Last year was said to be a down year for the Big Ten — and to be fair, with the lofty, Big Ten standards every year, it probably was — yet come the end of the season the league had two teams playing in the Final Four.
Wisconsin was the league’s clear-cut No. 1 team all season and really the only one that had a legitimate chance to win the national title. The Badgers fell to Duke in the title game, 68-63. Michigan State was the league’s other Final Four team after a typical Tom Izzo-type run in the tournament. The Spartans finished the regular-season with 11 losses, but ran through the NCAA tournament’s East Region defeating Virginia, Oklahoma and Louisville along the way.
Maryland, Purdue, Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana all also made the NCAA tournament, but none made it out of the opening weekend.
That’s not likely to be the case this season; the Big Ten appears to be loaded from top to bottom once again. It’s going to be reminiscent of the recent seasons where it has consistently been the top league in all of college basketball.
Six Big Ten teams were ranked in the preseason AP poll — Maryland (No. 3), Michigan State (No. 13), Indiana (No. 15), Wisconsin (No. 17), Purdue (No. 23) and Michigan (No. 25). There are a handful of others who should also be flirting with those rankings throughout the season.
At Big Ten media day, the Terrapins were the pick to win the league title and Maryland’s Melo Trimble was also selected as the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year. Let’s break down what this year’s Big Ten landscape will look like.
The Favorite
Maryland
Trimble and Jake Layman both turned down the NBA to come back for another season at Maryland. They’ll be joined by Duke transfer Rasheed Sulaimon and five-star freshman big man Diamond Stone to form one of the country’s top lineups.
The Terrapins finished second in the Big Ten last year and are poised to win their first-ever league title this season. Maryland is a legitimate Final Four contender.
The Next Tier
Michigan State
Anytime you’re projecting the landscape of the Big Ten, Michigan State needs to be included near the top. This year is no different as the Spartans bring back a talented group from their Final Four team, despite losing both Travis Trice and Branden Dawson.
Denzel Valentine is an All-American candidate and his backcourt mates of Tum Tum Nairn, Bryn Forbes and transfer Eron Harris give Michigan State some firepower. Also, Tom Izzo is still patrolling the sidelines and that counts for something.
Indiana
Say what you want about Tom Crean — and plenty of people have — but he's been able to recruit and he has some talent on this year’s Indiana team. How he uses that talent, however, is to be determined.
Yogi Ferrell is back (again) and is one of the league’s top players and the Hoosiers are loaded around him with James Blackmon Jr., Troy Williams, Robert Johnson and five-star freshman big man Thomas Bryant.
Purdue
One of the surprises last season in the Big Ten, Purdue made the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years. The Boilermakers should contend again this season, too, under head coach Matt Painter.
Purdue returns a pair of 7-footers in A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas, as well as the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Rapheal Davis. Vince Edwards returns on the wing, as well, and the Boilermakers have a five-star freshman forward in Caleb Swanigan.
Wisconsin
Bo Ryan had the best team of his career last season and the Badgers came up just one game short of winning the national title. Naismith Award winner Frank Kaminsky is gone as is Sam Dekker, but Wisconsin still returns a bit of talent.
It starts with forward Nigel Hayes and point guard Bronson Koenig, both of whom could be All-Big Ten selections at the end of the season. Ryan has never finished outside the top four in the Big Ten and, while it’s a supposed “down year” for the Badgers, it’d be a bit surprising to see him do so this season.
Michigan
John Beilein’s team was devastated by injuries and early departures a year ago, but, if healthy, the Wolverines should be right back in the thick of the Big Ten again this season.
Led by Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton Jr. — both of whom missed significant time last season due to injury — as well as junior wing Zak Irvin, Michigan should return to the NCAA tournament this season.
In The Mix
Ohio State
The Buckeyes are a hard team to peg simply because there are so many unknowns. Head coach Thad Matta has made the NCAA tournament seven-straight times and nine out of the last 10 years and for this team, that should be the goal.
Ohio State returns just four guys from last year, led by sophomore forward Jae’Sean Tate. A five-man freshman class features four-star point guard JaQuan Lyle, who will be relied on heavily to try and replace D’Angelo Russell.
Expect the Buckeyes to finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Ten this season. Will that be good enough to make the NCAA tournament, though? We’ll have to wait and find out.
Iowa
Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes are looking to make the NCAA tournament for the third-straight season and return four of five starters from last year’s group. Iowa does, however, have to find a way to replace its best player from a season ago, Aaron White.
The Hawkeyes do return an All-Big Ten caliber player in Jarrod Uthoff and they’ll need the senior forward to have a big season if they want to contend in the top half of the Big Ten.
Illinois
John Groce has been somewhat cursed by the injury bug in the last few years at Illinois and this season hasn’t exactly helped with that. The Illini already lost Tracy Abrams for the season with an Achilles injury and Kendrick Nunn is expected to be out a couple of months with an injury to his hand.
Groce will have to work some magic if he wants to get Illinois back to the NCAA tournament, something the Illini haven’t done since Groce’s first season at the helm in 2012-13.
Work to Do
Northwestern
It’s no secret that Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament in program history and the Wildcats were somewhat of a darkhorse candidate to do that this season. Those chances somewhat went away Wednesday, however, when the school announced sophomore forward Vic Law was going to miss the entire season after suffering a shoulder injury.
Law averaged seven points and five rebounds per game a year ago, but was expected to make the often-discussed leap from Year 1 to Year 2. Now, Northwestern must rely even more on redshirt senior guard Tre Demps and senior center Alex Olah.
Minnesota
The Gophers finished just 18-15 last season and were only 6-12 in the Big Ten and, to be honest, there’s not many reasons to believe those records will increase by any sort of significant margin this year.
Carlos Morris and Nate Mason were two of Minnesota’s top-four scorers from a year ago and both are back, but outside of that it could be a long season for head coach Richard Pitino.
Nebraska
The Huskers went through a surprisingly poor season a year ago under head coach Tim Miles, finishing just 13-18 overall and 5-13 in the Big Ten.
Nebraska does have an All-Big Ten type player in senior Shavon Shields, but beyond that, there’s not much help. Miles will have to work wonders if he wants the Huskers to compete in the league this season.
Penn State
Pat Chambers has a fairly impressive recruiting class assembled for next season, but that’s not going to help the Nittany Lions on the floor this year.
Penn State has a talented young guard in Shep Garner, but beyond that it’s all still a mystery. It might be all about next season for the Nittany Lions, who currently have the nation’s No. 14-ranked recruiting class in 2016, according to 247Sports.
Rutgers
Rutgers was a really tough job before it joined the Big Ten, and it became even more difficult once that move happened. It's likely to be another long year for Eddie Jordan's group.
The Scarlet Knights finished with just two conference wins a year ago and were 10-22 overall. Myles Mack, Rutgers' best player from a year ago graduated, so the Scarlet Knights will rely heavily on senior guard Bishop Daniels.
