It was a big week of big matchups for the Big Ten. So let’s see what we learned about the conference this week including a discussion of the Minnesota Golden Gophers as this week’s spotlight team. I’ll hit a poor showing in the Big Ten ACC Challenge, Michigan State crumbling, the first Big Ten conference games starting with some upsets. Finally, I’ll end with a look ahead to next week.
Week 4 Spotlight: Minnesota
Year 2 of Coach Ben Johnson is not off to a great start for Minnesota. Minnesota is 4-4 after losing to Virginia Tech and Purdue this week. Both games the Golden Gophers were down double digits for almost the whole game and never really posed much of a threat. Minnesota has no offense to keep up with high quality opponents so far as they are the 185th offense according to Kenpom.com. The Gophers don’t have much of a defense either as they are the 135th defense according to Kenpom too.
The good news? Jamison Battle is back now and will help boost those numbers as he regains his form. Battle is an All-Big ten type of player and Minnesota will need him to be that and more for them to succeed. Currently, Minnesota shoots 42.5% from the field, 32.1% from 3, and somehow only 54.9% from the Free Throw line. They score a dismal 63.1 ppg which is 338th in all of college basketball. The defense is mediocre to bad in every statistic as well.
Listen, this Minnesota team wasn’t expected to be good. Ben Johnson built last year’s last place team with a bunch of one-and-done transfers. Almost every player who contributed last year is gone and Jamison Battle is the only one who remains. Coach Johnson replaced the 7 players he lost with 3 transfers (Taurus Samuels, Ta’lon Cooper, and Dawson Garcia) and 4 freshmen (Braeden Carrington, Joshua Ola-Joseph, Pharrel Payne, and Jaden Henley). Garcia’s homecoming has been okay but he is best used on a team as a third, fourth or even fifth option. With Battle out, Garcia was the number one or two option. Ta’lon Cooper from Morehead State has been good for them, but Taurus Samuels has been a nonfactor. With the transfers not getting the production needed it’s up to the young guys to step up.
The young guys are up and down. Pharrel Payne and Josh Ola-Joseph have tag teamed at center with Treyton Thompson being out. Payne had a great game against Virginia Tech and Ola-Joseph had a solid game against Purdue. Braeden Carrington had some flashes against Purdue and boy does this Minnesota team need more confident guard play. Coach Johnson needs to start trusting them more and living or dying by them.I want to see a Cooper, Carrington, Battle, Garcia, and Ola-Joseph or Payne lineup going forward get major minutes. The rest-of-season key for fans is to watch how the Freshmen improve under Johnson’s development.
Minnesota was always going to be a bottom of the Big Ten team this year. They are not supposed to win at Virginia Tech or beat Purdue at Mackey Arena. However, they need to be better. The offense needs to be better. The defense hopefully can improve as this team plays more minutes together. In year two of a new coach, you want to see improvements in the offense and defense. You want to see him learning along with his players. Minnesota likely will finish last in the Big Ten, but can Coach Johnson and the freshmen learn and be more competitive as the year goes on? As more classes come in, development is what Ben Johnson and the Gophers need to build on for future seasons because this one looks like a lost one.
Big Ten loses the last Big Ten ACC Challenge
The Big Ten lost its last challenge against the ACC conference 8-6 this week. TV rights killed off future iterations of this great challenge and now the ACC gets the last laugh. The results that swung the competition were Notre Dame dispatching Michigan State, Pittsburgh beating up Northwestern in Evanston, and Wake Forest escaping the Kohl Center with an overtime win against Wisconsin.
The marquee matchups of this tournament were disappointing as Ohio State didn’t come close in Cameron indoor and Indiana’s win over UNC was not as impressive after the Tar Heels current losing streak. What were supposed to be Indiana’s big wins over UNC and at Xavier have ultimately fallen a little flat as those teams might not be as good as we thought they would be. IU then failed to prove itself later in the week only scoring 48 in a loss at Jersey Mike’s arena to Rutgers.
Anyways, back to the challenge with Michigan’s home loss to UVA. Michigan kept it close and had a shot blocked at the buzzer that could have tied the game. They need someone to step up besides Jett Howard and Hunter Dickinson. One of the guards in Jaelin Llewellyn, Kobe Bufkin, or even Dug McDaniel needs to make a leap for Michigan if they are going to win games against the quad 1 type teams of the college game.
Final shoutout goes to Kris Murray who managed to have a 30/20 game against Georgia Tech. Somehow, Murray wasn’t the only Big Ten player with a 30/20 game as Zach Edey also did it on Sunday against Minnesota. Iowa is now 6-1 heading into their game against Duke in MSG on Tuesday. Coach McCaffrey has made some changes with the minutes recently as Ahron Ulis has been promoted to the starting lineup, Tony Perkins has moved to shooting guard, and Payton Sandfort is now coming off the bench. I am less excited about the minutes creeping up for 30 year old Connor McCaffrey.
