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
Illinois
KenPom rank: AdjEm 29, AdjO 40, AdjD 22
Results: (W) vs. Eastern Illinois, 87-57; (W) vs. UMKC, 86-48
The Week That Was: After a daunting first week of the season against two teams ranked No. 300 or worse in KenPom’s ratings, Illinois sits at 2-0. This team looks entirely different from last year’s outfit, which featured Kofi Cockburn, Trent Frazier, Alfonso Plummer, and Jacob Grandison, but the new faces have kept up the winning.
There isn’t too much to glean from these two blowouts, but we must talk about Dain Dainja.
The Baylor transfer – not even the most touted transfer from Baylor to join the Illini – had two MONSTER games for Illinois. He’s shooting 85 percent (17-of-20) from the field, rebounding every ball in sight and blocking an absurd 16.3 percent of the shots attempted while he’s in the game. He’s recorded back-to-back double-doubles (17 and 10 vs. EIU, 20 and 15 vs. UMKC) after playing nine (9) minutes total as a freshman last year.
The Week Upcoming: The competition will kick up a notch or five this week for Illinois. After one more home cupcake (Monmouth), the Illini head to Sin City for the Continental Tire Main Event where they’ll play UCLA first and then either Baylor or Virginia in their next game. All three of those teams are ranked in the top-11 of KenPom’s rankings as of Monday morning.
Indiana
KenPom rank: AdjEm 8, AdjO 16, AdjD 6
Results: (W) vs. Morehead State, 88-53; (W) vs. Bethune Cookman, 101-49
The Week That Was: Big man Trayce Jackson-Davis is ramping up to all-conference levels, freshmen Jalen Hood-Schifino and Malik Reneau are settling in nicely, and Primal Miller Kopp is 6-of-8 from deep to start the season.
Jackson-Davis and fellow big man Race Thompson have committed zero combined fouls so far. Some might say that it’s a small sample-size situation, but other, smarter, more handsome people would say that IT’S A CONSPIRACY AND KEVIN WARREN’S HEAD NEEDS TO BE ON A PIKE.
The Week Upcoming: The Hoosiers play at Xavier in the Gavitt Games on Friday. It’ll be a nice early-season test – I’m jacked to see TJD battle with all-Big East big man Jack Nunge. Their second game of the week is in Indy against Miami (Ohio).
Iowa
KenPom rank: AdjEM 18, AdjO 5, AdjD 68
Results: (W) vs. Bethune Cookman, 89-58; (W) vs. North Carolina A&T, 112-71
The Week That Was: This team can put the ball in the basket. The Hawkeyes haven’t scored 112 points in a game since, uh, March 10, 2022 against Northwestern. An almost interminable eight months of hell for Iowa fans is thankfully over.
The Week Upcoming: A trip to Seton Hall for the Gavitt Games awaits the Hawkeyes on Wednesday before they return home for a tune-up game against Nebraska Omaha. For those who only watch college hoops during March Madness, the Pirates are now coached by Shaheen Holloway, who led Saint Peter’s on its miracle run in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Maryland
KenPom rank: AdjEm 48, AdjO 51, AdjD 46
Results: (W) vs. Niagara, 71-49; (W) vs. Western Carolina, 71-51
The Week That Was: At their rate of scoring exactly 71 points in every game but giving up two more points than the previous game, the Terps won’t lose until game No. 12 of the season when they tie UMBC, 71-71.
Transfer point guard Jahmir Young is off to a good start for Kevin Williard’s squad, averaging 15.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 2.5 APG in his first week with Maryland.
The Terps’ defense looked good in the first week of the season and that’ll travel, even if their offense is up and down. I really don’t know what to make of this team and, shockingly, two 20-plus-point wins over bad teams haven’t helped at all!
The Week Upcoming: Maryland travels to scenic Uncasville, Conn., this coming weekend for the 2022 Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off and will get a pair of games in against Saint Louis and Miami (Fla.) or Providence.
Michigan
KenPom rank: AdjEM 31, AdjO 22, AdjD 54
Results: (W) vs. PFW 75-56; (W) vs. EMU 88-83
The Week That Was: Michigan was impressive in its victory over PFW, the potential Horizon League favorite. It was missing its leading scorer from last year, Jarred Godfrey, so there is a significant caveat to apply here, but it was a nice test for UM’s significantly overturned roster.
The EMU game was a great watch. Emoni Bates and Hunter Dickinson went to war with an entertaining back-and-forth in a juiced-up arena. It was probably closer than it should have been, and the biggest concern so far in the early going has been the perimeter defense. It’s been very bad, and Jett Howard is a big part of that. It’s something to monitor going forward.
