Big10 Power Rankings: The Top 5

After a few Big 10 games, 5 teams have emerged as the main contenders.

(For the record, the rest of my rankings go: 6- Purdue 7-Iowa 8-Illinois 9-Minnesota 10-Northwestern 11-Nebraska 12-Penn State)

1: Michigan State

Go-To Play: Appling pick-and-roll with Green

One Word Description: Physical

Best Wins: @Wisconsin @Gonzaga vs. IU

Michigan State has lost 2 games. One was to North Carolina on a battleship in front of the President of the United States. The other was a 5 point game against Duke that could have gone either way. After winning a thriller in Madison and withstanding a furious run from Indiana at home, MSU eeks past OSU for the toughest Big 10 Team to beat in my mind. They have a fantastic arsenal of 3 boulders down low (Green, Nix, Payne) combined with an extremely athletic freshman (Dawson) and efficient guard play (Appling, Wood). The only reason I put them ahead of Ohio State is because of depth. Ohio State, as shown in Assembly Hall, really doesn’t have much in terms of bench play, while Michigan State doesn’t lose a ton with their second unit on the floor. Their physicality and grind-it-out style of play will make it extremely tough to play with them for 40 minutes. As for an X-Factor, Draymond Green has been to a Final Four before, and will serve to further supplement Tom Izzo’s disciplinarian style by becoming an assistant coach on the floor for the Spartans (not to mention an almost unstoppable force on the block).

2- Ohio State

Go-To Play- Sullinger post-up on the block

One Word Description– Athletic

Best Wins- vs. Duke, vs. Florida

Is Ohio State the most talented team in the Big 10? Probably. But after watching IU play a below-average first half, and still manage to come out with a win…I became less convinced. On paper, Ohio State is filled with McDonalds All-American recruits…but highly touted bench players like Amir Williams just didn’t impress me at Assembly Hall. Yes, Sullinger, Thomas, Craft and Buford are probably 4 of the top 10-15 players in the conference. But if players like Lenzelle Smith, Sam Thompson and Amir Williams don’t improve, foul trouble will likely prove to be this talented squad’s achilles heel.

3- Indiana

Go-To Play– Zeller feed and kick out (really more of a transition team, though)

One Word Description- Resilient

Best Wins- vs. Kentucky, vs. Ohio State, @NC State

As a backlash of all the positive attention surrounding Bloomington, IN…much has been made of Indiana’s lack of a solid road win. In that case, let me pose this question. Who has #1 Syracuse beat on the road? The answer is: North Carolina State, the same road win Indiana notched earlier in the season. While it would be nice to see the Hoosiers improve in neutral-site and away games, I feel they have nothing left to prove to the college hoops nation. After all, nobody in the country can boast the big time wins that Tom Crean’s men can at this point in the season. Indiana has shown the tendency to let its guard down at times, but more importantly, the ability to regroup and make a run of their own. This resiliency, which undoubtedly starts at the top with Crean, has kept IU in games like UK, MSU, and NC State, where they would have folded in previous seasons. Finally, while most would point to Cody Zeller as the main difference between this year and last (probably true)…I think Victor Oladipo is easily this team’s MVP because of what he brings in terms of defense, which has translated to easy offense for the fast-break-driven Hoosiers, a must due to their limitations in the half-court set.

4- Wisconsin

Go-To-Play: Taylor isolation at top of the key

One Word Description: Long

Best Wins: vs. BYU, vs. Nebraska

You might notice they haven’t beat anyone. Meanwhile, their losses were all fairly excusable (sans Iowa at home) falling to Marquette, North Carolina, and Michigan State in OT on a disputable call. In my mind we really haven’t found out enough about Wisconsin yet, but that’s the beauty of college basketball…we’ll find out soon enough. The Badgers next 2 games are @Michigan and @Purdue. Should they win these 2 games convincingly (I think they will, thus the #4 ranking) then they are for real, if not then I’m mistaken and they should be closer to #6 in the B10 rankings. Regardless, I think this team simply lacks the firepower they’ve had in the past. You can plug in tall white guys who can shoot, but Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil aren’t replaced so easily. Jordan Taylor gives them a go-to option, but is not always reliable in the long run given his streaky play and tendency to force shots(see: Kansas State loss, 2010). 3 early and uncharacteristic losses at the Kohl Center may be a sign of this. Jury is still out on the Badgers.

5- Michigan

Go-To Play: Hardaway Jr. isolation

One Word Description: Streaky

Best Wins: neutral-site Memphis, vs. UCLA

Yeah, they played really well in Maui beating Memphis and keeping it close with Duke, but I would like to see them vs. IU and Wisconsin before I feel comfortable with this #5 ranking. They have a nice mix of shooters who can get really hot or go really cold (got killed by an average IU team, then almost beat Duke in NCAA 2nd round) as well as a few big bodies down low. Their star player, Tim Hardaway Jr., may be the only Wolverine who can consistently get his own shot, but if he makes good decisions with the ball and avoids bad shots, he’s without question a Top 5 player in the Big 10. Again, this is a team that can beat ANYONE if Novak, Douglass and Smotrcyz get hot from 3, as defenses have to stay honest due to Hardaway’s ability to penetrate. By that same token, this is a team that can go cold and lose to teams that have no business being on the same floor as them. I’m excited to see what they really have to offer when they play Indiana Thursday.