kobe king

Uh, brace yourselves? The situation is just a tad different from the last time I did this in early December, when Ohio State was on top of the college basketball world and Purdue ranked 71 spots ahead of Rutgers on KenPom.

Current Standings (As of Feb. 3)

Michigan State being tied atop the standings is unsurprising; being tied with Illinois, on the other hand, was less anticipated.

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As we're all too aware, Ayo Dosunmu has been great. [Campredon]

Illinois/Ayo Dosunmu. You probably don't need to be told this given recent events. Since the new year, they've been the #11 team in the country according to Bart Torvik's rankings, and they've done it on the strength of their stifling defense. That's not what anybody expected after watching the Illini last year, but Brad Underwood completely overhauled his defensive scheme to remarkable effect. They'd won seven straight—including road upsets of Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan—before dropping an intense game at Iowa yesterday. Their only Big Ten losses are on the road to Michigan State, Iowa, and Maryland, the three other teams most likely to win or share the regular season title.

As we saw in the game at Crisler, when Illinois has needed a bucket, they've put the ball in the hands of Ayo Dosunmu. He's been on a tear over the last eight games, averaging 17.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game while shooting 54/42/85 (2P%/3P%/FT%) and keeping his turnovers in check; over that stretch he has a 118 ORating on 25% usage. Dosumnu is starting to look like the player some thought was ticketed for the lottery when he arrived in Champaign. He's no longer mostly a transition threat, and while Illinois still needs more shooting, they're arguably the most complete team in the conference anyway. As Brian mentioned on the podcast, the pieces of this team fit together very well.

[Hit THE JUMP for Garza the POTY, Wisconsin's wild ride, OSU's fall back to earth, and more.]

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Please do not mention the Star Wars. Results will be unpredictable and depressing. If Star Wars comes up try to change the subject to something like Michigan… uh… baseball? Hockey and basketball recruiting?

Bleargh. Michigan canceled a home and home with UCLA for this:

The University of Michigan Athletic Department announced Thursday (Jan. 30) the addition of the University of Connecticut to the non-conference football schedule in 2022. The Wolverines and Huskies will meet on the gridiron during the third week of the season, Sept. 17, 2022, at Michigan Stadium.

That completes a nonconference schedule of Colorado State, Hawaii, and UConn. The home schedule adds Maryland, PSU, Nebraska, Illinois, and Indiana. I really don't understand why Michigan had to cancel UCLA when they already had 7 home games. Not a great look for Warde Manuel.

Welcome to the revolution. John Gasaway on timeouts:

We already have media timeouts and multiple reviews in crunch time. That’s enough. There should be zero timeouts.

Prepare your team. Let’s see who wins.

— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) January 29, 2020

That's even more draconian than my proposal, which would allow timeouts if a coach shears off one of his digits and hands it to a ref. (Or, in more extreme cases, delegates an assistant to do so.) Hopefully he moderates his views slightly going forward.

[After THE JUMP: Kobe King takes are bad]