The Week Upcoming: Michigan plays in the Legends Classic and will face Pitt to start, followed by either Arizona State/VCU depending on results. It wraps up the week with some MACtion, facing Ohio at home.
Michigan State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 27, AdjO 36, AdjD 25
Results: (W) vs. NAU 73-55; (L) vs. Gonzaga 64-63
The Week That Was: There wasn’t a lot to take away from the opener against Northern Arizona. MSU played predictably good defense against an overmatched opponent and got a wide array of contributions from up and down the roster.
The Gonzaga game is a different story. Played on an aircraft carrier, this game was just a random number generator in an environment that won’t be like anything else either team plays again all year.
To its credit, MSU had a sound strategy. It went under every single screen, clogging the post against Drew Timme and just allowing Gonzaga to shoot in the unusual environment. It damn near worked, but MSU couldn’t find one more basket to win the game at the end – making it the only Big Ten team with a loss of the week. Rejoice.
The Week Upcoming: MSU will face Kentucky in the Champions Classic before a nice break against… Villanova? 1-3 soon come.
Minnesota
KenPom rank: AdjEm 118, AdjO 110, AdjD 134
Results: (W) vs. Western Michigan, 61-60; (W) vs. St. Francis (N.Y.), 72-54
The Week That Was: These guys are going to stink. HOWEVER, they should stink in an exciting fashion – much like their women’s team, which beat Lehigh 101-99 on a crazy buzzer-beating three on Sunday evening.
Minnesota was cruising to a close-ish win against WMU in the opener before surrendering a 10-2 run over the final two minutes of the game to turn it into a one-point thriller. Five-star UNC/Marquette transfer big man Dawson Garcia dropped 23 points on the Broncos and Morehead State transfer Ta’Lon Cooper nearly had a triple-double (17/8/10) in the win.
Look at this dunk!
See? Exciting!
The Week Upcoming: By the time this publishes the Gophers will have already played their Gavitt Games matchup against DePaul. The Blue Demons aren’t very good, but they’re probably better than the Gophers. We’ll learn a lot about how many wins to expect for Minnesota this season based on the result of that game.
Nebraska
KenPom rank: AdjEM 112, AdjO 115, AdjD 115
Results: (W) vs. Maine 79-66; (W) vs. Omaha 75-61
The Week That Was: Nebraska won two uninspiring games against Maine and Omaha in which it posted pedestrian AdjO and AdjD numbers. Nothing terrible. Nothing great. Just smack in the middle of the realm of mediocrity. This, of course, represents a significant improvement over last season (or any of the seasons under Hoiberg). Frankly, it represents an improvement for Nebraska in really any major sport.
The Week Upcoming: Nebraska draws a trip to St. John’s for the Gavitt Games. SJU will be a notable favorite but I have somehow talked myself into a belief that maybe Big Red can pull this off (an absolutely ludicrous thing to believe). They follow up with Pine Bluff, one of the absolute worst teams in the country.
Northwestern
KenPom rank: AdjEM 68, AdjO 103, AdjD 38
Results: (W) vs. Chicago St 85-54; (W) vs. N. Illinois 63-46
The Week That Was: Northwestern blasted two dreadful teams in Chicago State and NIU. The Cats played some really suffocating defense, finishing those games with AdjD scores of 84.0 and 81.9, respectively. That’s pretty good!
OK, now about what I REALLY want to talk about: Chase Audige. What the hell is this guy’s deal?
The Week Upcoming: If you want to know how bad things are at Georgetown… it’s a 2.5-point HOME UNDERDOG against Northwestern. Jesus.
Ohio State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 28, AdjO 19, AdjD 51
Results: (W) vs. Robert Morris 91-53; (W) vs. Charleston So. 82-56
The Week That Was: Ohio State absolutely bombed two terrible teams in week one. It’s had a pretty balanced attack with Justice Sueing, Brice Sensabaugh and Zed Key all at 15-plus PPG and another five players who are over 5 PPG behind them.
The Week Upcoming: OSU has another quiet week, with just one game against Eastern Illinois on tap. We’ll have to wait another week to see the Buckeyes face an actual opponent (they play SDSU in the Maui on 11/21), so it’s going to be hard to make any sweeping observations until then.
