With three weeks left in the Big Ten men's basketball season, Michigan basketball is in first place with a clear lead of one loss. Illinois, Nebraska, and Purdue are tied with three losses, and Michigan State with four.
What happened since February 9th
Note that the rankings below is “NET” or the NCAA Evaluation Tool, which is the ranking system used to help with March Madness selection and seeding. It evaluates teams based on game results, strength of schedule, game location, and per-possession efficiency (net offensive/defensive). It’s included for comparison purposes.
- #1 Michigan 14-1: Last week was #1; #1 Michigan 14-1: Last week was #1; beat Northwestern by 12 and UCLA.
- #5 Illinois 10-1: Last week was #4; upset by Wisconsin by two and crunched Indiana by 20.
- #7 Purdue 8-3: Last week was #10; beat Nebraska in OT by three thanks to the negligent floor wiper guy and Iowa by 11.
- #11 Nebraska 9-2: Last week was #11; lost to Purdue (probably fired floor wiper guy) and beat Northwestern by 19..
- #15 Michigan State 9-2: Last week was #12; was Wisconsin’s second upset victim.
Next two games
- Michigan: Feb 17th at Purdue then Feb 21st in Washington DC to play a non-conference game versus Duke .
- Illinois: Illinois flies to LA to take on USC on Feb 18th then UCLA on Feb 21st.
- Purdue: hosts Michigan Feb 17th and at Iowa Feb 20th .
- Nebraska: at Iowa Feb 17th and hosts Penn St Feb 21st.
- Michigan State: Feb 17th has UCLA at home then OSU Feb 22nd.
State of Affairs
Michigan basketball is #1 in all the rankings, and it’s only the Saint Louis Billikens who share the distinction of having only one loss, with Miami (the one founded in 1809 in Ohio and not the one founded in 1925 in Florida). No rotational players are injured and grad student Yaxel Lendeborg is back in full throttle.
Illinois was upset by Wisconsin at home, but did get senior Kylan Boswell back for the Indiana game when he played 32 minutes. However, Andrej Stojakovich aggravated a high-ankle sprain against Michigan State and has been ruled out for an undetermined amount of time.
Purdue is back to their winning ways. Braden Smith is still logging major minus, averaging nearly 34 minutes a game. Team scoring is well balanced, with Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Ren, and Oscar Cluff averaging double digits in points.
Nebraska Athletics investigated an incident in the Purdue game that may have caused the Jamarques Lawrence slip with 04.1 seconds left in OT. Prior to the ball being put in play, a fan threw a beverage that landed in the general area of Lawrence’s slip. The investigation was inconclusive, although it was noted that Nebraska’s 14 turnovers and 54-37 rebounding disadvantage may have led to the loss.
Michigan State is fighting off bad momentum, bad publicity, and bad luck with Divine Ugochukwu having season-ending surgery.
Prognostications
ESPN’s BPI (Basketball Power Index), as of Feb 16th:
- Michigan = 24.7 (24.1)
- Illinois = 21.4 (21.10)
- Purdue = 20.9 (20.3)
- Michigan State = 18.0 (18.6)
- Nebraska = 17.7 (17.7)
Bart Torvik’s share of the title and outright winner, as of Feb 16th,
- Michigan = 90.6% and 68.1% (last week 72.7% and 47.1%)
- Illinois = 20.8% and 4.1% (40.3% and 17.6%)
- Purdue = 12.1% and 1.7% (2.3% and 0.3%)
- Nebraska = 9.3% and 1.0% (19.6% and 5.1%)
- Michigan State = 0.3% and 0.0% (1.7% and 0.2%)
Fan Duel
- Michigan = -330 (-160)
- Illinois = +350 (+150)
- Nebraska = +6000 (+1300)
- Purdue = +1000 (+3500)
- Michigan State = +25000 (+8000).