1. Much like fellow freshman Nigel Hayes, Ohio State’s Marc Loving has the advantage of coming into a situation where he can blend in on a top-5 team with plenty of upperclassmen. Loving has been getting more extended looks from Thad Matta in terms of playing time, and has been taking advantage of the opportunity. Loving stayed on the floor through much of the Buckeyes’ furious comeback the other night against Michigan State over veterans LaQuinton Ross and Lenzelle Smith Jr. Loving has averaged 11.5 points per game in his last two, and is part of the reason why Matta is taking advantage of having a deeper bench then in previous years.
2. Tom Izzo really still doesn’t know what to think after the Spartans held off Ohio State on Tuesday night. “We survived, great teams have to survive. I think we’re a damn good team. But I don’t know where we are right now,” stated the coach. Injuries have continued to hamper the team, as seniors Adreian Payne and Keith Appling both battled lingering foot problems and muscle cramps respectively. This win could be the type of close-call victory that makes championship-caliber teams tougher, or it could be a sign that this preseason national championship contender will struggle to hit its ceiling because of injury problems.
3. Illinois made their first appearance of the season in the top 25 this week, but it might be a short stay after they were thoroughly dismantled by Wisconsin on Wednesday night in Madison. The team really is ahead of schedule in the John Groce tenure however, as they still sit at 13-3. Perspective is needed as this unit that features a bench filled with freshman, and two transfers in their starting five has done a really good job just getting to the level they’re at right now. The Illini should still make the NCAA Tournament, but the game on Wednesday showed that they still have a ways to go to get back to the upper level of the conference.
4. John Beilein deserve a tremendous amount of credit for honoring the letter of intent signed by Austin Hatch. Hatch survived two plane crashes and was in a coma for two months. He made his triumphant return to the court recently at his new high school in Los Angeles. And in Hollywood fashion, he drilled his first shot, causing his team to rush the court to congratulate him. Whether or not Hatch ever has an impact on the floor for Michigan, his story should be told to everyone.
5. Wisconsin continued to roll on Wednesday night, and in the process secured their place in the history books. They officially have now gotten off to the best start in school history with their 16-0 mark. Despite the total curb-stomping they put on the Illini, Bo Ryan still wasn’t pleased with the fact that Illinois grabbed 25 offensive rebounds. This illustrates part of the reason why this program under Ryan consistently overachieves. There isn’t any danger of this, or any of his teams getting caught up in the hype or starting to enjoy their press clippings too much. Ryan will make sure they stayed motivated and focused on the fact that there is still a lot of basketball left to be played this season.

CBS studio analyst and SI.com columnist Seth Davis wrote his annual article on Monday treating 63 teams as though they were stock market commodities. He gave each squad a designation where he chose to either buy, sell, or hold the stock of each team. When buying, it means that the team may be struggling right now, or struggled at some point recently, but he thinks it has a chance to play much better going forward. When holding, it means he thinks the team is likely to stay where they are, or that he’s unsure about what they will do going forward. When selling, it means that the team appears to have hit its ceiling and can only get worse, or that it doesn’t have much of a chance in his eyes. For example, Wisconsin and Indiana are both in his sell category, but for different reasons. Most of Davis’ takes involving Big Ten teams are spot on, but here’s how each of the eight B1G teams were listed, followed by a few takes about teams that could be classified differently.

Nik Stauskas will play a major role as Michigan attempts to prove to people that they can thrive without Mitch McGary (USA TODAY Sports)

Seth Davis’ Selections

Buy: Michigan State
Hold: Illinois, Minnesota
Sell: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin 

