Big Ten Basketball Power Rankings 02-03-25

18. Washington Huskies

The Huskies will unlikely be favored again until they host Rutgers on February 19. Will they lose their next five games and extend their losing streak to ten games? It’s possible, but home games against Nebraska and Northwestern during that period may offer them a chance for relief, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

17. Minnesota Golden Gophers

The Golden Gophers have improved this season, but they still are not very good; sure, they pop up with a surprising win occasionally, but they still take too many bad losses.

16. Penn State Nittany Lions

Perhaps continuity is overrated? Penn State has a solid foundation with Ace Baldwin Jr. at the helm, leading a fairly experienced group in Mike Rhoades’ second season as head coach. However, this continuity hasn’t translated into success, as the Nittany Lions have lost seven of their last eight games, placing them near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.

15. Northwestern Wildcats

Northwestern’s home loss to Rutgers on Wednesday was their sixth defeat in eight games. In this stretch, inconsistency from Brooks Barnhizer has been problematic for the Wildcats. While his overall production has remained relatively stable, his shooting efficiency has suffered, resulting in a shooting slash of 37% from the field, 19% from three-point range, and 69% from the free-throw line during these games.

14, Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Ace Bailey’s scoring ability remains exciting to watch, as demonstrated by his impressive 37-point performance against Northwestern, which helped Rutgers secure an important road victory on Wednesday. Dylan Harper has similar scoring potential. However, despite these talents, the Scarlet Knights are still just one game above .500. Rutgers lost a big game to Michigan and it makes their tournament odds plummet.

13. Iowa Hawkeyes

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery may be facing pressure as the clock ticks down on his tenure. The Hawkeyes are likely to miss the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season, and attendance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is dwindling—unless the Iowa women’s team is playing. Year 15 could potentially mark the end of his time with the team.

12. Indiana Hoosiers

Luke Goode seems to be the only person—whether player or coach—who truly cares about Indiana basketball. It’s concerning that a player in his first season has to physically guide his head coach back to the handshake line after a loss. Mike Woodson is lost, and he has been for all four of his years at Indiana. The Hoosiers have a lot of talent, but nobody to guide them. They played well against Maryland and Purdue but late game mistakes, caused by bad coaching have plagued this team.

11. Oregon Ducks

Jackson Shelstad appeared to have found his rhythm in January after struggling through November and December. However, during a recent blowout loss to UCLA, he did not score in 29 minutes of play. It seems there is still work to be done. The Ducks have lost three straight games including yesterday’s home loss to Nebraska.

10. USC Trojans

Back-to-back home losses to Wisconsin and UCLA negated some of the progress USC had made with Big Ten road victories at Illinois and Nebraska. But they bounced back over the weekend handing Michigan State its first conference loss of the season.

9. Nebraska Cornhuskers

The Cornhuskers regained momentum with their win against Illinois on Thursday, ending a six-game losing streak. However, this stretch of lackluster performance in January has made it a challenging path for Nebraska, which had appeared to be a potential NCAA tournament team after starting the season with a 12-2 record. On Sunday the Huskers put themselves back in the Tournament conversation with a massive win at Oregon.

8. Ohio State Buckeyes

The Buckeyes inconsistency can be maddening, with that being said they have won three if their last four games including a come from behind win at Purdue and two blowout wins over Iowa and Penn State, The Buckeyes are good enough to beat anybody, and bad enough to lose to anybody.

7. Wisconsin Badgers

The Badgers have a chance to maintain their position in the AP Top 25 with the win against Northwestern on Saturday. On a positive note, John Tonje has bounced back, achieving three consecutive 20-point games after having no points in the game against Southern Cal.

6. Illinois Fighting Illini

The uncertainty surrounding Tomislav Ivisic’s return from mononucleosis raises significant concerns about Illinois’s prospects when the sophomore center is able to return to the court. Although the potential for this Illini team is considerable when fully healthy, the outlook is beginning to look less optimistic.

5. Michigan Wolverines

The Wolverines rebounded after suffering a significant loss to Purdue last week, narrowly defeating Penn State by just four points at home. Michigan is hoping to see Danny Wolf return to form, as the 7-foot Yale transfer has been averaging only 6.3 points over his last three games. Michigan finished their week with a win over Rutgers. The Wolverines are struggling right now and they need to get it together, they still have a shot at winning the Big Ten.

4. Maryland Terrapins

The Terrapins have won four straight games including a dominating road win at Illinois and a tight hard-fought win at Indiana. This is a team that seems to be jelling at the right time.

3. UCLA Bruins

After a rough patch the Bruins seem back on track, that includes a 20 plus point victory over Oregon last week. Next up the Bruins will battle the Michigan State Spartans, a win in that game and the Bruins will be in business.

2. Purdue Boilermakers

Purdue survived a scare on Friday night behind the guard play of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer. The Boilermakers are not the team they were last season and thats ok. They are still good enough to make a deep run in March.

1. Michigan State

The Spartans took their first loss over the Weekend at USC, the Spartans are a good team and what makes them good is they are consistent. We will chalk this loss up as just a bad day on a West Coast trip, it happens.