Home Cooking as Conference Play Begins with some Upsets
Conference play started off with a bang this week as several key games kicked off the Big Ten Season. As usual, home court advantage was felt in these first four games with the home team going 3-1 for the week.
Maryland started the big ten season with a statement home victory over Illinois on Friday night. Maryland is now 8-0 and is ranked 13th in the AP poll. Kevin Willard gets a signature victory in his first year now after so-so wins over Miami, Saint Louis, and Louisville (?) I guess. Donta Scott is an all conference type player. Hakim Hart played huge against Illinois. Jahmir Young is the hometown hero and made the clutch dagger at the end of the game. Maryland is ahead of schedule and proved on Friday they belong in the upper tier with Purdue, IU, and Illinois. I will talk more about Illinois next week.
Rutgers upset Indiana over the weekend and continued their legacy of defending home court. I’ll say it again, Indiana only scored 48 points against the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers will hang their hat on defense again as they currently are the number 6 defense according to Kenpom. Early results are not fair to Rutgers as they were missing the spine of their team in Paul Mulcahy and Caleb McConnell. Now with both of those two back healthy, expect Rutgers to be one of the most physical teams in the Big Ten holding everyone to low scoring games eeking out wins in the process.
As mentioned earlier, Purdue won at home against Minnesota with Zach Edey scoring 31 points and grabbing 22 points. I am afraid to call him the Wooden Award favorite but man how can he not be. There likely will be a weekly sentence saying, “Zach Edey good” at this point.
The one road win was Northwestern upsetting Michigan State in East Lansing. Northwestern lost at home to Pittsburgh by 29 and then won in the Breslin Center. The Wildcats are confusing but this shows they are no easy-out. Shoutout to Boo Buie and Chase Audige.
Michigan State meanwhile is struggling in the wake of Malik Hall and Jaden Akins injuries. Mady Sissoko might not be the answer after all. Joey Hauser is the opposite of a fan favorite. Neither freshmen Tre Holloman nor Jaxon Kohler have made a real impact. They are the weirdest 5-4 team. Spartan fans better be ready to ride the rollercoaster this season.
Cleaning the Glass
Quickly, let’s hit some other big results from the week.
Michigan kept it close in the London game against Kentucky but again fell short. Repeat what I said in the UVA paragraph; someone needs to step up or the Wolverines will keep falling short.
Wisconsin outlasted Marquette in an overtime win on the road. Marquette had just beat the brakes off Baylor earlier in the week but the Badgers were too much for the Golden Eagles. Chucky Hepburn was the hero and continues to gain steam for the Badgers. Tyler Wahl and Connor Essegian are keeping it going. I continue to not understand why people bite on Steven Crowl postups. Crowl had 7 assists in this game because the defense respects him? Well, I won’t. Big rivalry win for the Badgers.
The biggest surprise of the week was Nebraska stunning 7th ranked Creighton on the road. Calling it a signature win for Coach Fred Hoiberg is an understatement. Big Red stifled the elite Creighton offense and held them to 53 points and 10-40 for three. I wrote last week about how Sam Griesel needed to play better against high level competition. Griesel responded with 18, 12 and 7 in this game. Point taken. Derrick Walker is officially a game changer for them.
No-Explanation Power Rankings
With conference play upon us, I decided to do a no-explanation power rankings to try and track the momentum of the season. So here is the first weekly power ranking for you to tear down and feel smarter than me after future results prove it wrong.
- Purdue
- Indiana
- Maryland
- Illinois
- Michigan
- Iowa
- Ohio State
- Wisconsin
- Rutgers
- Michigan State
- Penn State
- Northwestern
- Nebraska
- Minnesota
Next Week’s Big Games
This week features plenty of great games again for the conference.
- Tuesday has a double header showcasing the Big Ten in the Big Apple with Illinois taking on Texas and Iowa taking on Duke.
- Iowa has a huge week after the Duke game as they have a rivalry game against Iowa State and finish it hosting Wisconsin.
- Rutgers also has a big rivalry game as they play Seton Hall this week. College basketball is a celebration of regionalism so let’s celebrate these in-state competitions.
- Indiana has a chance to get a signature win against Arizona in Vegas on Saturday
- Maryland will test themselves by playing at Wisconsin and then Tennessee in Brooklyn
Next week’s spotlight team is Illinois. Should be another great week in the Big Ten and I can’t wait to break it down with you next Monday!!