RTC Big Ten Microsite Changes

Michigan: (from Sell to Buy). Everyone has written off Michigan with Mitch McGary’s back injury, but Jon Horford and Jordan Morgan have stepped in and done a nice job in his absence. Davis mainly talks about how brutal the Michigan schedule looks, but 10 or more conference wins is still a real possibility. The win at Minnesota last week already helps quite a bit, and they could very well start 4-0 in the league before they go to Wisconsin on January 18. The stock on Michigan has been low since the team’s early struggles, and it plummeted to great depths when the McGary news broke. But there is still too much talent on this roster to believe that John Beilein’s team can’t finish in the top four of the conference. This could definitely be a value buy if you get the Wolverines now.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Bronson Koenig came to Wisconsin despite having offers from Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. Needless to say, he had a decent amount of hype attached to his game, but he hasn’t made a huge impact yet despite some good moments in his 14 games of action. One of the biggest things he’s dealing with in Bo Ryan’s offense is knowing when to score and when to pass. Koenig doesn’t really need to do much more than what he’s doing right now, however, on a team with veterans Ben Brust, Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson ahead of him in the rotation. He provides the Badgers with a someone to play 10 to 15 minutes per game at either the point or on the wing, and the experience he gains this season will pay off much more next year after Brust graduates.
2. Purdue is in trouble after an 0-2 start that saw the Boilermakers give up 78 points to an offensively challenged Ohio State team and 82 points to Minnesota on Sunday. One of the major catalysts to their struggles has been the defensive end of the floor. Minnesota hit 11-of-24 shots from behind the arc, and Purdue does not rank higher than eighth in the B1G in scoring defense, three-point defense, field goal defense and defensive rebounding. This goes against the blueprint that Matt Painter laid out in the early part of his tenure in West Lafayette, where his teams were mostly known for their defensive intensity. The Boilermakers almost came back and beat Minnesota largely because of the late success of their defensive pressure, but they need to start performing for 40 minutes to get some wins in this difficult conference.
3. Northwestern lost a transfer on Tuesday afternoon, as 7’2″ Chier Ajou has decided to pursue other opportunities. To date, Ajou had only played in one game and two minutes this season. This frees up a roster spot for next season when head coach Chris Collins can pick up someone who will make for a better fit in his system. It’s a credit to Collins that the transition over from Bill Carmody has gone relatively smoothly, with only two players (Ajou and Mike Turner) transferring so far.
4. The play of Derrick Walton Jr. has mostly been up and down, but both Michigan head coach John Beilein and Walton himself seem to think that things will become easier for the freshman point guard. He has already cut down on his turnovers — with only six in the last five games — and it’s taken a while for him to learn the complexities of Beilein’s offense, but he is starting to get more comfortable. If Walton Jr. can at a minimum limit his turnovers and knock down an open jumper here and there, the Wolverines will be in decent shape at the point with he and Spike Albrecht splitting time there.
5. Ohio State almost pulled off another thrilling comeback on Tuesday night, but instead lost its first game of the season to Michigan State in overtime, 72-68. The game showed much of what is already known about the Buckeyes. They are an elite defensive team, especially at the guard spots, but they are still and probably will continue to be a mediocre offensive team. Just like in the Notre Dame game a few weeks ago, this comeback was essentially fueled with tremendous on-ball pressure that created turnovers. The Buckeyes got almost nothing in their half-court offense last night, and unless LaQuinton Ross and Lenzelle Smith can develop more consistency on this end of the floor (or Marc Loving morphs from potential superstar to superstar), this will be how it is all season for Thad Matta’s team.

During Iowa’s 75-71 loss at Wisconsin on Sunday night, Fran McCaffery briefly lost his mind and went after the officials, getting two technical fouls in succession as his team was leading the game by two. He was miffed over a couple of non-calls on Gabriel Olasemi under the basket, and then a foul call on Olaseni on the defensive end as the Badgers’ Nigel Hayes went up and drew contact. McCaffery stated that he intended to get one technical foul, but that he didn’t plan on getting the second one. After receiving the whistle, he went after the refs in an aggressive manner and was immediately given the second T whereupon he was ejected. Today, per a release from the Big Ten,  McCaffery will have to serve a one-game suspension as a result. Iowa was also fined $10,000 and McCaffery was publicly reprimanded.

Fran McCaffery was suspended one game by the Big 10 for his actions on Sunday night against Wisconsin (Andy Manis/AP).

On the surface, this isn’t as big a deal as the amount of news and attention it’s receiving today. The reason for this is because Iowa’s next game is against Northwestern. Not to pick on the 7-8 Wildcats, but Iowa should be able to beat them with Peter Jok serving as player/coach. So in the general scheme of things, McCaffery missing one game is unlikely to affect the B1G standings. If you dig a little deeper, however, check back on Iowa at the end of January to see where they stand. Iowa is in a place right now that they haven’t been in quite a while in terms of expectations. None of the players currently on the roster have ever been part of a Top 25 team until this season, and none have never played in an NCAA Tournament game.

Read the rest of this entry »

The opening weekend of B1G conference play consisted of six games that were played to varying degrees of competitiveness. There were no upsets, but there were certainly some fireworks. Iowa’s Fran McCaffery might have drawn a future suspension for his outburst in the second half of his team’s loss at Wisconsin. Penn State’s DJ Newbill also was shown the exit after he got into an altercation with Illinois’ Kendrick Nunn. Here are some of the other happenings from the weekend.

Gary Harris seemed to find his shooting stroke again in Michigan State’s victory at Indiana.

