A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
By the time you read this, the Super Bowl will be over, and the sports world will finally be able to turn more of its attention to college hoops.
A terrific Kansas-Missouri game on Saturday night provided a springboard into “Rivalry Week,” which features a number of intriguing matchups.
Before that tips off though, here are this week’s power rankings.
It sounds a bit odd to say this, but last week was relatively tame in the college hoops world since “only” nine teams in the Top 25 lost. Even so, there are no new teams in this week’s edition of my power rankings, just some jostling of positions.
Saturday was arguably the best day of college basketball so far this season, as a pair of Top Five sqauds squared off, the top-ranked team went down, and a buzzer-beater ended a lengthy home winning streak just to name a few of the notable happenings.
And as usual, that led to plenty of shakeups in this week’s Top 25.
After yet another week where nearly half of the Top 25 suffered at least one loss, the exercise of putting together my latest power rankings has proven to be challenging once again.
The middle of the list has proven to be a complete mess, but since road wins have been so tough to come by, there are some teams that actually stayed put or even moved up despite losing.
Since we’ve reached the halfway point of the season, I wanted to break down the contenders for Big Ten Player of the Year. I think it’s fair to say this list has some significant changes compared to what I would have put together prior to the season.
It continues to be an exciting, albeit unpredictable, season in college hoops. Twelve teams ranked in the Top 25 lost last week, with many of those defeats coming on the road. Consequently, putting together this week’s power rankings proved to be pretty challenging once I got past the first 12 teams.
You could probably count on one hand the numbers of minutes I have spent watching bowl games over the last couple weeks. It’s obviously difficult to match the excitement of seeing whether Clemson will allow 80 points or whether they can get in the end zone to cut the lead to 40, but somehow I managed to keep myself entertained with a number of close games on the hardwood.
Things are only going to get better as conference play heats up, but for now, here are the latest risers and fallers in the college basketball world, starting with someone hoops fans in the Hoosier state will be very familiar with.
A number of college basketball bracketologists released updated projections on Tuesday, and while it’s easy to argue the merits of doing this so early, it certainly makes for some interesting discussion and helps gauge where teams stand as conference play gets rolling.
I’ll be releasing my own projections starting next week, but for now I thought it would be worthwhile to look at how Big Ten teams are shaping up with as many as nine of them in some of these mock brackets.
In episode #16 of The Bottoms Line College Basketball Podcast, host Andy Bottoms is joined by Rob Dauster and Troy Machir of Ballin’ Is a Habit to discuss all the latest news and events in college basketball.
Before the season began, did you think Indiana would be ranked higher than Michigan State when the Hoosiers traveled to East Lansing to open up the Big Ten season? I know I didn’t, but they are.
Tonight, the 15th ranked Hoosiers travel to their own personal house of horrors, The Breslin Center, to face 17th ranked Michigan State. It is the first Big Ten game for both teams.
Indiana enters the game an unblemished 12-0 while Michigan State is 11-2, having reeled off 11 straight victories after starting 0-2 with losses to North Carolina and Duke.
As always, we will be hosting The Assembly Call IU Postgame Show, which starts as soon as the final buzzer sounds.
The Toms, Izzo and Crean (Photo credit: Kevin Fowler, LansingStateJournal.com)
Indiana is one of three Big Ten teams currently in the top 6 of Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. Michigan State is 14th. Kenpom’s projections for the game have Indiana losing 71-69 with a 43% chance of coming away victorious.
If the Hoosiers are able to find a way to win, it would be their first win in the Breslin Center since Calbert Cheaney was wearing #40. Tonight, he’ll be on the bench watching Cody Zeller wear #40.
Of course the biggest storyline for Indiana is injuries. Coming out of the Hoosiers’ win over UMBC, there were question marks about Will Sheehey, Derek Elston, and Verdell Jones.
Elston should be fine to play, but he will be forced to wear a protective mask due to the nose surgery he had to undergo after taking a stray elbow from Victor Oladipo.
