The preliminaries are over. The conference basketball season opens Tuesday night when Indiana visits Wisconsin. But reality for the Big Ten is that it is 4-14 against teams in the Top 25 and 13-30 against teams from the other five BCS leagues.
“We don’t count that [last fact],” Purdue coach Gene Keady said. “We’ve got to beat the Gonzagas of the world. This isn’t football.”
Still, said Minnesota coach Dan Monson: “We felt this year we were going to make a statement around the country, but the Gophers and a lot of other teams didn’t live up to that. We didn’t represent the Big Ten as well as we wanted to. It’s a little surprising, but I think a lot of teams are still searching for answers. This league will be a different league six weeks from now.”
Here’s a peek at how it looks now, alphabetically of course.
Illinois (9-2): The Illini succeeded even while making a coaching transition from Bill Self to Bruce Weber and even after Deron Williams went down with a broken jaw. “We survived the non-conference,” he said. “But now we’ve got to prove ourselves again.”
Indiana (6-5): The Hoosiers lost their only inside presence when center George Leach went down with a knee injury. Indiana also lacks a consistent scorer to complement guard Bracey Wright.
Iowa (7-3): The Hawkeyes haven’t had a winning conference record in four seasons under coach Steve Alford, who’s counting on 6-4 guard Pierre Pierce to help end that streak.
Michigan (9-2): The Wolverines have gotten superb leadership from senior wing Bernard Robinson Jr. He leads them in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals.
Michigan State (5-6): The Spartans have been Charmin-soft underneath and weak defensively, glaring shortcomings they must fix if they hope to contend.
Minnesota (7-4): The Gophers have an impressive newcomer in 6-9 freshman forward Kris Humphries, who leads the league in scoring and rebounding.
Northwestern (5-6): With only seven scholarship players available, the Wildcats are thinner than a sheet of paper.
Ohio State (8-5): More was expected from the Buckeyes with an influx of new talent, but they’re looking for chemistry.
Penn State (6-5): Starting forward DeForrest Riley-Smith quit last week, which left the Nittany Lions so thin they used only six players against Bucknell.
Purdue (10-3): The Boilermakers announced themselves by defeating Duke in the Great Alaska Shootout and have proved to be one of those classic Gene Keady teams. Purdue has an estimable senior leader in guard Kenneth Lowe.
Wisconsin (9-2): The Badgers defend well, commit few turnovers and have arguably the league’s best player in point guard Devin Harris.
