Casey's Big Ten Power Rankings

Welcome to the show. I don't think I'll have to explain the concept of a Power Rankings to you, but I will give a small insight to my particular spin on this very simple concept.

Power Rankings are naturally difficult because it's hard to know if they're about what a team did, what they might do, or what they're capable of. The answer is a mix of all three with the ratios of importance changing week to week because whim. That said, my criteria will be a lot what they did that week and what I expect of them going forward.

There's the other hold up. This is not objective journalism. Rankings are by nature subjective, so, if you're reading this and I sound kinda snarky, it's because I'm being snarky. There's bias here and the Big Ten season is a long one and frankly, some teams are more likeable than others. The Big Ten is rich in history which means there's a lot of context to fan bases and their particular brand.

Also the Big Ten kinda stinks this year, so after getting past Purdue, it's a whole toss up of major-mid teams. (See what I did there?)

Anywho, let's get to it. Also we're scoring this. Rankings are supposed to fluctuate, but since there is a projective nature to these things, a loss is if I have to change a team's ranks more than two spots in either way after a week. I'll keep score so you don't have to. Feel free to play along at home.

Welcome to Casey's Big Ten Power Rankings.

A home loss is tough to stomach for a team that was ranked #1 for four straight weeks, but if you're going to lose at home, respond by winning twice on the road. Purdue responded to the Rutgers loss by beating Ohio State in the last second and dominating Penn State in the second half in Philadelphia. Zach Edey is still on the team and the best player in the conference and the country. There's not a team even close to Purdue in the first week of the power rankings.

Weird team. They aren't particularly good on offense or defense. (62nd and 39th respectively on the KenPom.) Michigan State doesn't have a particularly impressive win since November where they knocked off a turns out not very good Kentucky team in double-OT.

Besides that they're coasting on the easiest part of their schedule, and even with that, the Sparts started off by getting upset by Northwestern at home in their first Big Ten game. Them being 2nd here is much more an indictment on the Big Ten than an indication of Michigan State being a good team.

They'll play Illinois and Wisconsin on the road this week.

Wisconsin had been rolling with six straight wins, including two nice road wins against Marquette and Iowa. They looked like actually deserving of the #2 spot in the Big Ten, but then went and lost to Illinois on the road by ten.

However, I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt with the Badgers missing their best player, Tyler Wahl, who has had a great start to his fourth year. He's the Badgers do everything big man and even when he's on the floor, the Badgers struggle to find baskets.

Michigan State and Wisconsin will tip off tonight, but as of this writing, Wahl is still questionable to whether he will be available for the Badgers. Wisconsin is a team that knows what they are, and a sound defensive team. That's good enough this season to be in the upper echelon.

The Buckeyes should be higher than this. It could be argued they have the highest ceiling in the Big Ten. Brice Sensabaugh is a legitimate NBA lottery pick wing who is capable of scoring anywhere on the floor. Chris Holtmann is one of the best coaches in the nation and always has his teams out performing their talent.

But in what I'm inclined to call a let down game, Ohio State went into Maryland and laid an egg, losing by 7 to the Terrapins. This makes them losers of two and a row after Purdue came back on them and one on a Fletcher Loyer last-second three.

Ohio State has a lot of nice freshman, play great on offense, but something seems to be missing. Zed Key's injury hurt them against Purdue and the Buckeyes depth leads something to be desired.

Losing to Iowa at home was another bizarre turn in this Big Ten season. Rutgers looked like a team really coming into their own. They beat the undefeated #1 Boilermakers in Mackey Arena and then held court against Maryland at hom. They'd already beaten Indiana and should have won against Ohio State.

They are one of the nation's elite defensive teams. They're 6'7" everywhere and have just enough play making and shooting on the floor to be in every game.

But they got ran out of the gym by the Hawkeyes. They're still one of the favorites to challenge Purdue in the Big Ten, but their offense is too inconsistent to consider them the cream of the crop.

Michigan has three Big Ten wins against the bottom portion of the league. They didn't beat anyone of note in the nonconference. They are the definition of a major-mid team, not particularly good on offense or defense.

Michigan is not a sleeping giant or a very good basketball team. They have a pretty brutal ending to their Big Ten schedule and Hunter Dickinson appears to be the exact same player he always has been. There's a lot to like about their future, but the freshman right now aren't getting the job done.

Iowa had a good week, beating Indiana and Rutgers on Thursday and Sunday. Winning at Rutgers is no easy thing and Kris Murray has taken over the role of Keegan Murray and is thriving in it. He's making almost 40% of his threes and making over 60% of his twos.

