1. Ohio State
When this team is on, I don't think anybody in the country can beat them. When they're off, there are still only a handful of teams who can beat them. Jared Sullinger is nearly unstoppable down low, because of a few reasons: first, if you put one man on him, he will score, regardless of who that person is; second, if you double him, he will find an open man, and said man will most likely hit a shot; third, if you foul him, he'll probably make his free throws. The only way to stop him is to get him into foul trouble, which Indiana did a good job of doing. Not to mention the fact that Deshaun Thomas, Aaron Craft, William Buford, and apparently Lenzelle Smith, Jr. are all really good too. In conclusion, Ohio State is probably the best team in the country right now.
2. Michigan State
Michigan State only has two losses in the Big Ten so far, and they were both on the road to very good teams. The loss that speaks most to me about how good Michigan State is, is the Michigan loss. Michigan is an excellent team with two elite players and a deep supporting cast -- and yet, Michigan State only lost to them by one on the road. Believe what you want, but I firmly believe that rivalry games give the home team a HUGE advantage, so this game, although a loss, still impresses me from Michigan State's standpoint. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they handle Ohio State -- I really doubt they'll win in Columbus, but the last game of the year is OSU-MSU in East Lansing, and that should be an excellent game; perhaps even deciding the Big Ten regular season crown. Michigan State could be a Final Four team, since they have the best coach in college basketball and one of the best players in the nation this year in Draymond Green.
3. Indiana
Now, I know what some of you may be thinking. "BIAS ALERT!" Yeah, sort of. But, although I seem like it, I don't judge a team based off a period of only two or three games, especially with the quality of some of the wins that IU has. I may seem like I do during and directly after IU losses, but after some time to actually think about the game, I realize that I can't do that. The way I look at it, this team has still beaten Kentucky, Ohio State, and Michigan. A couple of bad losses aren't going to change that. I think the biggest problem with the Hoosiers has actually been those good wins -- this is an inexperienced team, both in terms of age and of success in the past, and it's going to take time to be able to win games that you should win. I think they were surprised by Minnesota, a very well-coached and talented team that has a record that does not reflect how good they are, and if they can get a couple of wins in a row and build momentum, I think they'll be okay. For now, they're third. If they lose at home to Penn State, I'll drop them a lot probably.
4. Michigan
Michigan is one of those teams that has incredible talent but just needs to find consistency. Trey Burke is, along with Cody Zeller, one of the favorites for Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and Tim Hardaway Jr. is nothing to sneeze at either. This team has some very impressive games, but they also have some pretty bad ones too. The only reason I have them below Indiana is that at this point, IU has three wins over impressive teams (including Michigan) and Michigan has one. This is a team that I could see surprising a lot of people in the tournament -- maybe not a Final Four run, but they can hang with any team in the country, I believe. Burke is not only talented, but he has the poise of an upperclassman -- I saw this at the end of the Michigan State game, when he made an incredible pass to someone for the game-winning basket. I thought it was a veteran-type move to dish it to someone else, rather than forcing a shot up, which is what somebody like Victor Oladipo probably would have done. Nothing against Oladipo, but he has a tendency to take ill-advised shots at times. But if Burke can keep up what he's doing, this team will be very dangerous come tournament time.
And now, the rankings get incredibly difficult. The 5-10 positions are pretty interchangeable at this point, and there could be arguments made for nearly any of them to be higher than they are.
5. Wisconsin
Wisconsin has one incredibly embarrassing loss -- at home to Iowa -- and this has knocked them down to fifth when many thought they would contend for the Big Ten title. I personally always have thought that Ohio State would win it, but that's a story for a different time. But if you take away the Iowa loss, Wisconsin is 4-2 in the Big Ten with losses at home to Michigan State and on the road at Michigan. Those are two pretty impressive losses, for lack of a better term. I'm not going to condemn them to the cellar of the Big Ten for one bad game, and let's remember that this team only lost by 3 at North Carolina, and beat UNLV earlier in the year. They, like IU, just need to get a couple of wins to get back on track, and I think they will do so.
