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 Big Ten is trucking through the non-conference slate and now has six teams ranked in the top 25 (including the new No. 1). Despite the overall success of the league, the basketball remains exceptionally ugly. And that’s the way we like it, goddamnit.
Illinois
KenPom rank: AdjEM 19, AdjO 36, AdjD 20
Results: (W) vs. Texas, 85-78; (L) vs. Penn State, 74-59
The Week That Was: Illinois has been very good this year, but it just cannot seem to string good performances together against comparable opposition. This past week was more of the same as the Illini took down highly-ranked Texas in overtime, returned home, and laid an egg against Penn State.
Freshman PG Skyy Clark has continued to struggle against top-flight competition, which will hopefully help him later in the season. Terrance Shannon had a disappointing week as well, scoring 20 points on poor efficiency and committing five turnovers with zero assists.
The Week Upcoming: With it being finals time across most of the Big Ten footprint this week, the majority of these teams do not have a very full schedule. The Illini have one game this week, a Saturday tilt with a disgustingly bad Alabama A&M team. It’s a good time for them to recharge before conference play starts in earnest.
Indiana
KenPom rank: AdjEM 16, AdjO 24, AdjD 23
Results: (W) vs. Nebraska, 81-65; (L) vs. Arizona, 89-75
The Week That Was: The Hoosiers took care of business against Nebraska, which wasn’t a given because IU lost to Rutgers the game before and physically cannot lose twice in a row, but stumbled in a neutral site game against Arizona over the weekend. Indiana came out flat and the Wildcats jumped out to a big lead, but the three-point shooting of Race Thompson (!!!) got the Hoosiers back into the game.
Arizona pulled away late, though the Hoosiers put up a valiant effort in Las Vegas with star freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino out of the lineup. It’s tough to completely judge the Hoosiers for the loss since they weren’t at full strength… but JHS has missed three straight games (two of them losses) and IU clearly needs him back in the lineup to reach its full potential.
The Week Upcoming: The Hoosiers only have one game this week. However, unlike most teams, theirs isn’t against a non-conference cupcake. Indiana is traveling to Allen Fieldhouse to take on the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday in what should be a banger.
Iowa
KenPom rank: AdjEM 24, AdjO 8, AdjD 72
Results: (L) vs. Duke, 74-62; (W) vs. Iowa State, 75-56; (L) vs. Wisconsin, 78-75, OT
The Week That Was: It was a rough week for the fraudulent-ass Iowa Hawkeyes, who have now lost to three best teams on their schedule (per KenPom ranking) and look primed for another first-weekend exit in the NCAA Tournament.
Things started off badly for Iowa with a loss to Duke during a terrible Kris Murray performance and got worse once it was reported that Murray was injured and would be out for the game against in-state rival Iowa State. To its credit, Iowa absolutely BLASTED the Cyclones, holding them to four (!!!) points in the first 10 minutes of the game before beating them by 19.
Any positivity there was quickly squelched with news that Murray AND fellow starter Ahron Ullis would be out for a Sunday tilt against rival Wisconsin. Despite that, the home-standing Hawkeyes were still favored to beat the Badgers and, well, they almost did.
Fran McCaffery had one of his patented Pants Peeing Tantrums in the second half, Iowa fell in overtime and its fans bitched and moaned about how everything is Very Unfair online well into the next day.
The Week Upcoming: The Hawkeyes have one game this week, against Southeast Missouri State. Who cares?
Maryland
KenPom rank: AdjEM 17, AdjO 23, AdjD 28
Results: (L) at Wisconsin, 64-59; (L) vs. Tennessee, 56-53
The Week That Was: Coming off the high of beating Illinois to run their record up to 8-0 under first-year head coach Kevin Willard, the Terps had to travel to the Kohl Center – where good things go to die. They lost a close game to the Badgers, and instead of following it up with a bounce-back win, they lost another close game to Tennessee on Sunday.
I will give Maryland a lot of credit for only losing by three to the Vols because the score was 34-17 at halftime and the Terps looked like they had never played basketball before.
The Week Upcoming: The schedule gets no easier for Maryland as its lone game this week is a home matchup with UCLA. The Bruins have already lost to Illinois this season and will be looking to even their B1G record against the Terps.
