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 Iowa Hawkeyes as this week’s spotlight team. I’ll hit the mystery of the Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State gaining steam, and an update on the Big 12. Finally, I’ll end with a look ahead to next week.
Week 8 Spotlight Team: Iowa Hawkeyes
Iowa had a rough previous week with a historic loss to Eastern Illinois at home. The Hawkeyes are desperate for star Kris Murray to return from injury. Kris Murray did not disappoint in his return but Iowa certainly did.
Iowa lost both games this week. The Hawkeyes lost to Nebraska early in the week. Iowa looked lost almost the whole game. Nobody but Murray could really score and Iowa was only able to put up 50 points. Not a good combination when you don’t defend at all either.
The playmaking is lacking. Perkins disappeared and they relied way too much on Conor McCaffery to create. To make it worse, Iowa had no hustle either. Nebraska was up 20 and still was getting every loose ball. Shoutout to Wilhelm Breidenbach being a hustle MVP for Nebraska. The Cornhuskers played good defense, made some shots, got in transition and threw down some dunks. It was kind of hype not going to lie. Nebraska might be tough to beat in Lincoln this year.
Iowa followed that loss up with a loss at Penn State 83-79. After being down 18 at half, Iowa and Kris Murray fought hard to have a shot at winning it. Seth Lundy came up with the huge steal to seal it for the Nittany Lions. Kris Murray was awesome with 32 points. Jalen Pickett (26/7/6) is pretty awesome too if you haven’t realized that.
So Kris Murray is awesome but what else can Iowa rely on? Other breakout candidates Patrick McCaffery and Payton Sandfort are in slumps. Sandfort’s season has been sad. Tony Perkins might not be the guy to lead a team full stop. The Ahron Ulis breakout season might not be coming ever. Filip Rebraca is pretty good but undersized for a Big Ten center.
How much can Iowa get out of the Freshmen? Josh Dix had some nice moments against Nebraska and Dasonte Bowen did some things in the Penn State game. Is relying more on freshmen a winning formula? Again this Iowa defense certainly isn’t winning them games.
Overall, Iowa is in a rut. Right now the talent is better than the results. It is unclear what answer there is for Coach Fran McCaffrey to get the Hawkeyes back on track. Sure if more shots start to fall the Hawkeyes will look better but that isn’t the point. The one tangible opportunity for Iowa is defense. Iowa will not be successful until defense is a higher priority. Expect more of the same from Iowa until you see better effort on both sides of the ball.
Michigan still a Mystery
So, Michigan begins the week with a 61-63 loss at home to Central Michigan. The Chippewas shot 20% from three and 40% from the field and still won. The Wolverines followed that up by blowing the doors off Maryland in Ann Arbor on Sunday. Michigan immediately jumped up to a double digit lead and never looked back en route to a 81-46 victory.
I wrote last week about how it is time to reset our expectations for this Michigan team. After the Central Michigan game I didn’t know how low to set the expectations. After the Maryland game you’re reminded why Michigan was a conference favorite entering the year. The big revelation of the week is that Michigan should be playing inside-out thru Hunter Dickinson instead of playing outside-in like they have been. Dickinson had almost been a forgotten player in recent games. The big man is a huge advantage and Michigan needs to start treating him like one.
Ohio State gains momentum
Ohio State wrapped up the week with two wins. One against Alabama A&M and one against Northwestern in Evanston. Ohio State is 10-3 with losses to Duke, UNC, and San Diego State. Eugene Brown returned this week to add another dimension, but it seems that Chris Holtmann is figuring out this team. Roles are being solidified after Brice Sensabaugh’s play forced him into the starting lineup along with the benching of Isaac Likele. Sensabaugh is a stud and might only be in Columbus for one season. Ohio State is 2-0 in conference and now picked up their first conference road win. The young Buckeyes might be finding themselves and continue to gain experience and build chemistry.
No-Explanation Power Rankings
Not much non-explaining to do about why Iowa tumbled, or Ohio State starting to climb, or where to put Michigan after a terrible loss and huge win. In fact no explanation needed!
- Purdue
- Indiana
- Wisconsin
- Ohio State
- Rutgers
- Maryland
- Illinois
- Michigan State
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Nebraska
- Northwestern
- Iowa
- Minnesota
Beyond the Arc: The Big 12 is a Slaughterhouse
The Big 12 started conference play on Saturday. This is the last year of the double round robin schedule for the conference before they welcome Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, and BYU next year. The conference has 5 ranked teams and no easy win in sight. Kansas is the favorite but certainly don’t count out Texas or Baylor from winning the conference title. All of them will be hoping to get at least a 2 seed in March Madness. Here are the results after round one of games in the slaughterhouse Big 12 schedule:
- Baylor found out how hard conference play will be in a blowout loss at Iowa State.
- Texas and Kansas escaped with one possession victories over the state of Oklahoma in their first games in conference. Texas beat the Sooners in Norman while Oklahoma State had a chance to win or force overtime at Kansas. Shoutout to KJ Adams’ big go-ahead bucket for the Jayhawks.
- West Virginia joined Baylor as a ranked team being upset as Markquis Nowell and Kansas State continued a surprisingly competitive season.
- Jamie Dixon and TCU scratched and clawed to beat a pest of a Texas Tech team
Kansas State, Oklahoma State and West Virginia were supposed to be the easy wins in this conference this year. Turns out nobody is an easy win. This conference title race should be wild but it will be fascinating to see how many teams can remain unscathed enough to make the tournament. Surely the whole conference won’t make it, but don’t be surprised if 8-9 of the 10 do.
Next Week’s Big Games
This will be a week of discovery as we find out more about teams in the meat and potatoes of the conference schedule.
- How real is Northwestern? Northwestern won in East Lansing and lost at home to Ohio State so far. After games hosting Illinois and visiting Indiana this week we should have a better picture of how good Chase Audige and company are.
- Wisconsin visits Illinois on Saturday. Great opportunity for Illinois to make a statement and get back in the Conference Championship race.
- No matter how bad Michigan is this season the rivalry game between them and Michigan State is worth watching. Wolverines visit East Lansing on Saturday.
- Ohio State plays a huge week hosting Purdue on Thursday and then going to Maryland on Sunday.
- However, Rutgers is next week’s spotlight team with three games @ Purdue on Monday and hosting Maryland and Iowa on Thursday and Sunday. Certainly will learn a lot about how competitive this Rutgers team is after a week like that.