If Zach Edey weren't Zach Edeying all the time, he'd be getting a lot more spotlight in the Big Ten.

But the supporting cast still leaves something to be desired. Iowa has bad match ups on defense all over the floor, have struggled to make threes, and has maybe the most baffling loss in the Big Ten this season to Eastern Illinois at home by 9 points. Even with Murray being hurt for that game, a team that depend on one player is going to struggle through the trials of the Big Ten.

Maybe everyone's second favorite Big Ten team? Micah Shrewsberry has done an admirable job taking an unorthodox collection of tough shot makers and creating a top-40 offense out of it.

Still, Penn State lacks any real effective big, and their absurd shot making covers up a lot of lapses on both ends of the floor. They are also one of the worst rebounding teams in the nation and don't get to the line. Nothing on the floor is easy for them.

They still have the potential to make the tournament and that'd be a great story and Jalen Pickett is the best college basketball player no one is talking about. He alone could win them a game in March.

It appears that Brad Underwood, notorious sideline lunatic, has found the way to right the ship at Illinois. That's cute. The hot-headed coach has lost his highest recruit, and Illinois lost its first three Big Ten games. That's a tough start to the season for a team with some high aspirations coming in.

Illinois did win when Wisconsin came to town without their best player so steady due course, or something ship metaphor appropriate.

They also have a pretty easy schedule coming up with games against Nebraska and Minnesota sandwiched around a match up with the Spartans at home.

Illinois has two of the best wins in the conference, taking down UCLA on a neutral floor and Texas on a neutral floor. They also don't have any disastrous losses depending on how you feel about Northwestern and Penn State. Still, the vibes, they ain't bubbling in Champaign.

Every one of Maryland's losses can be explained. Wisconin on the road. Tennessee and UCLA in back to back games. Michigan and Rutgers both on the road. There's not a bad loss there. STill, it's hard to watch a team lose 5 of 7 and feel great about them. They also played no one in the non-conference early and have just the one good win - against Ohio State.

Kevin Willard has done a good job with a bunch of transfers.

The record looks nice. That's what happens when you load your non-con with guaranteed wins, but then again, there's been some Northwestern teams of late that couldn't be guaranteed to win anywhere.

They've now beat Illinois at home and Indiana on the road! Northwestern has had a shockingly effective defense, 9th best in the country, but an offense outside the top-150.

Chris Collins has his guys playing hard and he has a bunch of really experienced players that seem to be outperforming our expectations. They still lack scoring punch and play making, but with a 12-3 record, it's hard to move them down anymore.

Nebraska would be a very good team if they could score the ball. They can't. They have the 147th best offense in the country according to the KenPom, and are shooting under 30% from three. They dominated Iowa at home and barely won in over time against Minnesota.

Fred Hoiberg is... doing better at his job? Nebraska is at least playing hard and nearly beat Purdue in Lincoln. Almost highlights are noteworthy for a program that's struggled to belong in the Big Ten during basketball season.

Keisei Tominaga continues to be one of the most fascinating college players of this decade.

It's not that I'm against the idea of trolling Indiana fans. It's just that when I choose to troll, it's much more blatant than this. There's just no way to feel good about this Indiana team right now. It's tough to be without two starters. It is. There's not a Big Ten team that's going to thrive under the same kind of injury concerns, however, the loss to Northwestern at home where IU trailed a good portion of the game by double-digits was as bad a loss as you can have.

Indiana still has the best player on their team, even if they're missing two starters. He also had an absurd stat-line, 18 points, 24 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 blocks. But it's probably time to ask if his stats are a little on the lighter side. They certainly don't seem to correlate to winning. After all, he had Jalen Hood-Schifino step into the lead guard role and have a career game, scoring 33 points and making 5 three-pointers and IU still managed to lose this game.

Those aren't the kind of performances you can have at home and still lose to an 'inferior' team. IU lacks a system, shooting, and the kind of cohesion and talent that their laughable #15 ranking last week implied. They head into the heart of Big Ten action as Big Ten's most disappointing team because the nation can't help but believe in a team that always lets them down.

189th in the KenPom, winless in the Big Ten, and the only Big Ten program mostly incapable of competing in Big Ten action though they did just take Nebraska to overtime at home. And they lost to Wisconsin by only 3 on the road... maybe I have Indiana too high. (See, that's trolling.)