Michigan
KenPom rank: AdjEM 44, AdjO 22, AdjD 85
Results: (W) @ Minnesota 90-75
The Week That Was: The week started with bad, albeit expected news. The fall Jaelin Llewellyn suffered in London did result in a season-ending knee injury. Michigan played its first game post-Llewellyn, inserting freshman PG/human pinball Dug McDaniel into the lineup.
He looked spectacular stepping into the lineup (Minnesota caveats apply), scoring 15 points on just seven shots and dishing out seven assists while only turning it over twice and staying out of foul trouble. Kobe Bufkin also handled PG duties while McDaniel was sitting and looked great doing it.
I believe McDaniel and Bufkin are better suited to play the style this team needs to play (a faster pace than what they showed to start the year), but the Llewellyn injury still hurts because of the overall lack of depth. I would be willing to wager that you see more Isaiah Barnes in the coming weeks, as he is a credible SG who plays good perimeter defense. They’ll need him to take more minutes to allow Bufkin to slide over to PG when McDaniel is out of the game.
The Week Upcoming: Michigan has a long, nine-day interval between games. It’ll face Lipscomb in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
Michigan State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 38, AdjO 39, AdjD 49
Results: (W) @ Penn State 67-58; (W) vs. Brown 68-50
The Week That Was: Sparty got two much-needed wins. The first of which, a road effort at PSU, is a very nice win. Penn State has been really tough this year and the Spartans held on despite another brilliant effort by Jalen Pickett.
The follow-up was a pretty uninteresting home game with Brown. The center spot remains an issue. While Mady Sissoko is fine defensively, he played a combined 37 minutes in these two games and scored 0 points on 0-of-4 shooting. Malik Hall will be coming back soon for MSU, which is big news because the Spartans are still playing decent defense, but this offense is cheeks.
The Week Upcoming: A quiet week will see Sparty host the Oakland Golden Grizzlies – a robust 2-9 Horizon League Team.
Minnesota
KenPom rank: AdjEM 167, AdjO 196, AdjD 160
Results: (L) vs. Michigan, 90-75; (L) vs. Mississippi State, 69-51
The Week That Was: The Gophers have lost five in a row now, and didn’t look particularly competitive in either loss this past week. Ben Johnson seems like he’s going to be a good coach for Minnesota, but this year’s team is just plain stinky. The Golden Gophers should PROBABLY win their next three games, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see them lose out beyond that.
They won’t, but I’m just saying I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.
The Week Upcoming: A midweek showdown with Arkansas Pine Bluff, one of the worst teams in the country, is all Gophers fans have to look forward to this week.
Nebraska
KenPom rank: AdjEM 80, AdjO 107, AdjD 66
Results: (L) @ Indiana 81-85; (L) vs. Purdue 65-62
The Week That Was: Damn! Our beloved Cornhuskers almost pulled off one of the more shocking results of the season. They played Purdue in a classic Big Ten rock fight with both teams only eclipsing 60 points in the waning moments of the game. Nebraska ultimately fell by three, but it was a really nice effort.
The IU game followed a much more typical script for Nebraska. It had a player chucking up nonsense that was going in at an unreasonable rate (in this game it was CJ Wilcher), but that proved an untenable way to play offense and eventually, the Cornhuskers were routed.
The Week Upcoming: Nebraska’s only game this week involves traveling to Manhattan, Kansas to face the 9-1 K-State Wildcats.
Northwestern
KenPom rank: AdjEM 67, AdjO 186, AdjD 18
Results: (W) vs. Prairie View 71-61
The Week That Was: The Northwestern juggernaut rolls along full steam ahead – it won its only game fairly comfortably to move to 7-2. The Wildcats did this despite Chase Audige once again humiliating himself on whatever airwaves broadcast things like Northwestern/Prairie View Men’s Basketball.
Chase Audige Disaster Watch: The Weasel’s favorite bricklayer went 4-of-14 against Prairie View. For those keeping track at home, he is currently clocking a 25.3 percent usage rate despite a 95.5 ORtg. Truly dreadful.
The Week Upcoming: Northwestern has another one-game week, hosting DePaul. The winners are crowned Kings of Chicago. The losers have to play for the Bears.
