Weasel Weekly is Meet at Midfield’s weekly look at Big Ten men’s basketball presented by guest contributors Drew Hamm and Stefan Zonia.
You can find Drew on Twitter at his personal account, @drewhamm5, where he talks Philly sports, Wisconsin sports, and other nonsense. You can also subscribe to his Wisconsin basketball/football/volleyball newsletter @BadgersBallKnow where it’s all UW, all the time.
Stefan can be found on Twitter @iamstefanzonia where he discusses Michigan sports (college and pro), sports betting and entertains any and all internet absurdities.
We split up the conference in a fantasy draft format. Here’s a quick recap of who is covering who:
Stefan – Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Nebraska, Ohio State, Purdue and Rutgers
Drew – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State and Wisconsin
This was not a good week for the Big Ten. It went 0-3 in marquee games, and the rest of the league played various garbage teams to varying degrees of success (what’s up, Michigan?). Let’s trek through the muck.
Illinois
KenPom rank: AdjEM 20, AdjO 44, AdjD 18
Results: (W) vs. Alabama A&M, 68-47
The Week That Was: The Illini’s win over Alabama A&M was never REALLY in doubt, but Illinois still needed a big run late to make the score look like the blowout it should have been all along. I don’t know if Brad Underwood was satisfied with the leadership his team showed against the Bulldogs but some players certainly didn’t seem satisfied with Underwood’s coaching.
Transfer wing Matthew Mayer, who scored a game-high 21 points in the win, unloaded on Underwood in the postgame presser saying, “I think we have a lot to figure out internally between the players and the coaches,” and noting that he was “pretty upset” about the intensity of practices the team had after their loss to Penn State.
The Week Upcoming: A loss on Thursday to Mizzou, in their annual Bragging Rights game, could cause the pot to boil over in Champaign and end this season before the team (0-2 in B1G play) even gets its first conference win.
Indiana
KenPom rank: AdjEm 16, AdjO 30, AdjD 23
Results: (L) at Kansas, 84-62
The Week That Was: Say what you will about Indiana basketball, and I have, but it certainly isn’t afraid to play anyone (except Butler in the now-defunct Crossroads Classic, apparently) under Mike Woodson. Sometimes, however, that scheduling strategy results in an ass-blasting on national TV at Allen Fieldhouse against the Kansas Jayhawks.
Even worse than the beatdown Gradey Dick and Jayhawks laid on the Hoosiers was the fact that starting point guard Xavier Johnson left the game with a foot injury and did not return. It didn’t look good watching on TV and Johnson couldn’t put any weight on it while leaving the court.
The Week Upcoming: Trayce Jackson-Davis had a bad offensive game against KU… but he also had nine (!!!) blocked shots on defense. The Hoosiers have a home game against Elon on Tuesday and I think TJD can get to double digits if he puts his mind to it.
Iowa
KenPom rank: AdjEm 21, AdjO 8, AdjD 74
Results: (W) vs. Southeast Missouri State, 106-75
The Week That Was: Star forward Kris Murray is still injured, but his presence was unnecessary against an overmatched SEMO team on Saturday. The Hawkeyes dropped triple digits on the hapless Redhawks, led by Filip Rebraca’s 30 points (on 12-of-13 shooting!), nine rebounds and six assists.
The Week Upcoming: Another titanic clash awaits Iowa this week as it welcomes the No. 356 team in KenPom’s rankings, Eastern Illinois, to Iowa City.
Maryland
KenPom rank: AdjEm 27, AdjO 27, AdjD 37
Results: (L) vs. UCLA, 87-60
The Week That Was: The Terps were really feeling themselves after beating Illinois back on Dec. 2, weren’t they? Since that game, they’ve lost at Wisconsin, lost to Tennessee in Brooklyn and were absolutely rinsed by future conference rival UCLA at home.
Now, losing those three games to those three teams isn’t “bad” in and of itself, but it definitely looks a lot worse in a row – right after everyone was proclaiming your team as “back.”
The Week Upcoming: Maryland has one game this week, against last season’s NCAA Tournament darlings Saint Peter’s. If that game is close (it shouldn’t be, Saint Peter’s is not the same squad they were last year) I think it might be time to adjust our (already adjusted) expectations for this team.
Michigan
KenPom rank: AdjEM 50, AdjO 24, AdjD 91
Results: (W) vs. Lipscomb 83-75
The Week That Was: Michigan’s second game in the post-Llewellyn era was not nearly as smooth as the first – because Minnesota might be the worst P5 team in the country and Lipscomb is slightly less terrible than that.
The offense kept humming along in this one with an impressive 22-point outing from Kobe Bufkin. Jett Howard was also much more involved in the screen game than he had been previously (likely a product of the week-plus of practice they had between games).
The problem remains the defense. Lipscomb’s top scoring threat, Will Pruitt, attacked Dug McDaniel possession after possession, using his size advantage to get to shots off that he made with alarming precision (5-10 from three on his way to 27 points). McDaniel looks mature beyond his years in terms of offensive decision-making but looks every bit like a freshman on defense.
Michigan needs him to grow up quickly because this team is searching for answers on the bench and coming up empty.
The Week Upcoming: Michigan faces UNC in a “neutral” game played in Charlotte, N.C. This is Michigan’s last shot for anything resembling a resume win in the non-conference. It should be a fun matchup of two teams whose offense is very much ahead of their defense.
Michigan State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 40, AdjO 37, AdjD 53
Results: Idle
The Week That Was: Sparty didn’t even have the guts to play a game this week. Izzo is soft.
The Week Upcoming: MSU will host the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, a robust 2-9 Horizon League Team. Things may have been more competitive when they were idle all week.
