Big 10 Review: Week 4

Week 4. Straight into the Best Win and Worst Loss of the week.

Best Win
Ohio State 73 Illinois 68. The Buckeyes played an extremely soft schedule to date. Their best road win in the Big 10 was at Michigan. And then Ohio State, at the under 12 minute timeout, was down 8, at Illinois in a sea of orange. The Buckeyes calmly went on a 14-0 run over the next 4 minutes and rolled on to a huge win. The win finally gives Ohio State a statement win in conference and gives the Buckeyes an early leg up in the conference race.

Worst Loss
Wisconsin 78 Northwestern 46. At Welsh-Ryan Arena, Northwestern again failed to beat one of the top six teams in the conference. Northwestern was thoroughly dominated in all facets of the game and is running out of opportunities to earn a statement win and a chance at an NCAA tournament berth.

Power Rankings
1) Ohio State (20-0, 7-0). Ohio State destroyed Iowa in Columbus early in the week, 70-48. They then held on for the aforementioned 73-68 win over Illinois. Ohio State is the first team in the top 6 in Big 10 play to obtain a major road win. The guy that gets all the headlines after the Illinois game is Jared Sullinger. 27 points and 16 rebounds (13-15 from the foul line) will do that. But the other, more unsung hero for Ohio State was Aaron Craft. The freshman point guard chased Demetri McCamey for 31 minutes and helped limit him to just 5 points and 5 assists. Craft takes a lot of the defensive pressure off David Lighty, allowing Lighty to continue to play major minutes (Lighty, Diebler and Sullinger all played 40 minutes against Illinois). Ohio State will look to gain more ground on their rivals in the Big 10 race when they host Purdue Tuesday. They also travel to Northwestern Saturday.

2) Purdue (17-3, 6-1). Purdue barely survived Penn State at home early in the week. JuJuan Johnson made a jumper with 3 seconds left to give Purdue a 63-62 win. Purdue then outplayed Michigan State in a huge 86-76 win at home. E'Twaun Moore appears to be back. He was 7-15 (16 points) against Penn State and 9-18 (26 points) against Michigan State. If Moore continues to shoot the ball well, Purdue will be difficult to beat, wherever they play, whenever they play. Purdue with a big week ahead of them, traveling to Ohio State Tuesday before hosting Minnesota Sunday.

3) Wisconsin (15-4, 5-2). Wisconsin took care of business this week, beating Indiana in a closer than expected 69-60 win at Kohl before destroying Northwestern on the road Sunday. Jordan Taylor continues to look like the best point guard in the Big 10, rattling off 28 points and 8 assists against Indiana and 14 points and 4 assists against Northwestern. Wisconsin only plays once this week, traveling to Penn State in what is clearly a dangerous game. If Wisconsin wins at Penn State, they will pick up a win that eluded both Michigan State and Illinois and obtain a little separation from the rest of the pack below them.

4) Michigan State (12-7, 4-3). Even though they lost twice this week, including at Illinois, Michigan State did not lose at home (unlike Illinois) and, therefore, remains ahead of the Illini in the Power Rankings (the other loss was a 10 point loss at Purdue). Durrell Summers is struggling, Kalin Lucas is struggling. A decent argument can be made that Delvon Roe has been Michigan State’s best player over the past couple weeks. With that being said, Michigan State has a fairly soft week. They host Michigan Thursday and Indiana Sunday. Anything less than a 2-0 week will be an unmitigated disaster. Tom Izzo has to hope that a lower level of competition will wake up his struggling veterans.

5) Illinois (14-6, 4-3). The Illini picked up a nice win over Michigan State and, really, gave away the game against Ohio State late. As it stands, the Illini are the only team in the top 6 to have lost at home and face a fairly insurmountable challenge to pull themselves back into the Big 10 race. The good news this week for the Illini was the inspired play of Jereme Richmond (14 points 5 rebounds 3 assists against Michigan State; 18 points 10 rebounds against Ohio State). Richmond did not score by beating players off the dribble, he did not score by posting up, rather he flashed some unreal off the ball movement to create space and his assortment of head fakes make him very, very dangerous at the rim. His involvement in the offense is a huge plus for the Illini going forward (and hopefully means reduced minutes from Mike Davis). The Illini play just once this week, traveling to Bloomington Thursday to face Indiana.

6) Minnesota (15-4, 4-3). The Gophers only played once this week, holding off a tough challenge from Michigan at home in a 69-64 win. The story for Minnesota, again, however is news off the court. Al Nolen, their starting point guard, broke his foot and will likely be out 4 weeks. Given the loss of Devoe Joseph (transfer two weeks ago) an already depleted Minnesota backcourt will be decimated by this loss. Nolen is the Gophers’ defensive heart (he averages over 2 steals a game); huge loss for Minnesota. The Gophers host Northwestern Wednesday and travel to Purdue Saturday, the last opportunity for Minnesota to net a meaningful road win. Anything less than 2-0 this week all but puts the Big 10 title out of reach.

7) Penn State (10-8, 3-4). Penn State suffers another heartbreaker, losing 63-62 to Purdue in the game’s final seconds (at Purdue). Penn State is officially the team no one wants to play. Penn State’s supporting cast (everyone other than Taylor Battle) continue to shoot at an extremely efficient clip. Unfortunately, Penn State took too many bad losses in the preseason (see Maine) to really have much of a tournament shot without a few more upsets. They get a chance to do just that this week when they host Wisconsin Saturday (they also host Iowa Tuesday).

8) Northwestern (13-6, 3-5). A three game week for the Wildcats saw them handily beat Michigan and SIU-Edwardsville at home before suffering an embarrassing home loss to Wisconsin. While Minnesota struggles to find a statement road win, Northwestern struggles to beat anyone better than them. Northwestern needs to win one of their next 3 games (at Minnesota Wednesday, home against Ohio State Saturday, home against Illinois the next week) to try and play themselves back onto the bubble.

9) Michigan (11-9, 1-6). Michigan lost handily to Northwestern (74-60) and fought hard in a losing effort at Minnesota (69-64). Michigan needs to hold teams to 65 points or less to have a chance (they shoot 43% as a team). The Wolverines travel to their arch rivals in East Lansing Thursday and host Iowa Sunday. Michigan will no doubt play the Spartans tough. Look for a scrappy, low scoring game.

10) Iowa (8-11, 1-6). Iowa back out of the cellar!! They were blown out by Ohio State in Columbus, but then beat Indiana 91-77 in Iowa City. Melsahn Basabe had another big game with 20 points and 10 rebounds (his third 20-10 of the Big 10 season) in the win over Indiana. The freshman has been a huge bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for the Hawkeyes. Iowa travels to Penn State Thursday and Michigan Sunday.

11) Indiana (10-10, 1-6). The Hoosiers lost Maurice Creek to injury for the second straight season AND lost to Iowa (and Wisconsin). Tough week. Christian Watford had a career high 30 points and added 8 rebounds in the loss to Iowa. Tom Crean, however, was not impressed. In an interview with the Indianapolis Star, Crean said, “You can’t score 30 points and give up the points that he gave up.” When you lose to Iowa by 14 points, you have bigger problems than the guy that scored 30 points and had 8 rebounds. But the comments will endear Crean to a fanbase that venerates Bobby Knight. The Hoosiers host Illinois and travel to East Lansing this week.