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
The Weasel Kingdom is in mourning. The Big Ten was defeated 6-8 in the final edition of the B1G/ACC Challenge. This prompted an IRL tete-a-tete between your two authors in America’s finest city: Philadelphia. We shared beverages, watched Michigan and Purdue play for the B1G championship, and cooked up a fresh back of takes for you monsters. Enjoy.
Illinois
KenPom rank: AdjEM 18, AdjO 34, AdjD 12
Results: (W) vs. Syracuse, 73-44; (L) at Maryland, 71-66
The Week That Was: In a battle of “who looks better in orange,” the Illini steamrolled Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse squad by 29 points. However, in their first true road game of the season, Illinois fell to a better-than-expected Maryland team. I’m not super worried about the Illini as they had a rough three-point shooting night, Matthew Mayer was in foul trouble, and they were still in it to win it until the final buzzer.
The Week Upcoming: Illinois has immediately proved the above correct with an 85-78 win over No. 2 Texas (more on that next week), and will next welcome a feisty Penn State team that always likes to make favored teams’ lives miserable. I’m not super worried about them… but I am a little worried.
Indiana
KenPom rank: AdjEM 11, AdjO 27, AdjD 11
Results: (W) vs. North Carolina, 77-65; (L) at Rutgers, 63-48
The Week That Was: Oh man, Indiana. After an impressive (???) win over preseason No. 1 UNC (now 5-4, on a four-game losing streak and out of the top 25) at Assembly Hall, the Hoosiers went to the RAC to play Rutgers. This is the most hilarious rivalry in the Big Ten because Rutgers fans (and even players!) have been genuinely aggrieved by a blog post that Crimson Quarry did many, many years ago.
There was a whole-ass article in a real newspaper that interviewed the author of the post (friend of the site Kyle Swick) before the game this week, and RU fans got mad all over again. Undefeated Indiana, in its Return to Glory season, promptly went to Rutgers and got stomped to hell. Again. THIS IS THE SIXTH STRAIGHT TIME THE SCARLET KNIGHTS HAVE BEATEN IU IN MEN’S BASKETBALL.
The Week Upcoming: Indiana plays Nebraska and Arizona this week. It’ll probably win both because this is a good team, and neither opponent is from the basketball mecca, New Jersey.
Iowa
KenPom rank: AdjEM 21, AdjO 3, AdjD 76
Results: (W) vs. Georgia Tech, 81-65
The Week That Was: Iowa played one game last week and pounded Georgia Tech without mercy. Kris Murray had 31 points (11-of-18 FG, 4-of-8 3P), 20 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks. What the hell? Did somebody tell him that I thought he was a fraud?? Is he doing this to spite me??? Holy shit, man, what a stat line! I need to go reevaluate some things in my life.
The Week Upcoming: While last week was a bit of a recharge week for the Hawkeyes, this week decidedly is not. They fell to Duke in NYC on Tuesday night and will return home for back-to-back rivalry games against Iowa State (Thursday) and Wisconsin (Sunday).
Maryland
KenPom rank: AdjEM 19, AdjO 12, AdjD 33
Results: (W) at Louisville, 79-54; (W) vs. Illinois, 71-66
The Week That Was: We here at Weasel Weekly have a pretty strict “Don’t Talk About Winless Embarrassments In December,” so we won’t be discussing the alleged D1 basketball team the “Louisville Cardinals.” However, in their second game of the week the Terps put an exclamation point on their opening portion of the season.
Maryland welcomed the Illini to College Park and local kid Jahmir Young, who transferred back home to Maryland at the start of the season, drained a three with time winding down to seal the Terps’ big win in front of an electric crowd. Fun game!
The Week Upcoming: The Terps are riding high, but nothing brings a team down like a trip to the Kohl Center to play Greg Gard’s Badgers in a rock fight on a cold Tuesday night. After that, Maryland has a pair of top-20 matchups against Tennessee and UCLA. Maryland is for real, but we’ll see if it’s For Real by next week.
Michigan
KenPom rank: AdjEM 47, AdjO 25, AdjD 89
Results: (L) 70-68; (L) vs. Kentucky 73-69 (in London)
The Week That Was: The Wolverines did not win a game this week. However, the overall impression of the team is that they are improving (which was also backed by an uptick in the fancystats). They played back-to-back close games with two very good opponents, had an opportunity to tie/win at the end of the Virginia game, and were close the entire game with Kentucky.
While neither loss was a bad one, the team isn’t doing itself any favors from a resume perspective. Beyond a “neutral” court game with UNC (Charlotte, N.C.), there are no other opportunities in non-conference to clock a win that moves the needle. This team has put a lot of pressure on itself to perform well in the conference if it wants to continue its tournament streak.
