Big Ten Power Rankings: February 8

What a week since the last update. With roughly three minutes left in regulation between Purdue and Nothwestern it looked like Wisconsin was about to take a two game lead in the lead in the loss column with the potential to make it three should they win on Sunday at home against Purdue.

Now the Badgers are two games back after three straight losses and a pair of Purdue wins.

By no means is the conference race over, but at the moment things are strongly in Purdue's favor. The Boilermakers own a two game lead in the loss column over everyone but Illinois. The Illini may need to play perfect basketball until they host Purdue the last week of the season just to have a chance. Illini fans have been waiting for that rematch, where they will be at home with Terrence Shannon Jr., since losing in West Lafayette, but it is entirely possible the game will mean nothing for Purdue.

It certainly looks like Purdue is going to win its 26th Big Ten championship, but anything can happen. It is now a matter of Purdue maintaining its focus the rest of the way.

The League Favorite

1. Purdue Boilermakers (21-2, 10-2) – The title is Purdue's to lose. The Boilers will be a big favorite in each of their next five games, with the trickiest being a home game against a feisty Minnesota team. If Purdue gets to the Michigan State game on March 2nd at 15-2 the race could be over by then. Illinois has a tougher schedule until then, including a potentially tricky game at Michigan State on Saturday. By the close of business Saturday Purdue could be up two games with seven to play, threee of which would be against the bottom of the conference.

First up: Take care of business in a rivalry game against Indiana.

Consider the following: If Purdue wins the league this year it is roughly two plays (a rebound vs. Ohio State in 2018 and the Ron Harper Jr. three at Rutgers in 2022) from six Big Ten titles in eight years. That's remarkable.

The Challenger

2. Illinois Fighting Illini (17-5, 8-3) – Illinois almost blew it on Sunday at home against Nebraska, but they held on to stay alive and deal a damaging blow to Nebraska. Now they have a tricky stretch of three road games in the next four that will decide if they have a chance. Going to Michigan State is not easy, and they have to play at Maryland, who already beat them in Champaign.

NCAA Tourney Teams

3. Northwestern Wildcats (16-7, 7-5) – I had initially thought Northwestern could sit back, take care of business, and wait for chaos to give them a shot at the title since they were done playing Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Then they lost in overtime at Minnesota. The league's longest title drought will last another year, but Northwestern should easily make the tournament after getting a nice win last night over Nebraska. Four wins in their last eight should do it.

4. Wisconsin Badgers (16-7, 8-4) – At halftime last week in Lincoln Wisconsin was all alone in first place in the Big Ten and leading by 16 over the Cornhuskers. Everything since has been a disaster, including a bad road loss at last place Michigan last night. Now they have to go to the Trapezoid of Doom in Piscataway Saturday at noon. Can they pull out of the nosedive?

Bubbly

5. Minnesota Golden Gophers (15-7, 6-5) - Welcome to a new tier, Goldy. Minnesota has now won three straight, two coming over Northwestern and Michigan State. There is still a lot of work to do because the NET of 83, but if they get to 11-12 conference wins, who knows? Their next two are at Iowa and Purdue and if they somehow take both, wach out.

6. Nebraska Cornhuskers (16-8, 6-7) – The Wisconsin win was very good. They had a chance to steal one in Champaign that would have moved them up to lock status in my book, but couldn't finish the drill. The weakness in their profile is road wins, and they only have three chances left to get one in conference play: at Indiana, Ohio State, and Michigan. There is time to save things, but they need to win two of those and keep playing well at home.

7. Michigan State Spartans (14-9, 6-6) – Name recognition and computer numbers are keeping the Spartans alive, but at some point they need to beat a team with a pulse. They are 2-7 in tier 1 games and 2-2 against Tier 2. This is a weird team. When they are dialed in they are one of the conference's best. They lack any consistency though. A home win on Saturday agaisnt Illinois would help a lot.

NIT bound

8. Indiana Hoosiers (14-9, 6-6) - Indiana got off the mat for a comeback win in Columbus on Tuesday night. It was the kind of victory that can build confidence towards at least an NIT appearance and momentum for next season. It is probably too late for an NCAA bid barring a miracle finish, but if they shock Purdue in Mackey for a second straight season that would be a great way them to start.

9. Iowa Hawkeyes (13-9, 5-6) – Iowa is the 3.6 roentgen of Big Ten basketball teams. They are not great, but not terrible. They avoided a home loss to Ohio State last Friday and now they go to Penn State for a game tonight that at least, by some definitions, is a Big Ten basketball game. The biggest impact they can have the rest of the year is two games remaining with Illinois.

They are Basketball Teams

10. Penn State Nittany Lions (11-11, 5-6) – One of the more shocking results of hte year was Penn State walking into Assembly Hall and absolutely throttling the Hoosiers. IU doesn't lose many games at home by 14, let alone to Penn State. That gave the Nittany Lions two straight home wins and some momentum. They host Iowa tonight as they try to get on the happy side of .500.

11. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (12-10, 4-7) – Rutgers has won two in a row after winning at Michigan and Maryland. The former involved a huge comeback as the Wolverines completely fell apart. They are still pretty horrendous on offense, but they have the defense capable of dragging a team into a rock fight, especially at home. Will they prolong Wisconsin's misery on Saturday?

12. Maryland Terrapins (13-10, 5-7) - So much for that vaunted home court advantage and winning streak they had heading into the Purdue game. They have now lost three games at home and they are tumbling away from even the NIT. Next Saturday's home game with Illinois will at last have an impact on the race.

Signs of Life

13. Michigan Wolverines (8-15, 3-9) – Where was that all year? Michigan's upset of Wisconsin last night is the shock of the season in the league, and it is on pair with the Rutgers win in Piscataway over the Frank Kaminsky Badger squad of a few years ago in terms of stunning results. This team was completely lifeless for several weeks, then they go out and score a top 15 upset. Don't expect much from them for the rest of the year, but for one night at least, they made some noise.

In Freefall

14. Ohio State Buckeyes (13-10, 3-9) – This is all you can say about the last month for the Buckeyes:

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