Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings (1/1/20)

14) Northwestern Wildcats – The Wildcats are in for a long season.

13) Nebraska Cornhuskers – The Huskers lack the talent to compete in the Big Ten, but they have the coaching to pull a couple of upsets along the way.

12) Illinois Fighting Illini – The Illini are talented and well-coached, so I expect to see them slowly move up these rankings as the season progresses.

11) Minnesota Golden Gophers – With Purdue and Northwestern at home, two wins this week could help solve a lot of problems in Minnesota.

10) Wisconsin Badgers – The Badgers got a huge win over Tennessee and look like they could turn out the be a good team this season but inconsistency is killing them.

9) Rutgers Scarlet Knights – I am still not convinced this team is as good as their record, but we will soon find out. Either way, they are vastly improved.

8) Purdue Boilermakers – Purdue beat Virginia and they have some decent wins, but they also have some losses that make you wonder if this team can find consistency.

7) Indiana Hoosiers – When will Coach Archie Miller attempt to reign in Devonte Green? If he doesn’t this season could get real ugly, real fast for the Hoosiers.

6) Iowa Hawkeyes – The Hawkeyes have been a surprise and could stay that way all season. A big game awaits at Penn State this weekend.

5) Maryland Terrapins – The Terps are talented but have come up short in the biggest tests so far.

4) Michigan Wolverines – The resume so far cannot be ignored but I still have major questions about this team which a weekend matchup with Michigan state should start to provide those answers.

3) Michigan State Spartans – The Spartans are playing better and look to be the real deal. The competition as of late makes it hard to tell.

2) Penn State Nittany Lions – The Lions deserve this spot right now and I think they stay in the top half of this league for the remainder of the season.

1) Ohio State Buckeyes – I know they lost to West Virginia but their resume is just better than everybody else in the Big Ten and West Virginia is a good team.