Player of the Weekend: Gary Harris: Harris showed signs of shaking off his post-injury rust against Penn State last Tuesday, but he really broke out on Saturday in Bloomington, going for 26 points and five steals in Michigan State’s 73-56 win. Harris went 5-of-10 from deep, scoring eight points in a row during a 10-0 first half stretch that helped bury the Hoosiers early. More than just his scoring output, what showed that Harris is nearing 100 percent was how active he was defensively. Indiana tends to turn the ball over a good deal, but Harris was doing his best by flying around the perimeter to make sure the trend continued. The preseason Big Ten Player of the Year is slowly starting to show why he was picked for that honor, and also why he’s considered to be a potential lottery pick next June.

Super Sub of the Weekend: Matt Costello: Granted Costello only scored two points against Indiana, but the sophomore was another defensive standout for Sparty. He blocked three shots in 15 minutes of action, and forced a couple of other misses simply by staying big in the post. Michigan State blocked nine total shots as a team, and held the Hoosiers to an awful 36.8 percent shooting on two-pointers. Costello was a huge part of why Indiana’s shooting numbers were so poor, despite his limited minutes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wisconsin has been the story of the B1G thus far, as the Badgers improved to 14-0 on the season with their 76-48 win at Northwestern on Thursday night. Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky have garnered most of the attention from the rest of the college basketball world, but freshman Nigel Hayes is starting to come on strong as well. He’s emerging as a legitimate factor, giving the Badgers a tremendous athlete coming off the bench. Hayes scored a career-high 19 points in that game, and his play of late is something of which to take notice.

Nigel Hayes is starting to give the Badgers another weapon on offense. (Jeff Potrykus, Journal Sentinel).

“He listens, he works, he’s athletic and strong for a freshman so the combination is pretty tough to beat, and he feels that there really isn’t anything that he can’t do, but he knows he’s not a three-point shooter, so he doesn’t shoot three-point shots. He just does what he knows and he can do and what he does well. “

Bo Ryan’s quote here was in reference to his standout freshman while speaking with the ESPN crew after the win. The quote illuminates the fact that Hayes seems to know his place and is bent on fitting in and contributing wherever he can. He rarely forces anything on the offensive end, but you can see his confidence growing with each game. He’s now going aggressively to the basket, where in the beginning of the season he was more likely to have deferred to a teammate. In looking at Hayes’ numbers, you can see an upward progression as he’s gone for 15.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and a block per game in his last three outings. He has done this while shooting a stellar 63 percent from the field and getting to the free throw line 30 times. He was named B1G freshman of the week on December 30, and has a good chance to win it again after this weekend is over.

Read the rest of this entry »

As many B1G fans were watching the ending of the Illinois-Indiana game on Tuesday night, they may have been missing a good chunk of the Michigan State-Penn State first half. The Nittany Lions put quite a scare in Sparty, as they jumped out to a 47-40 advantage at halftime. This was largely based upon a torrid start from the three-point line (7-of-12), with a 10-of-10 performance at the free throw line and nine Michigan State miscues contributing factors. As an example, the Spartans had a 1:05 stretch at the end of the half where they turned the ball over on five possessions in a row, leading to an 8-0 Penn State run that put the score at 45-33. Michigan State went closed out the half strong, but Penn State was still in the driver’s seat. So after Michigan State went on to win the game, 79-63, by holding Penn State to 16 points in the second half (0.43 points per possession), what exactly went wrong?

Tim Frazier had an off night against Michigan State (Photo credit: theschoolphilly.com).

Let’s break down the half into sections.

