steve pikiell
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)
| B1G Record |
Overall Record |
B1G Efficiency Margin |
Record vs. Q1 | KenPom | Torvik | NET | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 8-3 | 16-6 | +12.9 | 4-5 | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| Illinois | 8-3 | 16-6 | +5.9 | 4-4 | 24 | 22 | 30 |
| Maryland | 7-3 | 17-4 | +4.8 | 5-4 | 10 | 19 | 11 |
| Iowa | 7-4 | 16-6 | +5.9 | 7-4 | 13 | 15 | 21 |
| Rutgers | 7-4 | 16-6 | +4.9 | 2-5 | 29 | 13 | 28 |
| Penn State | 6-4 | 16-5 | +0.3 | 5-3 | 16 | 14 | 24 |
| Wisconsin | 6-5 | 13-9 | +0.7 | 6-7 | 30 | 29 | 32 |
| Purdue | 5-6 | 12-10 | -1.0 | 2-8 | 28 | 21 | 39 |
| Minnesota | 5-6 | 11-10 | -5.0 | 3-8 | 38 | 38 | 44 |
| Indiana | 5-6 | 15-7 | -4.9 | 3-6 | 41 | 47 | 52 |
| Ohio State | 4-6 | 14-7 | +1.1 | 3-5 | 12 | 12 | 20 |
| Michigan | 4-6 | 13-8 | -2.5 | 4-8 | 25 | 25 | 31 |
| Nebraska | 2-9 | 7-15 | -8.7 | 1-7 | 136 | 128 | 170 |
| Northwestern | 1-10 | 6-15 | -13.9 | 0-10 | 120 | 96 | 149 |
Michigan State being tied atop the standings is unsurprising; being tied with Illinois, on the other hand, was less anticipated.
Stock Up
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.]
Sponsor note. Become an Alumni Association Member (or upgrade your membership) and you'll have a chance to win courtside(!) seats to the Indiana game on February 16th. See Tom Crean's pants up close and in person! I know he's no longer the coach but his pants are a grad assistant!
Sign up by the 9th to qualify; drawing is on the 10th. Enter the promo code LETSGOBLUE when you sign up.
The Wade family story. Andrew Khan gets the family background on Brandon Wade's departure from Duquesne and enrollment at Michigan:
In September 2018, before his freshman season at Duquense even started, his legs were hurting. It was more serious than shin splints and necessitated multiple MRIs. With treatment and pain tolerance, he gutted through the season, but his shooting numbers suffered. He finally shut it down for a couple of months in the spring.
But the Wades insist that even if Brandon had performed better on the court or gotten more playing time, he would have left Duquesne.
"We had some conversations last year that no parent wants to have," Keith says. "It had zero -- zero -- to do with basketball, which hurts a parent, especially me, more than anything else. Our family is such a basketball-based family."
Keith had coached his sons -- Ryan is a year younger and now a freshman at Holy Cross -- throughout their youth, both at Skyline and AAU.
Being part of the coaching fraternity, Keith says, "There was no way in hell I'm allowing him to transfer over some minutes."
It's been a rough few years for the Wades; hopefully that's in the past.
Is there a Don Brown problem? Michigan's defense has gotten blasted the last two years by OSU, leading noted Michigan twitter person Manuel Excel to wonder if Don Brown's defenses get worse as the opposition gets better. The effect, if there is any, is small, and the slope of Brown's line is up entirely because Michigan got nuked the last two years:
He describes this as an OSU problem, not a Don Brown problem. I'm a little more willing to put blame on Brown since OSU had Michigan downloaded the last two years—raise your hand if you're long-yardage conversion on a short throw—and Michigan had little to no response. That might be a program issue rather than a defense issue, but the offense was busy putting up as many yards as OSU gives up in a game in the first half. The defense couldn't fit OSU's most basic run play.
[After THE JUMP: Congratulations, Michigan fans: Illinois is good]
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