The team did get some really bad news beyond the losses. Jaelin Llewellyn suffered what appears to be a significant knee injury in the Kentucky game. The team was already very thin on guard depth. Llewellyn had been struggling with his shot, but he had been doing a better job setting up teammates, defending and being a secondary rebounder. Make no mistake: it would be a big loss if he misses significant time.
The Week Upcoming: Michigan gets to recuperate from jetlag with just a one-game week as it takes a quick trip to Minnesota on Thursday to open conference play. To say that this is a must-win is an understatement. The Gophers stink and Michigan needs to demonstrate that it can close out a game on the road.
Michigan State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 46, AdjO 36, AdjD 67
Results: (L) @ Notre Dame 70-52; (L) vs. Northwestern 70-63
The Week That Was: *Inhales deeply*
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
FRAUDS! YOU’RE FUCKING FRAUDS! YOU LOST AT HOME TO NORTHWESTERN. CHRIS-COLLINS-ON-HIS-HANDS-AND-KNEES-BARKING-LIKE-A-GODDAMN-DOG.JPG NORTHWESTERN! IZZO IS WASHED. YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES OF FRAUDULENCE!
Everyone was slurping Izzo just two weeks ago. What a genius he is! He knew he didn’t need to use the portal and just trusted his guys! This team SUCKS. I don’t care that Malik Hall has been out. They got run off the floor in South Bend. They came home to face a conference bottom feeder and got slapped in the mouth. They made Boo Buie look like a superhero (again!).
I don’t even know what MSU is good at. It gets occasional nice performances from this player or that, but there are no constants. This is an overwhelmingly mediocre team with some early results that looked more impressive than they actually are.
The Week Upcoming: MSU travels to Happy Valley to face a superior Penn State team. They then have a home game with Brown. Could the Spartans lose at home to an Ivy? Yes!
Minnesota
KenPom rank: AdjEM 151, AdjO 182, AdjD 134
Results: (L) at Virginia Tech, 67-57; (L) at Purdue, 89-70
The Week That Was: I don’t know what sort of contract Stefan signed with Patrick for this weekly post, but I hope it didn’t include a clause where we have to discuss every Big Ten team every week because I am going to run out of ways to describe how poor this Golden Gophers team is at the sport of basketball soon. (Ed. note: You don’t need to include these fools on my behalf).
Here’s a fun fact! Minnesota is shooting 54.9% from the free-throw line this season. That is good for No. 363 in the nation. Don’t know how many D1 teams there are? Now you do!
The Week Upcoming: Having not played a home game since Nov. 17, Minnesota has two this week against Michigan and Mississippi State. It should lose both comfortably.
Nebraska
KenPom rank: AdjEM 73, AdjO 98, AdjD 71
Results: (W) Boston College 88-67; (W) @ Creighton 63-53 (!!!!!!)
The Week That Was: OK, Nebraska was hot at home against a mediocre Boston College team. It was favored in that game, and everything went right for the Cornhuskers, so a blowout in that matchup isn’t that crazy.
But, Nebraska followed that up with a 10-point win AT Creighton! Wait, what the fuck? A top-10 road win? In MY Nebraska? Holding a very good Creighton offense to 53 points (with 10-of-40 shooting from three) is an honest-to-God accomplishment.
For their efforts, the Cornhuskers saw a jump of 34 spots in KenPom. I’m fairly certain I am going to regret saying this, but I am starting to believe that the Huskers are going to be frisky this year. The 27th time is the charm for Hoiberg!
The Week Upcoming: Because Nebraska was so successful against a top-10 team, it figured it’d take on two more. Games at Indiana and home against Purdue loom. The Cornhuskers will probably lose both, but I thought they’d certainly lose at Creighton so what do I know? Very little!
Northwestern
KenPom rank: AdjEM 64, AdjO 158, AdjD 21
Results: (L) vs. Pittsburgh 87-58; (w) @ Michigan St 70-63
The Week That Was: A very normal, and not at all weird week.
Northwestern is really bad. Losing by 29 at home to Pitt feels impossible because the Panthers suck, but fortunately for the Wildcats, they had a MUCH easier second game this week. As we all know, it doesn’t take much to win at the Breslin Center against an overmatched Michigan State team. It won’t be a great resume win, but sometimes just beating a bad team can help you get right.
Also, in honor of this win over the Spartans, we will suspend the Chase Audige disaster watch. He wasn’t efficient this week, but he made some winning plays for the Cats in East Lansing so he gets a reprieve. For now.