As best I can tell, the latest update on Sheehey and Jones is this from Tom Crean’s recent press conference (via Inside The Hall):
On the team’s health:
“There is really nothing new to report. Will and Verdell stayed back and got some extra treatment before heading out for Christmas and they continue to get better.”
So that’s that. We’ll just have to see who suits up tonight at 6:30.
If I were to guess, I’d say Verdell plays and Sheehey doesn’t, but I am basing that on nothing more than watching Sheehey on the sidelines last week and the lack of any catastrophic news regarding Jones’ injury. I hope they both play, but more importantly I hope they come back 100%, whenever that is.
I know that we all want to get off to a good start in the Big Ten season, and it will be tough to do against Michigan State, Ohio State, and Michigan even at full strength; but even if we go 1-2 or 0-3, it’s not the end of the world. This is a good, mentally tough team that – I think – can overcome a slow Big Ten start and still get to 10, 11, or even more wins. There is no reason to sacrifice the long-term to rush guys back who aren’t fully healed.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go. The nonconference schedule was great, and far more enjoyable than I ever could have imagined, but now it’s time for conference play. The Hoosiers have only won eight games in conference play under Tom Crean, even regressing last year from four wins to three; 12-0 against non-Big Ten teams is nice, but the real season starts now. Hopefully it gets off on the right foot tonight.
As soon as the final buzzer sounds, the postgame show begins. Feel free to listen right here:
Use this number to call in and provide your thoughts on-air or to listen on your phone.
(MOBILE USERS: CLICK HERE.)
Our postgame chat will start late in the 2nd half and continue on throughout the postgame show. We may or may not have a moderator tonight, but feel free to talk amongst yourselves, and the hosts will pop in from time to time to see what the hot topics are.
Last weekend’s college basketball slate provided a little bit of everything, and a light schedule this week has given me time to absorb everything that happened.
So even though many teams took the week off due to finals, I am taking the opportunity to hand out some progress reports of my own.
As a rule, I normally stay away from the BCS bitching.
I, like most – would like to see some sort of playoff system in place. Taking the current four BCS games and making them National Championship quarterfinals (in the end adding two games to the season) to me seems like a logical solution.
To the naked eye, Alabama does appear to be the second-best team in college football, but thanks to one distracted night in Ames, IA a few weeks back, Oklahoma State will never have a chance to prove the case that they were more deserving of the #2 seat.
But college football is spectacular as it is: only 14 precious Saturdays with an entire menu of games available on television (no Sunday Ticket package needed) and mind-boggling finishes the norm on a weekly basis. Sadly, it is all over except the 35 bowl games, then nearly eight long months before the madness returns.
But there is one injustice in the BCS (besides continuing to give the Big East an automatic bid) that indeed will happen and must be pointed out.
Why are the Michigan Wolverines likely headed for the Sugar Bowl while the Michigan State Spartans are headed for the Outback (literally)?
The Big Ten has been a mixed bag this season, with several teams looking dominant at times but struggling when least expected. The inaugural Big Ten Championship Game pits two teams who have been through some topsy-turvy weeks against one another.
(And courtesy of our friends at Verizon, you have a chance to win four free tickets to the game, but you need to act quickly. Click here.)
The 13th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge tips of on Tuesday, and after 10 years of disappointment the Big Ten is looking to extend its own winning streak to three.
For the first time, both leagues have the same number of teams, so there are 12 games on this year’s slate. (In the event of a 6-6 tie, the Big Ten will retain the Commissioner’s Cup in case you were wondering. Spoiler alert: That shouldn’t be an issue.)
In episode #10 of The Bottoms Line College Hoops Talk Podcast, host Andy Bottoms is joined by Troy Machir of Ballin’ Is a Habit to discuss all the latest news and events in college basketball.
This week, they touch on several important items from the season’s first week, including the many upcoming early season tournaments. Among the teams and conferences discussed: Vandy, Michigan State, the MAC, MVC, and WAC, as well as Duke and UCLA to name a few.