Penn State
KenPom rank: AdjEm 33, AdjO 17, AdjD 70
Results: (W) vs. Winthrop, 93-68; (W) vs. Loyola (Md.) 90-65
The Week That Was: I am dangerously high on this Penn State team, and they’re doing nothing to bring me down. They currently have a 70.9 eFG% as a team. That’s FIRST in the whole damn nation!!!
Of the five players that are averaging four or more three-point attempts per game, four of them are shooting 46.7 percent or better and Myles Dread is shooting an eye-popping 61.5 percent (8-of-13) by himself. Jalen Pickett continues to impress, dropping 23 points in the first game and then, when his shot wasn’t falling in game two, dishing out 11 assists.
This team is fun and good and there is still plenty of room on the bandwagon with me, Bill DiFilippo, and, uh… I don’t know? Probably my buddy Barrett from high school? I haven’t talked to him in decades but he was a big PSU hoops fan when the Crispin brothers were lighting things up – I mean, who wasn’t?
The Week Upcoming: The Nittany Lions played Butler on Monday in the Gavitt Games, which is easily their toughest test of the season – and which happened after the writing of this article. We want to keep these to a clean week.
Then on Thursday, they play Furman – an even tougher test in the first round of the Charleston Classic. They’ll play either Old Dominion or Virginia Tech in the next round and then have a third game on Sunday in which they’ll play Colorado State, South Carolina, Davidson, or College of Charleston. Busy week!
Purdue
KenPom rank: AdjEM 22, AdjO 15, AdjD 41
Results: (W) vs. Milwaukee 84-53; (W) vs. Austin Peay 63-44
The Week That Was: To nobody’s surprise, Purdue throttled its week one opponents on the glass. It had an 18-rebound margin against Milwaukee and followed with a 20-board margin against Austin Peay. The difference in the two games was shot-making.
Purdue shot a passable 12-34 from three in game one, then really struggled in game two, going 2-19. Given the track record of the roster, the former seems much more representative of the talent level.
The ongoing point of interest with Purdue will be seeing who emerges as the secondary go-to alongside Zach Edey. Through two games it has surprisingly been Fletcher Loyer, who has 22 points on very inefficient shooting (8-24 FG; 5-17 3PT). If ol’ Fletch is trying to avoid the “Foster Loyer but tall” charges, he’s going to have to do a whole lot better because that’s a Foster Loyer-ass shooting line.
The Week Upcoming: Purdue gets a step up in quality as it faces the Shaka Smart Golden Eagles in the Gavitt Games. Marquette has looked good in its first two games and will give Purdue something resembling a test.
Rutgers
KenPom rank: AdjEM 43, AdjO 94, AdjD 12
Results: (W) vs. Columbia 75-35; (W) vs. Sacred Heart 88-50; (W) vs. UMass-Lowell 73-65
The Week That Was: I am calling on the National Guard to break up Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights won their three opening-week games with their normal ruthless defense, but also with some unusually well-balanced offense. Loyola-MD transfer Cam Spencer has hit the ground running with 16.7 PPG thus far.
Their defense remains hellacious. They’ve recorded an astounding 41 steals through three games and their AdjD in their games so far have been 58.2, 72.9 and 89.9. Pretty damn good.
The Week Upcoming: Rutgers takes on Temple in the HOF Challenge. The Owls are coming fresh off their victory over Villanova – which came on the heels of their home loss to…Wagner?
Wisconsin
KenPom rank: AdjEM 42, AdjO 62, AdjD 26
Results: (W) vs. South Dakota, 85-59; (W) vs. Stanford, 60-50, AmFam Field, Milwaukee, Wis.
The Week That Was: UW came out of the gate this year with limited to no expectations. It lost Big Ten Player of the Year Johnny Davis, valuable backup center Chris Vogt and Nazi war hero Brad Davison off last year’s squad and has a lot of unproven players stepping into larger roles.
Yet, so far…so good! I’m as shocked as the next guy. Veterans Chucky Hepburn, Tyler Wahl and Steven Crowl all scored in double figures in both games (except for Crowl’s game against Stanford where he only scored nine points) and have shown improvement on both ends of the court.
True freshman Connor Essegian is a Crazy Ass White Boy who can shoot from anywhere and is going to be loathed by the rest of the conference in short order. Johnny Davis’ twin brother Jordan Davis is filling the role of Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None perfectly and transfer guard Max Klesmit has slotted into the starting lineup well, despite getting into foul trouble against the Cardinal.
The Week Upcoming: Wisconsin only has one game this week, a home tilt with dreadful in-state rival Green Bay, before resting up for its trip to the Bahamas and the Battle 4 Atlantis.