The Big 10 was won last year by Ohio State, who rode freshman Greg Oden, Daequan Cook and Mike Conley, Jr. to 30 victories and an appearance in the NCAA championship game, which they lost to Florida. Since those players are gone to the NBA, the Big 10 should once again belong to Michigan State.
The Spartans had a difficult year by their standards in 2006-2007, going 22-11 and 8-8 in Big 10 play. They didn’t have enough depth, which meant star Drew Neitzel had little rest, and little help. This year, Michigan State has nearly every player back, along with a ballyhooed class of freshman to ease Neitzel’s workload and create good depth. Sophomore forward Raymar Morgan is a budding star, and coach Tom Izzo always has good defensive teams. With most of his team’s firepower returning and some new talent coming in, the Spartans should be the favorites to win the Big 10.
Another team that has new talent coming in is Indiana. The Hoosiers were third in the Big 10 with a 10-6 mark to go along with a 20-10 record overall. Kelvin Sampson got off to a rocky start as he came to Bloomington fresh off of recruiting violations at Oklahoma. They have the talent to overcome that, though, especially with the arrival of Eric Gordon, arguably the best freshman in the nation. The shooting guard is an explosive athlete and scorer who probably won’t see his sophomore year, but Indiana will benefit anyway – some pundits believe he’s the best player in the conference right now. Along with Gordon, forward D.J. White mans the low post, and provides that aspect of scoring along with being an excellent shot blocker.
Indiana and Michigan State should be the two best teams in the league, probably by a pretty good margin. Ohio State lost the aforementioned freshman, and Wisconsin lost Alando Tucker, though Brian Butch is back. They should represent the next tier along with Illinois, who is led by Shaun Pruitt but hurt by the loss of Jamar Smith, who was in a severe car accident last February and was charged with DUI. He is red shirting this year.
The rest of the league will fight for the middle of the standings. Purdue lost a lot of scoring; Michigan and Minnesota are rebuilding under new coaches John Beilein and Tubby Smith, respectively; Steve Alford left Iowa for New Mexico; and Penn State and Northwestern were a combined 4-28 in league play last year, which shouldn’t change much this year.
whereIstand Tags
The Big 10 has some talented coaches, but I think the overall talent level is down compared to other leagues this season.