It was a pretty interesting week in everyone’s favorite college basketball conference.
The race for the league’s title is alive and well with two teams atop the standings with one loss and two others with two.
Michigan remains atop the conference with wins over fellow contenders in Nebraska and Michigan State this past week.
Here’s winners and losers from Week 12’s Big Ten action.
Winners
- Indiana is slowly trying to play its way into NCAA Tournament contention and did itself a huge favor this past week with a home win over rival Purdue and a road triumph against UCLA, the Bruins’ first home loss on the season. Indiana still has more to prove and can’t afford any more missteps, but seems to have found something with the emergence of Nick Dorn at small forward.
- Michigan solidified its spot atop the league with an 83-71 road win over rival and former second place team Michigan State. It previously looked like cracks were forming in the Wolverines’ foundation after a few shaky performances, but they held off a comeback effort to earn a double digit win in about as hostile of an environment as they come. Additionally, they held off an incredibly strong Nebraska team at home, albeit after coming back against the shorthanded Cornhuskers.
- Iowa pulled itself out of a three game slump and flipped it into a four game winning streak with victories over Indiana, Rutgers, USC and Oregon with two road blowouts against the Hoosiers and Ducks.
- Illinois is riding the high of an 11-game winning streak culminating with Sunday’s 78-69 win over Nebraska on the road. Pinnacle Bank Arena has become one of the best environments in the Big Ten over the years as the Huskers have ascended, so winning there is no small feat. Keaton Wagler is playing like a bonafide star as of late as the Fighting Illini offense looks just about unstoppable. This is a Final Four contender.
Losers
- Purdue is here with a bit of an asterisk given Sunday’s road beatdown of a listless Maryland team. The Boilermakers entered that matchup on a three game skid with losses against UCLA, Illinois and Indiana, with the latter coming on the road as a rivalry bout. Those losses showed some real cracks in the foundation as teams were able to exploit the Boilermakers from deep. Is the showing against Maryland a true get right or an expected performance against one of the conference’s worst teams?
- Rutgers has had a remarkably rough go of it building back from the disastrous one-off season with future NBA Draft lottery picks Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. The Scarlet Knights sit at 9-13 overall and 2-9 in the league and ended this past week riding a five game losing streak with blown opportunities against Michigan State at home and USC on the road. It’s an encouraging sign that Rutgers may be turning something of a corner on another lost season, but those are still losses on the resume at the end of the day. That’s not gonna keep people from casting doubt on Steve Pikiell’s future in Piscataway.
- Minnesota is on an even worse losing streak than Rutgers, having fallen in seven consecutive contests. Worst of all, the seventh loss came on Sunday against Penn State, which entered that game having lost its last eight contests. Niko Medved’s first season back in maroon and gold hasn’t been without its highs, but it’s probably found its ultimate lows as of late.
- Penn State is here despite that win over Minnesota. The Nittany Lions’ defense has been porous as of late as the metrics keep turning redder and redder on their KenPom team sheet. It’s a young group, but the reasons for optimism are few.
- BONUS: The Izzone is one of the most passionate student sections in the Big Ten and deserves praise for showing up for its Spartans. Dusty May is well aware of this and left the locker room early to take in warmups, sitting directly in front of Michigan State’s raucous students in the process. They promptly let the Maize-clad May hear it, resulting in more than a few entertaining photos. Look, May and Michigan absolutely did that on purpose (it’s not very common for coaches to watch early warmups) and struck gold after beating their in-state rivals to seize near full control of the conference title race. The Izzone handed its rivals another win as icing on the cake of the one the Wolverines earned on the court. You can’t blame them for being passionate, but oof.