The Week Upcoming: Northwestern has a one-game week, hosting Prairie View. This is a big step up in competition from the last game, so it’ll need to be ready.
Ohio State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 20, AdjO 4, AdjD 70
Results: (L) @ Duke 81-72; (W) vs. St. Francis 96-59
The Week That Was: I’m not sure we learned much about the Buckeyes this week. Their game at Cameron Indoor was never really in reach, as Duke held a pretty constant lead after about 15 minutes of back-and-forth play. What is a little concerning is that the bench heroes, especially Brice Sensabaugh, were nowhere to be found when the competition stepped up.
Duke badgered the Bucks into a lot of bad shots, reflected well by Ohio State’s 3-of-13 shooting mark from deep. OSU has been better than I expected in the early going, but there are definitely some hard limitations to where it’ll go.
The Week Upcoming: OSU will host defensive powerhouse Rutgers and try to put a stop to its reign of terror. At least this one isn’t being played at Hoagie-World.
Penn State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 36, AdjO 29; AdjD 57
Results: (L) at Clemson, 101-94, 2OT
The Week That Was: My beloved Nittany Lions really blew it last week. They had Clemson on the ropes in the first OT after storming back to force the extra frame in the first place, but just ran out of gas in OT No. 2. Jalen Pickett and Seth Lundy each had 23 points and Camren Wynter had 26, but it wasn’t enough. I think I get angrier when PSU loses than when Wisconsin does. I may have a problem.
The Week Upcoming: A tough week awaits the Nittany Lions with a home game against an MSU team that probably stinks and a road trip to Illinois. I’m hoping for a sweep, but this has split written all over it.
Purdue
KenPom rank: AdjEM 6, AdjO 1, AdjD 29
Results: (W) @ Florida St. 79-69; (W) vs. Minnesota 89-70
The Week That Was: I’m already running out of things to say about Edey. This dude is insane. Neither of these wins were against good teams, but the performance Edey put forth was sensational.
He went for 25 points and eight boards against FSU, which is an impressive showing on its own. He followed it up with maybe the most impressive single-game performance of the season, going for 31 points and 22 boards against the Gophers. Plus, he continues to easily handle 30-plus minutes a game without any issues. Edey is the best player in the country and Purdue is a one-seed if the tournament started tomorrow. Boiler Up.
The Week Upcoming: Purdue hosts Hofstra, which will forever be on my shit list for changing its mascot from The Flying Dutchmen to The Pride. What a mistake. (Ed. note: It’s Pride Pride Month). Then, the Boilermakers travel to Nebraska for a date with destiny.
Rutgers
KenPom rank: AdjEM 30, AdjO 107, AdjD 6
Results: (L) @ Miami 68-61; (W) Indiana 63-48
The Week That Was: Rutgers lost a pretty entertaining game at Miami as part of the B1G/ACC Challenge. It hit one of those familiar cold streaks down the stretch and Miami was able to come back and pull away late. The Canes are off to a nice start, and I don’t think that will be too bad of a loss on the resume.
Rutgers then turned around and welcomed much-heralded IU to the Jersey Mike’s Arena and smacked the everloving shit out of them. This was a vintage Rutgers defensive bludgeoning. Killer Mopp was 5-9 from three for the Hoosiers, but the rest of the team shot just 1 for 16 from downtown and 11 of 31 from two-point range. They caught Rutgers Disease.
The Week Upcoming: Rutgers will attempt to suffocate OSU in Columbus before the battle for NJ supremacy against the Pirates of Seton Hall in the House that Hoagies Built.
Wisconsin
KenPom rank: AdjEM 42, AdjO 92, AdjD 23
Results: (L) vs. Wake Forest, 78-75; (W) at Marquette, 80-77 OT
The Week That Was: The Badgers had an exciting week of basketball, which is not something you can always say about this team. Their B1G/ACC game against the Demon Deacons was a close, back-and-forth affair they probably should’ve won, but for Wake’s Tyree Appleby turning into Steph Curry.
Then, on Saturday in Milwaukee, UW built a big lead against in-state rival (for three hours once every 365 days), Marquette, before blowing it in the second half… and then eking out an OT win. Chucky Hepburn was amazing for UW in both contests but left the game against Marquette in the second half with the classic “lower body injury.”
The Week Upcoming: Alright, I’m going to level with you. This is Patrick writing. I got this story a few hours before Wisconsin knocked Maryland from the ranks of the unbeaten, and that result changes pretty much everything Drew wrote here. He’ll have more on the win next week, but for now, the week still upcoming is a tough road trip to Iowa. If I’ve learned anything from these columns, it’s that Wisconsin will follow its big win with a disastrous, program-breaking loss, from which it will immediately recover next week.