The Big Ten was the best conference of all this past college basketball season. That will change as a lot of talent graduates and declares for the NBA Draft. In the past few days, we’ve already seen Deshaun Thomas of Ohio State and the Hoosiers’ Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller declare. Add in the fact that only one McDonald’s All-American is coming to the Big Ten- Noah Vonleh to IU.
Still, we have Michigan State ranked #2 in the nation in our way too early top 25. Ohio State is #3, the Hoosiers #8. Michigan is #14 and Wisconsin #15 rounding out the Big Ten representation in the top 25.
SB Nation’s Purdue site “Hammer and Rails” breaks down all the departures for every team and includes the scoring ppg averages:
The early departures to the NBA are coming out in the wake of the 2013 NCAA Tournament an exceptionally good Big Ten this year is expected to be gutted by early entries. There were already several good seniors, but the underclass talent on teams like Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State will severely cut into the league.
Here is a breakdown of what all 12 teams in the league lose.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an author and regular contributor to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, and Walter Football.
Banks has appeared on Comcast SportsNet and the History Channel, as well as Clear Channel, ESPN and CBS radio all over the world. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@PaulMBanks)