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
Last week I opined in this space that the Big Ten may actually be good. After adding another week of data, I think that we can say this pretty definitively. Although there were not a ton of games this week, the Big Ten tallied some impressive wins. Michigan, for instance, beat Ohio State at the horseshoe 45-23.
*taps earpiece*
I’m being told to “stick to basketball.” Alas.
Now we head into the final B1G/ACC Challenge week ever, thanks to ESPN pulling the plug with its limited future Big Ten involvement. We here at The Weasel are feeling sentimental about it. Will The Big Ten go out and win the final edition of this hallowed preseason showcase? Maybe!
Illinois
KenPom rank: AdjEm 22, AdjO 36, AdjD 20
Results: (W) vs. Lindenwood, 92-59
The Week That Was: There was a lot of good basketball played during Thanksgiving week, but much of the Big Ten was not involved in any of those games. Illinois had one game last week and it was against one of the worst teams in the whole country. Nobody played more than 25 minutes in that one, but freshman PG Skyy Clark looked really good and transfer wing Terrence Shannon continued his excellent start to the season.
The Week Upcoming: The Illini welcome Syracuse to Champaign on Tuesday for the B1G/ACC Challenge, and I must warn the good people of that region to be wary on the roads after the game because Jim Boeheim has tasted blood already and who knows when he’ll kill again. They also have a big-time road test against Maryland, which will probably be very clarifying for both of those teams.
Indiana
KenPom rank: AdjEm 11, AdjO 14, AdjD 14
Results: (W) vs. Little Rock, 87-68; (W) vs. Jackson State, 90-51
The Week That Was: The Hoosiers played two sub-300 KenPom teams last week and won both handily. Freshman Malik Reneau is doing his best Trayce Jackson-Davis performance this season and will be a great fill-in for TJD’s spot in the starting five next year. He’s already an effective member of IU’s rotation, and if Mike Woodson can get the two of them on the court together… the Big Ten better watch out on the glass.
The Week Upcoming: Fraudulent UNC is coming to Assembly Hall on Wednesday riding a two-game losing streak. The preseason No. 1 team lost to Iowa State and Alabama (4-OT thriller!) in Portland over the weekend and just doesn’t seem like it has the juice this year. IU also heads to the RAC on Saturday, a place notable for being a house of horrors for top-ranked teams in the conference.
Iowa
KenPom rank: AdjEm 23, AdjO 7, AdjD 70
Results: (W) vs. Nebraska-Omaha, 100-64; (W) vs. Clemson, 74-71; (L) vs. TCU, 79-66
The Week That Was: With the ever-changing global economy, President Joe Brandon making gas cost $9 a gallon and Ohio State’s continued employment of Ryan Day, it’s nice to have some constants in life. Iowa basketball being absolutely electric on offense, regardless of personnel, but unable to stop most teams with a pulse from scoring is an important constant for me. The Hawkeyes blew out UNO, escaped Clemson and finally dropped their first game of the season to TCU. I’m also just noting for the record that Kris Murray was very stinky against the Horned Frogs.
The Week Upcoming: Fran McCaffery’s crew gets Georgia Tech at home this week. The Yellow Jackets aren’t very good and struggle to put the ball in the basket, but Iowa’s defense has cured worse teams of shooting woes.
Maryland
KenPom rank: AdjEm 24, AdjO 17, AdjD 41
Results: (W) vs. Coppin State, 95-79
The Week That Was: The Terps pounded in-state rival (???) Coppin State by 26 despite 28 points from former PSU point guard Sam Sessoms. Maryland had three players score over 20 points and is really looking like a team that will be in contention for an at-large NCAA Tourney bid this season.
The Week Upcoming: After saying all that, it would be hilarious if the Terps were to travel to 0-6 Louisville and give that nuclear waste dump of a team its first win of the season. Presuming Maryland wins (and it should do so by double digits) the second game of the week against Illinois will be must-see TV on Friday.
Michigan
KenPom rank: AdjEM 53, AdjO 30, AdjD 91
Results: (W) vs. Jackson St. 78-68
The Week That Was: The good news is that Michigan beat Ohio State by 22 points in the Horseshoe. This has distracted the fanbase from what has been a very ugly start to the season.
U-M is 5-1, but has underperformed expectations in all but one of those games. The defense remains a mess, and making wide-open shots remains a spectacular challenge. Michigan is playing much smaller than it actually is, and would be best served to be more focused on attacking the rim. The offense continues to generate open looks on a regular basis, but nobody seems to have the confidence to make them.
I also remain convinced Kobe Bufkin is very close to breaking out. But, this team of young/new faces needs to grow up quickly, because the opponent quality is about to increase by several orders of magnitude. Hunter Dickinson likely needs to have the best run of play of his life to keep any of the upcoming marquee games within shouting distance (or, Michigan’s aversion to shot-making has to mysteriously resolve itself).
