Seen on:
as known from New York Timesas known from USA Todayas known from yahoo!
VA

Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings (03/04/24): Here Come the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes!

Publish Date: 03/04/2024
Fact checked by: Simon Briffa

The Big Ten season is headed into the last week, and the Iowa Hawkeyes and Ohio State Buckeyes look to approach the March Madness bubble. Indiana has won two straight games for the first time since December, and the Michigan Wolverines are still the worst team in the Big Ten. We have great matchups this week that will greatly determine the seeding for the Big Ten Tournament in Minnesota!

 

14) Michigan Wolverines

How has Juwan Howard kept his job through these last two seasons? Michigan battled for thirty five minutes against the Buckeyes and then in the last five minutes it looked like the Wolverines just gave up. Ohio State pulled away, and the nightmare season for Michigan continues.

13) Maryland Terrapins

Maryland has three talented players, which is not enough to win at a high rate. They played their best half of the season on Sunday and were manhandling the Indiana Hoosiers. They lost a fifteen-point lead in the second half and eventually the game. The Terps are a poorly coached and poorly constructed team.

12) Rutgers Scarlet Knights

The Scarlet Knights started the week by blowing the doors off Michigan, which was almost expected. On Sunday they travelled to Nebraska and were beaten by the Cornhuskers, but as always Rutgers played hard and the future looks bright with the recruiting class they have coming in next year.

11) Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana has won back-to-back games for the first time since December. The Hoosiers were terrible in the first half against Maryland but rebounded with a stellar shooting performance to prevail in the second half. Trey Galloway and Xavier Johnson led as the Hoosiers got a much-needed road win.

10) Penn State Nittany Lions

Head Coach Mike Roads has done an excellent job with this Lions team; they struggled last week but mostly played well in a 75-70 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. This Nittany Lions team has improved over the season and as they showed on Saturday they always play hard.

9) Ohio State Buckeyes

The Buckeyes can make the case that they should be higher than this, as they have won three of their four games since firing coach Chris Holtman. The wins include a victory on the road against Michigan State and a home win over Purdue. They could cause some issues in the Big Ten tournament.

8) Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Gophers have been the biggest positive surprise in the Big Ten this season and are hard to beat at home. The Gophers will get to be at home for the Big Ten tournament and that makes them a dangerous opponent.

7) Michigan State Spartans

The Spartans hung tough at Purdue before coming up short. Tom Iazzo has not done one of his better coaching jobs with this team. The Spartans are inconsistent but a talented group. If you are looking for one of those magic Spartan runs in March, you probably aren’t going to see it this season.

6) Wisconsin Badgers

At one point a month ago, the Badgers looked like a number two seed headed into the NCAA Tournament. Things have changed since then, as the Badgers struggle on both ends of the floor. They are still a solid team, but they have regressed this season.

5) Northwestern Wildcats

It was bad enough when Ty berry went down, now this past week the Wildcats were playing without three starters, but as Chris Collins teams are known to do they still battled hard coming up a little short against Iowa.

4) Iowa Hawkeyes

The Hawkeyes are a hot team, and Fran McCaffery is getting the most out of this group. The defensive end is suspect but improving and offensively they are as good as any team in the Big Ten.

Video: Josh Dix Highlights vs. Northwestern | Iowa Basketball | 03/02/2024

Josh Dix Highlights vs. Northwestern | Iowa Basketball | 03/02/2024

3) Nebraska Cornhuskers

Nebraska is almost unbeatable at home, but they have struggled on the road this season. The guard play is good enough to hang with any team in this conference. Nebraska gets this spot over Northwestern because of Northwestern’s injury issues.

2) Illinois Fighting Illini

The Illini got two solid wins, beating Minnesota at home and going on the road to beat Wisconsin. This last week will be challenging as they host Purdue and travel to Iowa. Win both, and their NCAA Tournament seeding will take a nice upward tick.

1) Purdue Boilermakers

Purdue has clinched the title of the Big Ten regular season champions and are the favorites heading into the Big Tentournament. The Boilers still have weaknesses against quick guard=oriented teams that has to leave their fans a little uneasy going into Tournament time. That said, they are still one of the country’s top four teams, and a National Championship is a genuine possibility.

Read Also
Top 11 Big Ten Basketball Teams, since 1960
The Big Ten Conference has been one of the best in the ...
Top 20 Indiana High School Basketball players of all time: Big O, Larry, Damon and more
This list is based solely on what these guys did in their ...
Bet365 Promo
Top 10 Big Ten Basketball Coaches of All Time: Who is the GOAT of Big Ten Basketball Coaches
The Big Ten has always been considered an elite basketball conference; as ...
Bob Knight’s 1973-76 Indiana Hoosiers: What Might Have Been?
What if's are a huge talking point for fans of all teams, ...
Esteban de Jesus, Roberto Duran y AIDS (1972-89)
Many of us dream of celebrity sports fame, but only cruel individuals ...
The Greatest College Basketball Team of All Time
Rating the greatest college basketball teams ever has been done many times ...
Indiana Basketball Weekly
Welcome to Indiana Basketball Weekly, your dedicated podcast for all things Indiana ...
Top 50 NBA players under 25 years old in 2021: Doncic bests Young
This year’s playoffs confirmed that the NBA is in good hands. The ...
Grading every NFL team’s picks from the 2021 NFL Draft
Quickly, click away if you’re going to get upset by reading draft ...
NFL Draft 2021: Sam Teets’ top 100 prospects big board
The 2021 NFL Draft is less than a month away, meaning it’s ...
Find out what the legends have to say about sports this week....

21+ and present in VA. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

This site is using Cloudflare and adheres to the Google Safe Browsing Program. We adapted Google's Privacy Guidelines to keep your data safe at all times.
Virginia Town HallCloudflareSSL
Close
Our Sports Pros recommend these awesome sports betting sites this week:
BetMGM
BetMGM Bonus
Up To $1500 in Bonus Bets Paid Back if your First Bet Does Not Win
T&Cs apply, 21+
Promo Code:
Go to BetMGM
Get Bonus
FanDuel
FanDuel Bonus
Bet $5 Get $200 in Bonus Bets If Your Bet Wins!
T&Cs apply, 21+
Promo Code:
Go to FanDuel
Get Bonus
Bet365
Bet365 Bonus
Get $150 in Bonus Bets Win or Lose when you bet $5!
T&Cs apply, 21+
Subject to meeting qualifying criteria. Minimum wager $5. Minimum odds -500 or greater. $10 minimum deposit. Paid in Bonus Bets. Bonus Bets wager excluded from returns. New customers only. Available in app only. Max. prize, game restrictions, time limits and T&Cs apply. Deposit required. Bonus Bets wager excluded from returns. T&Cs, time limits and exclusions apply.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler 21+
Promo Code:
Go to Bet365
Go to Bet365
×
Your Promo Code:
The bonus offer of was already opened in an additional window. If not, you can open it also by clicking the following link:
Play now