Deepak is a writer for the Big Ten microsite of Rush The Court. Follow him on Twitter for more about B1G hoops at @dee_b1g.
Three months ago, when the first preseason polls were out, there were three Big Ten teams ranked in the top five – Indiana, Michigan,and Ohio State. Two other teams – Michigan State and Wisconsin – cracked the top 25 and the stage was set for one of the best seasons in recent history for the conference. Over the past three months, some teams had a slow start (Wisconsin) and some came out firing (Illinois). Regardless of teams shuffling in and out of the top 10 or even the top 25, the last seven days of conference play have shown that every team is ready for the homestretch. Historically, the conference season poses tough challenges for the top teams because most of the teams hold a distinct home court advantage but we have seen the competition step up to a whole new level over the past week. Any college hoops fan that doesn’t follow the B1G on a daily basis can look at the sample of games over the last week to gauge the level of competition in this league.
Fran McCaffery’s Iowa Hawkeyes continue to compete in the Big Ten despite tough losses (AP/C. Neibergall)
It all started on Superbowl Sunday in Minneapolis as Iowa was about to pull off an upset over Minnesota on the road without their star player Devyn Marble playing a significant role. Marble rode the pine for most of the game but despite his lack of contribution, a young Hawkeye squad took the Gophers down to the wire but couldn’t seal the deal as the Gophers Austin Hollins drilled a three after a timeout which ended up being the game winning shot. If that loss wasn’t demoralizing enough for Fran McCaffery’s squad, they went into Madison and almost took down the Badgers on Wednesday night but fell short in double overtime. Despite the loss, McCaffery’s team showed great toughness because they played the last 15 minutes of the game with mostly their second unit – Eric May, Zach McCabe, and Josh Oglesby. It didn’t matter that their best offensive player, Marble, was still in a funk but the second unit stepped up as they tried to keep their hopes alive for an NCAA bid. It isn’t easy to keep a team focused after two tough losses on the road but McCaffery could get his guys to beat Northwestern 71-57 on Saturday night and Marble finally broke out of his slump by scoring 21 points. The Hawkeyes’ week shows that each game matters in this league and regardless of the experience level on the team, they will be ready to compete every night.
Speaking of competition, how about those Badgers not giving up against the top ranked Wolverines on Saturday in Madison? It doesn’t matter that Bo Ryan doesn’t have NBA talent on his team like his counterpart John Beilein who has the at least two players who could play in the NBA next year – Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. Regardless of the level of talent, the Badgers took every punch thrown at them by the Wolverines and fought back until they wore them down in overtime. Ben Brust’s half-court shot over Caris Levert to force overtime was the talk of the town on Saturday, but there were a couple of plays that were more impressive during the critical minutes. Down by three with 25 seconds left in regulation, Jared Bergren drove to his left into the paint for a thunderous slam as he was fouled to tie the game. The crazy shot at the end of regulation didn’t faze Brust as he remained focus in OT and drilled a step back three-pointer to put the Badgers up by three in overtime. We have heard of the cliche “throw the rankings out of the door,” when certain teams meet and the Badgers continue to strengthen the saying with their wins over top five teams such as Michigan and Indiana.
If you were not impressed by the Badgers’ week, you ought to be with Illinois’ wins since Thursday night. After stunning the Hoosiers in Champaign and rushing the court, John Groce’s squad went on the road to beat the Gophers. The Hoosiers may have been caught sleeping in the final minutes on Thursday, but the Gophers were not overlooking the Illini. D.J. Richardson and Tyler Griffey pulled were focused to prove that they may be “back” after a mid-season slump during which they lost five out of seven games. Similar to the Badgers, the Illini took a few punches from the Gophers during the first ten minutes by falling behind by 10 points but made a frantic run to take a one point lead at the halftime. Similar to McCaffery, Groce has done a great job of keeping his team focused despite the losing streak in January and his team may be on the rise again.
With Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, you have three coaches that continue to keep their teams focused for every game and have shown to the top Big Ten teams that rankings don’t matter during conference season. On the outset, it may seem like there is no “dominant” team in the conference, but it really doesn’t matter because the quality of play in the entire conference has gone up as a whole. We have had games where fans rushed the court (Illinois and Wisconsin) and three games that went into overtime (Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio State), but we may just be scratching the surface of the intensity of the conference season. After every week, we tend to re-evaluate the favorites in the conference, but let’s just enjoy the competition in the conference for now.