The Week Upcoming: Michigan faces a top-five Virginia team in Ann Arbor for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and then jumps the pond to play Kentucky in London for… reasons. Will it win either of these games? No!
Michigan State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 30, AdjO 22, AdjD 51
Results: (L) vs. Alabama 81-70; (W) Oregon 74-70; (W) Portland 78-77
The Week That Was: Fraud watch remains fully in effect for the Spartans. After getting thumped by a very good Alabama team, they then were able to sneak out wins against the KenPom No. 43 (Oregon) and No. 101 (Portland) teams.
You may be thinking “But the Spartans were missing Malik Hall and Jaden Akins for these games! Surely you should cut them some slack!” This goes back to my major umbrage with this team to begin with – Tom Izzo did not fill out his roster with recruiting or through the portal, and chose instead to go into the season with 10 scholarship players.
Every team must deal with injuries, but this roster is very thin even when it’s fully healthy. They simply cannot survive anyone missing time. They shot 57 percent from deep and only turned the ball over eight times against Portland and still had to survive two attempts at point-blank range as the game expired to eke out a one-point win. Yikes.
One silver lining: Pierre Brooks held up well when pressed into the starting lineup. He was shaky from the field against Oregon but went 4 of 4 from three-point range against Portland.
The Week Upcoming: MSU heads to South Bend for the Big Ten/ACC challenge. Notre Dame just got waxed by St. Bonaventure and is probably bad. Then, MSU has a showdown with a true and vaunted powerhouse: the Northwestern Wildcats.
Minnesota
KenPom rank: AdjEm 153, AdjO 169, AdjD 143
Results: (W) vs. Cal Baptist, 62-61, OT; (L) vs. UNLV, 71-62
The Week That Was: Look. Everyone knows this team fucking sucks, but this past week just cements it. They beat Cal Baptist, a peer in every sense of the word on the basketball court, by one point in OT and then lost to a “meh” UNLV team by nine. Jamison Battle made his season debut against Cal Baptist and averaged 35 minutes over the two games. He’ll certainly help, but he is not getting this team out of the bottom two of the Big Ten.
The Week Upcoming: The Gophers are playing at Virginia Tech as I am typing this and one can only assume that they are going to lose (they did). Then they play at a scorching hot Purdue on Sunday and will probably be lucky to stay within 25. It will be a long season in the Twin Cities and I, for one, am ecstatic about it.
Nebraska
KenPom rank: AdjEM 111, AdjO 123, AdjD 104
Results: (L) vs. Oklahoma 69-56; (L) vs. Memphis 73-61; (W) vs. Florida State 75-58
The Week That Was: The major takeaway from this week is that there is no program in the entire country whose wheels have come off like Florida State. The Noles being 1-7 is shocking, and they were DOMINATED by this Nebraska team in a way that I honestly did not think was possible. I love Leonard Hamilton, but I think this is just about over.
As for the Huskers, well, they continue to not really be good at anything. Even in the win against FSU they didn’t shoot well (25 percent from deep) or take especially good care of the ball (14 turnovers). They won because FSU is comically bad. In their other two games this week they were not competitive. This team is going to have a hard time staying out of last place in the B1G.
The Week Upcoming: Nebraska heads to Boston College for the B1G/ACC Challenge. If you voluntarily watch this game, you should go to prison. Later in the week, it’ll take on Creighton in another game that should be on a watch list for human rights violations.
Northwestern
KenPom rank: AdjEM 46, AdjO 149(LOL), AdjD 9(!!!!!!)
Results: (W) vs. Liberty 66-52; (L) vs. Auburn 43-42
The Week That Was: THIS is the content we love here at The Weasel. Talk to your kids about top-50 Northwestern! Its stats are nauseating. It also took top-15 Auburn down to the wire in a game that would belong in the pantheon of even Rutgers’ rock-fighting-est games. Northwestern shot 2 FOR 24 (8.3 percent!) from three against a top-15 team and lost by one (1) point.
Chase Audige remains a war crime doer and went 4-of-14 shooting against Auburn (which, actually, in the context of that game was kind of good).
The Week Upcoming: Northwestern hosts Pitt for the B1G/ACC Challenge before traveling to Breslin to face the Spartans in what will assuredly be an unwatchable game.
Ohio State
KenPom rank: AdjEM 19, AdjO 6, AdjD 63
Results: (L) vs. San Diego St 88-77; (W) vs. Cincinnati 81-53; (W) vs. Texas Tech 80-73
The Week That Was: Although OSU lost its opener at the Maui Classic, it still salvaged a nice week with follow-up wins against Cincy and TTU, resulting in a 5th-place finish. There’s still not much to like about this team defensively, as was shown by the ease with which SDSU got whatever it wanted.
However, the offense has been really good – and quite diverse. Sean McNeil, Brice Sensabaugh and Justice Sueing all took turns as leading scorers this week.