6. Illinois
I put these teams in order on Saturday night, and decided to wait until the week ended before I posted it. I was definitely on the fence about whether to put Wisconsin or Illinois ahead of the other. On one hand, Illinois was ranked and Wisconsin was not. On the other hand, I thought that Wisconsin was better than Illinois so I put them ahead. Turns out I was right. Illinois lost at home to Wisconsin today and at Penn State earlier in the week. If you look at their record, they look like a really good team. If you look at their results, you'd question that idea a bit. This team won by 5 at home to Nebraska (yes, Nebraska) (yes, at home) and they got crushed by Purdue. Granted, that was in Mackey, and Purdue's a good team, but still. Illinois is a tournament team and will probably be a 6 seed or so, but they need to get their act together pretty soon. Maybe Brandon Paul can score a million points every night, like he did against Ohio State.
7. Purdue
Purdue is a strange team. I feel like they're pretty good at this point, and they have a few impressive victories (@ Iowa, which is a bigger win now than it was at the time; @ Minnesota, vs. Illinois), but two of their six losses (@ Penn State by 20, against Butler) are really bad losses. I do not think that Purdue is a bad team; I think they'll make the tournament, probably as a six or seven seed and make it to the second round at least. But at this point in the season, Purdue hasn't really impressed me yet. I think that they still have room to improve, and I think they will end up with 20 or so wins. But, for right now (and probably until the end of the season), I think Purdue is a middle of the road team in the Big Ten. NOTE: I think Purdue is going to beat Indiana in Mackey. So don't think I'm overly biased.
8. Iowa
Iowa was picked by many people to finish in the bottom of the Big Ten, along with Nebraska and Penn State. At this point in the season, Iowa does not look like a "bottom of the barrel" team in the Big Ten. They have had many impressive games in conference play thus far, with all three of their wins in the Big Ten (@ Wisconsin, @ Minnesota, vs. Michigan) being very impressive victories. They've had a few hiccups against Michigan State and Ohio State, but who hasn't? The only thing keeping me from putting them higher on this list is their non-conference play. It's hard to tell at this point if Iowa is playing over their heads right now and they are actually the team they showed they were in non-conference, or if their non-conference does not reflect how good they actually are. Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: Iowa will not be at the bottom for long.
9. Minnesota/10. Northwestern
I was having trouble with ranking every team after #5, but I especially had trouble deciding whether to put Minnesota or Northwestern ahead of the other. Both of them have good wins and solid performances, but both are in the bottom of the Big Ten. I was actually leaning on putting Northwestern ahead of Minnesota, because Northwestern had a few impressive games (losing in overtime @ Michigan specifically) and they didn't really have any bad losses, like Minnesota does (losing vs. Iowa, vs. Purdue). But then Minnesota beat Northwestern by 23 today, so my dilemma was made much easier. I think that overall, Minnesota is a better team than Northwestern, but Northwestern has a better player than Minnesota. Meaning that Northwestern is only as good as they are because of John Shurna, the Big Ten's leading scorer. When it's all said and done, though, I think that Minnesota will keep riding this winning streak they have going and will end up making the tournament. I don't think I can say the same for Northwestern. But who knows? Maybe John Shurna will average 30 PPG from here on out and they'll win every game.
11. Nebraska
Nebraska probably could be higher on this list. The only problem is that, with the exception of the victory of Indiana, their "impressive" games are just losses that could have been by a lot more. Granted, I have not seen this team play very often, but they only have two Big Ten wins (vs. IU, vs. Penn State), only one of which was a "good" win. Watching them play against IU, I learned a few things. First, they are a scrappy team. They're not the most talented team by any means, but they have that grit and hustle that coaches love. Second, Bo Spencer is really good. Maybe he was made to look better because of IU's awful defense, but I still think that he's a really good player. He's a little inconsistent, but when he's on, he's really good. I just think that the rest of the team is not good enough to make his impact mean much of anything.
12. Penn State
Penn State has two in-conference wins against good teams, one of which was ranked at the time of their loss. They have a great player in Tim Frazier, and, like Nebraska, they have plenty of grit and hustle. You'd think that they would be better than they are, but here we are at the bottom of the rankings. Their offense, apart from Frazier, is not strong. Frazier is the only player averaging double digits in PPG, and he leads the team in points, rebounds, and assists per game. So, basically, the only good player for Penn State is Frazer. He's potentially first team all-Big Ten, but it's kind of hard to win when you only have one good player, and it's especially hard to win when your point guard is leading your team in rebounds per game. Their grit will win them games, but it's tough to win on grit alone.
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