• 20:00-17:23: Things began to unravel early, as Donovon Jack picked up his third foul in the first minute. This forced Penn State to go with three guards. Tim Frazier sandwiched a missed runner between two turnovers and Gary Harris scored eight of Michigan State’s 10 points to start the half. He hit two wide-open threes and one could sense a bit of a momentum shift. Penn State burned a quick timeout as they went from seven up to down three all within the first 2:37 of the half. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Over the course of 153 non-conference games some things have changed since the preseason, and some have stayed the same. In Gary Parrish’s comprehensive look at how things may or may not have been altered through the course of the season so far, the main point seems to be that the league is just as strong top-to-bottom as it has been in prior years. While there may not be a supposed juggernaut like Indiana last season, the league could get the 7-8 NCAA bids that they have become accustomed to, depending on how conference play shakes out.
2. Speaking of Indiana, the Hoosiers fell to Illinois in overtime yesterday afternoon 83-80. This loss begins the start of what very well could be a season where Indiana lives on the bubble for the majority of the season. They blew their only chances in the beginning of the season to get a quality resume win, and with the loss to the Illini today, Indiana fans might need to start to worry a little bit about the fate of this extremely young and talented team.
3. Thad Matta is known for using a smaller bench once conference play rolls around, and this came into play in the Buckeyes’ 78-69 conference-opening victory at Purdue. Matta primarily played seven players, and he really didn’t go with either Amir Williams or Trey McDonald very often. This is despite the fact that Williams has the second best plus/minus per minute of any player on the roster. Matta said that he is comfortable giving nine players quality minutes, but if either the big men, or Amadeo Della Valle are ineffective, he has no problem shrinking his bench and using different lineup combinations.
4. Purdue was essentially done in by their lack of being able to finish around the basket in their loss on Tuesday to Ohio State. Matt Painter stressed that this Purdue team “is better than it was two weeks ago,” and they really did look like a potential factor in the league during a solid chunk of this contest. They got 18 points and 16 rebounds from A.J. Hammons, but he also turned the ball over 4 times in the second half. For Purdue to really improve, they’re going to need to get more perimeter shooting, as making 21.4% percent of their threes will only draw more attention to Hammons on the inside.
5. It was a sad day for followers of the Michigan Wolverines, as their former coach, Johnny Orr, passed away at the age of 86. Orr is more known for his exploits as the head coach at Iowa State, but he still leads Michigan in wins at 209. Orr took Michigan to the National Championship game in 1976, and his death brought about many glowing quotes from his contemporaries in the game. The man who brought “Hilton Magic” to Ames obviously made an impact at Michigan as well.

In the first two months of the B1G season, many freshman have debuted to largely mixed results. Coming into the season, there were 13 freshmen in the league who made the top 100 of the recruiting services consensus index, and some have had a greater impact than others so far. What follows is the five best of the bunch as we head into league play starting this afternoon.

Noah Vonleh (right) has been the best freshman in the B1G so far this season.

• Noah Vonleh, Indiana (12.0 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 1.1 SPG, 56.3% FG). Vonleh has been the best Big Ten freshman by far in the non-conference season. He’s leading the conference in rebounding, and is getting it done on both the offensive and defensive backboards. He’s especially good at grabbing defensive rebounds, doing so at a rate of 29.3 percent (good for eighth in the country). Indiana has struggled to keep him involved in the offense, but he’s shooting a high percentage despite getting many of his points from put backs and trips to the free throw line. If Indiana wants to get off of the bubble and ensure another NCAA Tournament appearance, Vonleh has to be a bigger part of the offense.
• Bryson Scott, Purdue (9.7 PPG, 1.3 SPG). Scott has fit in rather nicely as a complement to the Johnson brothers pairing at the guard spot for the Boilermakers. He’s shown a strong ability to pressure the ball on defense, where he’s getting steals at the sixth best rate in the conference (4.2%), and he’s also done a nice job in being aggressive and drawing fouls, doing so at the second best rate in the league. He’s already led Purdue in steals seven times and scoring four times, despite only playing 17.5 minutes per game. Matt Painter has played its freshman class a decent amount this season, but Scott has been the player making the greatest impact. Read the rest of this entry »

Iowa and Penn State both got better within the last couple of weeks, as each team welcomed back a player who had been out of the lineup. The Hawkeyes’ Josh Oglesby returned after missing about six weeks due to a foot injury. Meanwhile, in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions debuted Pitt transfer John Johnson and SMU transfer Jordan Dickerson. Both players had to sit out the first semester due to transfer rules. The additions of these players to both programs will help tremendously as B1G conference play tips off later today.

Josh Oglesby will add even more depth to the Iowa bench with his return from injury(AP).

Oglesby had a memorable debut in an unremarkable game, hitting the first four three-pointers he took in Iowa’s last game, a blowout victory two Sundays ago against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. This was covered in a previous post on the microsite, but Oglesby simply makes a very deep team even deeper — Iowa has no worries of foul trouble becoming a concern because they can and will utilize 11 players. The Hawkeyes can already match up and play different lineup combinations depending on the opponent, but the return of the junior wing simply adds to their flexibility. The team can play big or small with an almost infinite amount of lineup combinations. The Hawkeyes are currently sixth in the league in three-point percentage at 36.4 percent, and although he won’t go 4-of-5 from deep every game, Oglesby’s shooting skill can push this number closer to 40 percent with enough playing time. If Fran McCaffery needs defense and speed, he can give Peter Jok more minutes; but if he wants to spread the floor in the half-court and get perimeter shooting, he can call Oglesby’s number. Oglesby looked like he was fully healed last Sunday, playing 20 minutes and not showing any real signs of rust from his injured foot. This Iowa team that is already off to an impressive 11-2 start just got quite a bit better.

Read the rest of this entry »