Also, it lost to Michigan in football, at home, by three scores. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?
The Week Upcoming: OSU heads to Cameron Indoor to face Duke for the B1G/ACC challenge. It then gets a tune-up game against St. Francis.
Penn State
KenPom rank: AdjEm 33, AdjO 33, AdjD 49
Results: (W) vs. Lafayette, 70-57
The Week That Was: Continuing the Big Ten trend of playing one game against a bad team last week, the Nittany Lions stomped Lafayette last Friday. Jalen Pickett had 18 points, eight assists, six rebounds, one steal and zero turnovers. I love him dearly. Penn State is 6-1 on the young season and its only loss was by two points to a decent Virginia Tech squad. I’m smelling an NCAA Tournament bid for my Nittany Lions!
The Week Upcoming: Another one-game week for PSU sees the Nittany Lions travel to Clemson for their first true road game of the season. A win here will really push the Hype Machine into overdrive for PSU because the Tigers are likely to be competing with it for an at-large bid come March. This should be a good one on Tuesday night.
Purdue
KenPom rank: AdjEM 7, AdjO 4, AdjD 27
Results: (W) vs. West Virginia 80-68; (W) vs. Gonzaga 84-66; (W) vs. Duke 75-56
The Week That Was: In my preseason tiers list, I tapped Purdue as my favorite to win the Big Ten. Am I a genius? Absolutely. The Boilers put it all together for a monster week with absolute domination of two elite teams on their way to victory at the Phil Knight Classic. He may not have an obvious NBA future, but Zach Edey is the best player in the country right now and I don’t think there is any way to argue it. His lines this week:
WVU: 24 points, 12 rebounds, 7-12 FG
Gonzaga: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 10-16 FG
Duke: 21 points, 12 rebounds, 7-13 FG
That’s 68 points on 41 field goal attempts. Absurd.
As a team, the Boilers are playing the kind of well-connected defense we’ve come to expect from Matt Painter’s teams. This is a remarkably polished group and one that is going to be really hard to beat until March Madness, when they inevitably lose to a double-digit seed in the first weekend.
The Week Upcoming: Purdue travels to FSU for the B1G/ACC Challenge in a game that looked like it might be fun pre-season, but now looks to be an absolute bloodbath. Purdue follows up with a game against Minnesota that is somehow the bigger challenge for them this week.
Rutgers
KenPom rank: AdjEM 36, AdjO 106, AdjD 11
Results: (W) vs. Rider 76-46; (W) Central Connecticut 83-49
The Week That Was: In last week’s column, I said this week’s opponents probably would not crack 50 points against Rutgers. I was locked into the end of the CCU game to make sure my prediction was right. Big-brain stuff from your boy.
There is absolutely nothing to take from either of these games. The opponents were terrible (Rider is 226th in KenPom and CCU is 339th). We’ll know more next week.
The Week Upcoming: Rutgers has two very interesting games on the docket. First, a trip to Miami for the B1G/ACC Challenge. The Canes are off to a 6-1 start with their lone loss coming against Maryland. Then, the Scarlet Knights return to the Jersey Mike’s Arena in one of the only two interesting early conference games of this weekend’s slate, against Indiana. Jersey Mike’s spokesman, Danny DeVito, will presumably be in attendance. Be a sub above.
Wisconsin
KenPom rank: AdjEm 40, AdjO 115, AdjD 12
Results: (W) vs. Dayton, 43-42; (L) vs. Kansas, 69-68, OT; (W) vs. USC, 64-59
The Week That Was: The Badgers had a great week down in the Bahamas! They went 2-1 at the Battle 4 Atlantis and should’ve been 3-0 BECAUSE KANSAS AND THE REFS WERE IN CAHOOTS AND NO I’M NOT MAD, YOU’RE MAD!
Now, watching the basketball abortion that was UW vs. Dayton was like taking a time machine back to the late 90s when the Badgers would score 43 on a good night. But, they went punch for punch with the defending national champs the next day and had two chances to win. After dropping that game in OT, the Badgers came out the next day and beat the Trojans to win third place.
Freshman Connor Essegian emerged as a real weapon on offense, who the rest of the conference is going to ABSOLUTELY hate. Chucky Hepburn had been on a three-game shooting slump before breaking out against USC. The Badgers will need him this week if they want to pick up a couple of more wins.
The Week Upcoming: A home date with Wake Forest on Tuesday awaits Wisconsin once it returns home from the islands, followed by a short trip down I-94 to Milwaukee for its annual tilt with Marquette.
One time, when my dad was in college, his buddy sent him to cover the Wisconsin/Marquette game for the UW school paper. The Badgers lost, but my dad cast the deciding vote to give a Wisconsin player the Player of the Game award. The crowd was mad and he was not allowed to cover games for the paper anymore. I will be doing this as a Meet at Midfield representative covering the race in Wisconsin during the 2024 presidential election – the popular vote be damned.