fast-paced, free-flowing style of Fran McCaffrey, and in is the methodical, grind-y, slow-paced style of Ben McCollum. But hey, it\u2019s working so far, as the Hawkeyes\u2019 only losses were competitive duels against Michigan State and Iowa State.<\/p>\n

8. Indiana<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t quite figure this Indiana team out. On one day, they\u2019re beating Penn State by 41. Next, they\u2019re losing by double-digits to what I thought was a broken Kentucky team. Darian DeVries has some figuring out to do, but one thing is clear \u2013 get the ball to Lamar Wilkerson.<\/p>\n

9. Wisconsin<\/h3>\n

\"Wisconsin<\/p>\n

I was completely in on this Wisconsin team after their 20-point win over Marquette. But after their 30-point loss to Nebraska, I had to back that up quite a bit. But I still like the backcourt of Boyd and Blackwell, and think that this team can be as good as last season\u2019s.<\/p>\n

10. USC<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eric Musselman is going to have to earn his money \u2013 this team is dealing with some serious injuries. He has acquired all of these interesting pieces in the portal, and now he is going to be asked to make those pieces fit into an awkward puzzle to start Big Ten play.<\/p>\n

For more great college basketball analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten is the farthest along in conference play out of any of the major conferences, and I, for one, appreciate that. It also makes sense. This is the conference where travel is likely to be the most grueling, so any added windows and rest between games is probably appreciated by the players and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":170030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[2785,4136,2889,2548,805,866,1868,877,828,885,875],"class_list":["post-170016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-big-ten-basketball","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-usc-trojans","tag-wisconsin-badgers"],"modified_by":"Doug Henderson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170016"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170033,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170016\/revisions\/170033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}