“While watching the much anticipated matchup between Ohio State and Purdue, I heard a rather interesting stat; the top three teams in the Big Ten have a combined total of zero home loses. These teams, of course, are Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing how good teams are supposed to defend their home court. The conference is deceptively strong despite only having three teams in the top 25. While the Big East could get as many as ten teams into the big dance, a higher percentage may reach from the Big Ten because of dangerous teams from top to bottom and a bevy of talented players. The tests that these three teams face night in and night out should help prepare them for the tourney better than in years’ past.
Thanks to a strong blend of veteran leaders and talented youngsters, the Ohio State Buckeyes are the top dog in the conference. A road loss to Wisconsin should not have been enough to push the Buckeyes out of the top spot in the rankings. Now that Purdue knocked them off in West Lafayette, there chances are even slimmer this week to reach number one. However, the two losses that Ohio State has been handed can’t be much better. Seniors David Lighty and Jon Diebler have helped carry over the winning tradition this year in Columbus and passed it on to newcomers Jared Sullinger and do-it-all freshman Aaron Craft. Barring any setbacks, the Buckeyes should only face opposion from the Badgers in their final regular season game and in the late rounds of the Big Ten tournament. This team simply wins the games they’re supposed to win and could possibly be the best team in the nation on a neutral court. Ohio State is without a doubt a huge threat to be raising a National Championship banner next season.
Fresh off of an impressive victory over the aforementioned Buckeyes, the Purdue Boilermakers sit just one game out of first place in the conference. Rather than mixing grizzled veterans and youngsters, Purdue is purely led by upperclassmen. JuJuan Johnson, E’Twaun Moore and Lewis Jackson have kept the team afloat despite losing one of their leaders, Robbie Hummel, to a torn ACL before the season even began. Should Hummel have stayed healthy, we could’ve been looking at an even more hyped up game Sunday between the Boilers and Bucks. Nevertheless, the senior leadership of Johnson and Moore, who went completely off against Ohio State, will allow this team to make a deep tournament run.
We can’t forget about the grateful red in Madison and the Wisconsin Badgers, who saw their conference title hopes go down the drain after a defeat to Purdue earlier in the week. Obviously, this was not a game many expected the Badgers to escape with, but there is a reason that we can’t quite rank Wisconsin at the same tier as Ohio State: they have bad losses. Some may look good on paper, like Notre Dame and Purdue, but Wisconsin has let some leads slip away late in games. My concern is that they don’t have the same killer instinct as when they are playing in the Kohl Center, and this could leak into tournament play. However, for the first time in a while, Wisconsin has two legitimate scoring threats in senior Jon Leuer and junior Jordan Taylor. It would be nice to see a third. Big man Keaton Nankivil has toyed with this role, but not fully accepted it. Whether or not he can by tournament time could be the determining factor in how deep the Badgers can go in March.
When it’s all said and done, I think the entries coming out of the Big Ten will be Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan State, Michigan and Illinois. The strength of the conference will go a long way in the eyes of the selection committee, ranking second in RPI behind the Big East. What’s important is that there should be at least three schools from the conference making noise in March. Stay tuned.”
Whats Your Verdict?