3 teams I like as much as any
Tier 1
Michigan, Purdue, Nebraska
Nebraska top 4 players are either the best or 2nd best in the conference
Michigan returns great defenders in Zavier Simpson, Charles Mathews, and Teske. So they should be able to build yet another great defense to go along with a Beilein offense
Purdue returns 3 of their top 4 defenders according to the numbers in Carsen, Nojel, and HAARMS. Carsen was one of the best / mosy efficient PnR players in the nation last year so the offense should be good with him
Tier 2
Most talented team in the conference is Maryland but I do question their coaching so going to just stick them at 4 knowing full well they could win the conference. I think their frosh are going to be great. Wiggins is my guess for Frosh of the year, especially now with him getting Huerters minutes.
Still,
BRUNO
Jalen Smith
Wiggins
Ayala
Cowan
Is a talented starting 5 with Morsell able to slot in at a spot or come off the bench as well. Had Huerter returned, I think you'e
talking about a top 10 team in the nation
Wisconsin And Iowa should both be much improved and be strong teams to compete for tournament bids. Iowa has so much offensive talent but Fran really needs to figure out defense.
But at the end of the day, Iowa boasts talents in
Tyler Cook
Jordan Bohannon
Luka Garza
They bring in a talented scorer in Wieskamp. They have do everything Nicholas Baer again. I mean, the talent suggests they should challenge for the league crown this year. If Fran has a healthy team all year and still doesn't make the tournament this year, I think I'm ready to permanently write him off as a coach.
Ethan Happ will probably lead Wisconsin in every major statistical category again, but he needs some of the guards to step up and hit those open 3s he generates so often for teammates. They have potential to come out of nowhere and have an elite offense ala Purdue this year if guys can simply shoot 3s around Happ because you can't really guard him one on one or he will punish you.
At the end of the day, the conference champion should come from my first 6 teams
Maryland/Michigan/Purdue/Nebraska/Wisconsin/Iowa. If someone else ends up winning it, it will be a surprise on the level of Ohio State going 15-3 this season.
Tier 3
Who knows what to do with Ohio State? Ohio State has a solid team and a good coach, so really don't want to drop them too far. Bring in a nice frosh SG who should add shooting to a lineup that has a good point guard and efficient post scorer.
Northwestern was set to be a potential tournament team until they lost their pointguard a coupleof weeks ago. They have talented and versatile wings with a good big in Pardon, and they lose inefficient on offense/bad at defense players in Bryant Mcintosh and Scottie Lindsey which should help on both sides of the ball, but they have no lead guard so hard to be too optimistic about them.
Indiana should be better than last season, whether that translates to a tournament bid or not remains to be seen. If they can shoot decent or better from 3, they have a chance here but it's hard to find where that shooting will come from on that roster considering most of their returners range from bad to awful in 3 point % and their two frosh guards shot 35% in their hs career from behind the arc.
Michigan State projects to start 4 bad defenders so their ceiling defensively is basically decent defense with a range out to terrible defensively. If Izzo has talented frosh and he replaces Langford and Mcquaid altogether, they could move up this list. Hard to see them being anywhere above middle of the pack if Langford and Mcquaid play huge minutes though. Cassius and Nick Ward are as talented an offensive duo this league has though. They really need to figure out a way to get them more shots and Langford less shots. Langford was second on the team last year in field goal attempts. On a team with 4 offensive dynamos like Miles Bridges, JJJ, Ward, and Cassius, that is just inexcusable from Izzo and this team doesn't have the talent to survive a mistake as costly as that this year unless he runs insanely hot from those midrange 2 point jumpers he fell in love with (nearly 50% of his attempts were 2 point jumpers!)
Minnesota returns some really good players but I can't figure out whether they'll be in the tournament or bottom of the barrel. Their sophomore guard Isiah Washington is a legitimate dark horse contender for all conference if he can improve decision making, I think. Ultimately, I don't know though. Hard to peg them. Could have a double dye in the B1G tournament or could be bottom 4 and playing on the first day.
Illinois may outscore some teams with their guards but have no frontcourt options as of right now so will probably get killed on the boards and defensively. I do expect them to have a top 30 offense though that will win some games for them that nobody expects them to win.
Penn State is on the brink of losing their rim protector and board man at center in Mike Watkins so I have no clue where to slot them besides towards the bottom
Nobody took a smaller % of their attempts from behind the 3 point line last year than Rutgers. One of the reasons they were so bad is because they're still lagging behind while everyone else is attempting more 3s. Hard to be optimistic about a coach whose offense is so poorly executed so I'm going to stick Rutgers dead last and not think twice about it.