Ohio State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 20, AdjO 3, AdjD 81
Results: (“W”) vs. Rutgers 67-66 (real score was 66-64 Rutgers)
The Week That Was: I CALL BULLSHIT. The Ohio State Men’s Basketball Team has once again defrauded America at the expense of sweet, hard-working and lovable Rutgers. As time ticked down in their game in Columbus, Rutgers split a pair of free throws to go up two. OSU brought the ball up the floor and Tanner Holden, who had not attempted a shot all game, hit an improbable shot from about 35-feet on the sideline. Cool shit, right?
WAIT JUST A MINUTE. Tanner Holden, who should now be on FBI watchlists, ran down the floor out of bounds, of his own volition, and did not reestablish himself back in bounds before touching the ball. This shot, while cool, was clearly not supposed to count. Poor Rutgers.
The Week Upcoming: OSU will attempt to cheat its way to victory against UNC this weekend.
Penn State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 33, AdjO 34, AdjD 45
Results: (L) vs. Michigan State, 67-58; (W) at Illinois, 74-59
The Week That Was: My beautiful, three-point-hucking sons had a wild week. A home loss to Michigan State, after the rough double OT loss to Clemson the week before, had some (NOT ME) thinking that PSU was in for a bit of a slide.
Instead, it came right back and whipped Illinois on its home court and is now staring directly at a 10-3 record heading into the New Year.
Andrew Funk went 6 of 9 from deep against the Illini and Myles Dread went 5 of 9 as the team shot 50 percent from beyond the arc on 24 attempts. Per KenPom, PSU’s “four factors” are currently ranked No. 19 (eFG percent), No. 6 (turnover percentage), No. 357 (offensive rebounding percentage) and No. 353 (free throw rate). Combine that with the eighth-highest three-point rate in the country and the 11th-best percentage on those tries? Baby, you’ve got a stew going.
The Week Upcoming: A home game with Canisius is on the docket this week, and those boys do NOT defend the three-point line well. I’m praying for them.
Purdue
KenPom rank: AdjEM 5, AdjO 2, AdjD 29
Results: (W) vs. Hofstra 85-66; (W) @ Nebraska 65-62
The Week That Was: Ladies and Gentleweasels, your new No. 1 ranked team in the nation is the Purdue Boilermakers! It’s no surprise, really. Zach Edey is a cheat code. They’re getting nice contributions from players like Caleb Furst, Braden Smith, and the man many are calling “the most handsome Loyer brother.”
This team did sort of sleepwalk against Nebraska in a way that might have raised some eyebrows, but they haven’t been challenged yet when they’re focused and rolling.
The Week Upcoming: Purdue hosts Davidson. Steph Curry isn’t coming through that door – he wants no piece of this Purdue team.
Rutgers
KenPom rank: AdjEM 32, AdjO 144, AdjD 4
Results: (“L”) @ OSU 67-66; (L) vs. Seton Hall 45-43
The Week That Was: It was just a cataclysmic week for your Scarlet Knights, reader. First, they were railroaded by the fraudulent game-winner in Columbus.
Then, heartbroken and wandering the great abyss of New Jersey, they were boarded by (the Seton Hall) Pirates and lost a rock-rock-rock competition in which they accidentally threw scissors. Now, they aren’t even the best team in New Jersey. This is truly bleak.
The Week Upcoming: Rutgers will attempt to love again when it faces Wake Forest at Jersey Mike’s Arena. You can do it, Young Kings.
Wisconsin
KenPom rank: AdjEM 35, AdjO 93, AdjD 14
Results: (W) vs. Maryland, 64-59; (W) at Iowa, 78-75, OT
The Week That Was: What a week for the nationally beloved Wisconsin Badgers! After beating Marquette in OT to end the previous week, Wisconsin outlasted an undefeated Maryland team at home and then went on the road, blew a big lead to Iowa in the last minute of the game, didn’t care about that at all, and ended up winning in OT.
McCaffery filling his diaper and Tyler Wahl waving the Iowa fans home were two delicious cherries on top of the wonderful sundae that was Badgers basketball last week. The Haters are once again apoplectic that a “bad” Greg Gard team is actually “good.”
The Week Upcoming: Drew didn’t write anything for this section (or it was cut off at some point) so I’m going to assume that Wisconsin basketball has finally been taken into custody.