After a first month of the season centered on non-conference games, the second part of the season begins this week, that of conference games. For four months, until the conference tournaments at the end of the season which precede the “March Madness”, the various programs of the country will indeed face the teams of their respective conferences.
USA Basketball offers you for the occasion a preview of each conference of the “Power Six”, the six major conferences of the NCAA first division: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12.
And after the ACC and the Big East, place today at the Big Ten.
A referenced conference but which has not won a single national title since 2000, when Tom Izzo and Michigan State won against Florida.
Last season was particularly disappointing for the Big Ten, as while nine teams qualified for March Madness, only two made it to week two of the competition. In other words, seven of nine teams were eliminated in the first two rounds, when the other two (Michigan and Purdue) took the door in the third round.
From the point of view of the pros, the Big Ten still placed two players in the Top 5 of the last Draft: Keegan Murray (Iowa) in Sacramento in 4th position, and Jaden Ivey (Purdue) in Detroit next.
The teams
– Illinois Fighting Illini (#1 in the conference in 2021/22)
– Wisconsin Badgers (#2 in 2021/22)
– Purdue Boilermakers (#3 in 2021/22)
– Iowa Hawkeyes (#4 in 2021/22)
– Rutgers Scarlet Knights (#5 in 2021/22)
– Ohio State Buckeyes (#6 in 2021/22)
– Michigan State Spartans (#7 in 2021/22)
– michigan wolverines (#8 in 2021/22)
– Indiana Hoosiers (#9 in 2021/22)
– Maryland Terrapins (#10 in 2021/22)
– Penn StateNittany Lions (#11 in 2021/22)
– Northwestern Wildcats (#12 in 2021/22)
– Nebraska Cornhuskers (#13 in 2021/22)
– Minnesota Golden Gophers (#14 in 2021/22)
Challenges
– The emergence of Kris Murray. We talked about it before the start of the season: Kris Murray, for his third college year, is ready to step out of his brother Keegan’s shadow. After a month in the 2022/23 financial year, he has in any case put his money where his mouth is, posting solid averages of 19.4 points and 10.1 rebounds. In its momentum, Iowa has won six of its first seven games, and is establishing itself as a serious underdog in the Big Ten, behind an Illinois-Indiana-Purdue trio that clearly seems to stand out from the rest of the conference.
– Purdue even stronger than last year? Again, we already touched on the subject last week, after their victory at the Nike-sponsored tournament in Portland. Around an exceptional Zach Edey now in the center of the attack (23.3 points, 12.8 rebounds), Purdue is reinventing itself this season, and even appears better than the previous year, or at least more balanced, when Jaden Ivey was there. We must now confirm this very solid start to the season (7 wins in as many games) against the Big Ten teams, but the Boilermakers, ranked 4th in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, clearly appear to be the best team in the conference, and the favorite for the title. Even if the hardest part is yet to come, and the season is still long.
– The year of the return to the top of the Hoosiers? Returning to “March Madness” last season, for the first time in six years, the Hoosiers want to move up a gear this season, like their coach Mike Woodson, who is overflowing with ambition. After a month has elapsed in the season, and while the conference games are going to reveal some truths about the true level of this team, Indiana is undefeated (7 wins in 7 games) and ranks 14th in the AP Top 25. On paper, this is the best roster of the conference. In fact, the best team right now is Purdue. We can count on the Hoosiers to do everything to prove the opposite, and validate a very nice rise in power to observe since last season, for this absolutely legendary program in the university landscape.
– In Michigan, Wolverines and Spartans still stuck in the soft underbelly? Last season, Michigan and michigan state finished the Big Ten season with a record of 11 wins and 9 losses, finishing in 7th and 8th place respectively. This season, it would seem that the two legendary Michigan programs are destined for the same fate. In any case, this is what the sluggish start to the season for both teams seems to indicate: 5 wins and 3 losses for Michigan, 5 wins and 4 losses for Michigan State. The two rivals present coherent workforces, but nevertheless clearly less dense and talented than the expected leaders of the conference, the trio Illinois – Indiana – Purdue. Unless there is a meteoric rise in the coming months in the conference calendar, Wolverines and Spartans should once again suffer from their rather low collective ceiling, and end the season in the soft underbelly of the Big Ten.
– Illinois, die another day. First in the Big Ten last year despite the departure of Ayo Dosunmu to the NBA, the Fighting Illini should once again easily remain at the top of the conference this season, despite the departure of pivot Kofi Cockburn (20.9 points and 10.6 rebounds last season). Their first month of the season (7 wins in 8 games), marked in particular by victories against UCLA (#8 of the Top 25) and Texas (#2), attests in any case to their collective solidity. This is the strength of this program ofIllinois, which knows how to reinvent itself every season. This year, the offensive boss is the winger Terrence Shannon Jr. (19.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists), and there is a solid group of good “role players” around him (Coleman Hawkins at 10 points and 6.1 rebounds, the “freshman” skyy clark at 7.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists or the former Baylor winger Matthew Mayer, 7.3 points and 4.2 rebounds). This 2022/23 version of Illinois is probably better than the 2021/22 version, and it is certain that the program coached by Brad Underwood is among the strong favorites for the title.
The player to follow: Trayce Jackson-Davis
We hesitated for a long time with Zach Edey from Purdue, but our choice finally fell on the center of the Hoosiers, Trayce Jackson Davis.
The pillar of the project of Mike Woodson, offensive leader of the Hoosiers 14th in the Top 25 of the AP, is on the basis of a new XXL season after the first month of the season: 18.3 points at 67.5% on shots, and 8.6 rebounds .
If he will obviously want to lead this Indiana team which has ambitions as far as possible, he will not forget certain personal objectives, such as the NBA of course. “Senior” this season, “TJD” should actually appear in the 2023 Draft in a few months. Likely choice of the second round, he will want to refine his rating this season, once again tiering his delicious “skillset” at the low post and on “pick-and-roll”.
Prediction: Purdue
We are betting on a Boilermakers title in the Big Ten, for this 2022/23 season. Ideally launched by a first month free from the slightest defeat and stamped with reference victories against Gonzaga and Duke, Zach Edey and his teammates approach conference games with a dynamic envied by a large part of the country, and are undoubtedly a figure, time of this writing, clear favorites for conference supremacy.