Minnesota
KenPom rank: AdjEm 178, AdjO 207, AdjD 157
Results: (W) vs. Arkansas Pine Bluff, 72-56
The Week That Was: The Gophers ended a five-game losing streak by beating a terrible Arkansas Pine Bluff squad (which has four wins, all of which came against non-DI teams named shit like “Champion Christian” and “Ecclesia”), but rest assured… this team still stinks to high heaven. They’re projected to lose every conference game on KenPom.
The Week Upcoming: I’m sure it doesn’t bother Minnesota basketball fans at all that former coach Richard Pitino is sitting at 11-0 with New Mexico and sporting wins over Saint Mary’s (on the road), San Francisco and Iona (Rick Pitino’s team) this year. I’m sure they haven’t even noticed at all!
Nebraska
KenPom rank: AdjEM 83, AdjO 125, AdjD 64
Results: (L) vs Kansas St. 71-56
The Week That Was: Nebraska participated in something called the Wildcat Classic despite not being Wildcats. It shot a dismal 4-21 (19 percent) from three and remains bad.
The Week Upcoming: Nebraska’s only game this week is against Queens College, in something called the “Battle in the Vault.” It’s bank-robbing time.
Northwestern
KenPom rank: AdjEM 56, AdjO 185, AdjD 10
Results: (W) vs. DePaul 83-45
The Week That Was: I give Chase Audige a ton of shit in this space. He’s a hyper-inefficient scorer with an infinite green light in his own mind. And it’s not just that he’s bad at shooting. He also demonstrates perhaps the most irresponsible shot selection of any player in recent memory.
HOWEVER, I will absolutely give him his flowers when he earns them. He straight-up torched DePaul. He dropped 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting (6 of 10 from deep). Well done, Chase. This game will certainly fill you with the raging confidence of 1,000 suns. He’ll be pulling up from the logo with 22 seconds left on the shot clock for the next month. Go off, king.
The Week Upcoming: Northwestern attempts to secure Chicago Supremacy by following up the DePaul win with a game against UIC. Dye the river purple.
Ohio State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 18, AdjO 4, AdjD 77
Results: (L) vs. UNC 89-84, OT
The Week That Was: Oh for fuck’s sake, Buckeyes! You had this one in the bag! OSU led this game most of the way and then just… stopped? UNC certainly didn’t do much of anything to win this game. OSU just couldn’t buy a free throw (7-14) and seemingly ran out of gas.
The Buckeyes did move Brice Sensabaugh into the starting lineup in this one with Isaac Likekele out. This is a move I expect to be permanent, as Sensabaugh has been their most consistent offensive weapon by any measure.
The Week Upcoming: OSU will wrestle the Black Bears of Maine on Wednesday night. Let Brice cook.
Penn State
KenPom rank: AdjEm 33, AdjO 25, AdjD 54
Results: (W) vs. Canisius, 97-67
The Week That Was: That’s more like it. My beautiful three-point hucking sons mopped the floor with Canisius on Sunday by 30 points and moved to 8-3 on the season. They are the No. 3 long-range shooting team in the nation and the No. 2 team in the nation in ball security. I don’t know who I’m going to cheer for when they play Wisconsin – it’s going to be an emotional game for me.
The Week Upcoming: The Nittany Lions get Quinnipiac at home on Thursday. I have nothing to say about this.
Purdue
KenPom rank: AdjEM 7, AdjO 5, AdjD 24
Results: (W) vs. Davidson 69-61
The Week That Was: Purdue won the first-inaugural Loyer Bowl. While the Boilermakers’ freshman guard, Fletcher, did outscore his older brother Foster 14-12, ol’ Fletch didn’t have a very efficient game, going 2 of 12 from the floor. Foster also dished out 10 assists to Fletcher’s three.
Zach Edey was, once again, ungovernable. He went for 29 points on 9-of-11 shooting (11-15 FT) and chipped in 16 boards for fun. He has been the KenPom MVP in all 11 games Purdue has played this season. He’d be the Naismith winner if the voting was today.
The Week Upcoming: Purdue hosts New Orleans. I’m looking forward to Edey taking on Zion because he’s probably the only person who can stop him.
*touches earpiece*
Oh. Oh dear.
Rutgers
KenPom rank: AdjEM 28, AdjO 128, AdjD 4
Results: (W) @ Seton Hall 81-57
The Week That Was: Rutger blew the doors off Wake Forest 81-57 in what some are calling “the only B1G/ACC Challenge game that counts.” The Scarlet Knights combined their standard death-star defense with a balanced scoring attack and when they play like that, they are awfully hard to beat.
The Week Upcoming: The Scarlet Knights do battle with the Bison of Bucknell. This is a game I will definitely watch and later have absolutely no recollection of.
Wisconsin
KenPom rank: AdjEM 35, AdjO 86, AdjD 16
Results: (W) vs. Lehigh, 78-56
The Week That Was: After three-straight close wins against very good teams, two of which were on the road and went into overtime, the Badgers returned home for an Exam Week Special. I’m sure this happens at many Big Ten schools, but around the end of the semester UW usually only has one basketball game against a bad non-conference team and there are almost always zero students at the game because they’re studying for exams or have already gone home for winter break.
Anyway, UW was losing to Lehigh at halftime this past week and it was the most predictable thing ever. Greg Gard gave the boys a talking-to at halftime and they came out much better in the second half to win by 22, but it was a painful game to watch – even more painful than a regular Wisconsin basketball game, if you can believe it.
The Week Upcoming: The Badgers have over a week off between games, and I’m sure Friday’s home contest against Grambling State, two days before Christmas, will be a fundamentally sound and high-energy game for all parties. God, I hate that I’m going to watch the whole thing.