Illini basketball is 0-2 in Big Ten League play, and it looks almost inevitable that an 0-4 start is in the cards given the schedule in front of them. Still, they’re not nearly as bad as Minnesota or Rutgers. Illinois might actually be better than Nebraska and/or Penn State too!
As for the other Land of Lincoln Big Ten team, their preconference schedule was softer than an Egyptian Cotton 800 thread count sheets. They started 13-1 because sometimes words have no meaning at all. At least that’s what the Maryland rout taught us.
Of course, the Wildcats still look likely to reach .500 or above in conference play, as they’re decent enough to consistently beat up on the Big Ten’s weaker links.
So Illini basketball is awful and Northwestern is mediocre. Okay, so who’s going to win the league? The B1G is like the rap battles in “8 Mile.”
“B Rabbitt? This is a turtle race.”
It’ll be Fear the Turtle, Michigan State, Purdue and now surprisingly Iowa. These top four are in the “champions league” of the conference. Everyone else is at least a peg or two, or three below.
Our good friends over at Hammer and Rails, SB Nation’s Purdue community, do a Big Ten basketball power rankings, so that I don’t have to. Well, they do their power rankings for their own reasons that have nothing to do with me, but the point is I would rather not do a power rankings myself, and their edition is really very good.
Here’s the link to the full power rankings. We included H&R’s Northwestern and Illini basketball synopsis below. We also included T Mill’s take on Minnesota and Rutgers because it was SO EFFING FUNNY! I couldn’t agree with him more about Rutgers. I can’t stand the fact that I have to go look up stuff on them and pretend like I give a crapola about what they are whenever I write my Big Ten season previews; in both sports.
Seriously, just go away Scarlet Knights! No one wants you here and I doubt anyone ever will. Yawn.
8. Northwestern (13-2, 1-1) – If the goal is to just get to 10 Big Ten wins and hope for the best the Wildcats are off to a good start. Beating Nebraska won’t raise many eyebrows, but it is a road win. The win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg looks a lot better now that the Hokies have knocked off Virginia. Northwestern would do very well to beat Ohio State at home on Wednesday. That sets up a possible 5-1 start before going to Maryland.
12. Illinois (8-7, 0-2) – So much for being high on the Illini. They couldn’t get the job done at home against Michigan and came up just short at Ohio State. Now and 0-4 start looms as they have to go to Michigan State on Thursday before hosting Purdue on Saturday.
13. Minnesota (6-8, 0-2) – Well, the Gophers at least pushed Michigan State for a bit. Outside of that, everyone is looking at them as a potential win in conference play. Northwestern, Rutgers, Michigan, and Illinois are the lucky teams that get to play them twice. Yes, we get two Rutgers-Minnesota games but only one Purdue-Indiana game. Thanks, Delaney!
Special Rutgers Category
14. Rutgers (6-9, 0-2) – As I stated, I hate Rutgers basketball because we have to include them in the Big Ten and it takes away from other, better league games. They get a shot at a win this week when they host Nebraska, but I am hoping they go 0-fer because they do not belong here.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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